The value of an honorable "yes" or "no"

​The Value of an honorable “Yes” or “No” (Read time ≈ 7 minutes)
Matthew 5:33–37
Jesus said, 33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.
 
“I swear on my momma’s grave!”. We’ve probably all heard that once or twice, or even said it ourselves. Someone will say something like this when they REALLY want you to believe them. Jesus basically says, you’ve heard it said that if you swear you better follow through. Why? Because that’s the way the world operates. You swear on something and that’s how you convince someone to believe you. Instead, Jesus says, don’t swear at all. Not on your pinkie, not on your own head, not on your momma and DEFINITELY not the Lord! Why does this even matter?
 
To many people this seems kind of trivial but when we understand what we’re talking about here we will understand the value of our words and of our character in seemingly small things like this. Firstly, why do we feel the need to swear on anything at all? We all understand something and that is that, people have expectations of us, and we have expectations of ourselves. Your reputation precedes you. In other words, your past behavior determines the future expectations of you. Both for you and for those around you. Feeling the need to up the ante with a swear (or an oath) actually reveals two things; One, I don’t think you believe me, so I need to do this; two, I don’t really always believe myself either, so I feel the need to do this. See, it is one thing to have people not believe us. We might be saying we will do something or go somewhere or perhaps recounting a story or testimony and we have someone before us who doesn’t quite buy it. But it’s another thing to lack confidence in your own word to the point to where you have to ’pull out the stops’ in order to convince someone of your sincerity. This isn’t a great place to be. It’s not good when people feel as though you have a reputation of not being sincere and it’s not good when you have acknowledged that and instead of correcting and repenting you just know when to talk yourself up to convince someone. You lack honor in your word, and you know it and you know other people know it so it becomes seemingly necessary to be more compelling by saying something like “I swear…. On my grave… on my big toe… on my life… to God(pls don’t)… and more”!
 
Beyond that, Jesus reminds us, how can you swear on your own head, you don’t even choose what hair color comes out of your own dome! And you better not be swearing on heavenly things, that’s God’s turf and the earth below? That’s Gods too! We truly have no authority over anything to even swear over something, even with the best of intentions, we fall short at times, why fall short with such strong words preceding you?
 
We need to honor God and honor ourselves and our own word. Jesus makes it quite simple for us, answer people with “yes” or “no” and then mean it. Instead of increasing the value of what you’re saying by swearing on something, increase the value of your word simply by MEANING IT and building an honest reputation. Your reputation precedes you, so why not begin today by building an honest reputation. This starts with taking time to consider very carefully before we speak; do I mean what I am about to say? If I say “yes”, am I going to follow through? If not, I should say “no”. If you are being honest, then let your reputation defend you. Start today with an honest response, an honest story, an honest commitment, and build the foundations of a more valuable word for tomorrow. If your word is damaged in the eyes of others and yourself, it will take time to rebuild it. Begin now, “Let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no” in other words, say what you mean and mean what you say. Nothing more and nothing less and then just watch the value of your word grow. As Christians we are called to be honorable and truthful. There is no need for vain swearing to puff up the value of your word. Let your actions add value to your word.