The Gospel According to Matthew
Week 16
Chris enjoys watching a TV show called American Greed. It is a show that tells true stories of Financial Crimes. Bad financial advisers, schemes and the like. There are story after story of crooks taking peoples money. The stories often highlight the almost or retired person who lost their life savings and are now destitute because of the crime committed against them. He finds it fascinating and let's just say I hate it.
The show if nothing else brilliantly shows how there is so much of our society that doesn't care about truth. Vows are broken, oaths mean nothing and are childish at best. Even swearing on a bible in court doesn't mean they are ever telling the truth. Truth is relative. Truth is mailable. Truth, is there really any such thing?
READ:
Oaths
33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ 34 But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 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 swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
Here again Jesus starts off with, "you have heard, but I tell you.." He tells them what they no to be law but now he wants them to hear. Now he is saying to us....
"Do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King.
So what does this mean?
Are we to never give an oath, or swear to anything, or make a vow.
Chris and I made vows to each other. So was that wrong?
In Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings, Ellen White writes, "The Jews understood the third commandment as
prohibiting the profane use of the name of God; but
they thought themselves at liberty to employ other
oaths. Oath taking was common among them. Through
Moses they had been forbidden to swear falsely, but
they had many devices for freeing themselves from
the obligation imposed by an oath. They did not fear
to indulge in what was really profanity, nor did they
shrink from perjury so long as it was veiled by some
technical evasion of the law."
Does that sound like us today?
She goes on to say, "Jesus condemned their practices, declaring that
their custom in oath taking was a transgression of
the commandment of God. Our Savior did not, however,
forbid the use of the judicial oath, in which God
is solemnly called to witness that what is said is truth and nothing but the truth. Jesus Himself, at His trial
before the Sanhedrin, did not refuse to testify under
oath. The high priest said unto Him, "I adjure Thee
by the living God, that Thou tell us whether Thou
be the Christ, the Son of God." Jesus answered, "Thou
hast said." Matthew 26:63, 64. Had Christ in the
Sermon on the Mount condemned the judicial oath,
He would at His trial have reproved the high priest
and thus, for the benefit of His followers, have
enforced His own teaching.
There are very many who do not fear to deceive their fellow men, but they have been taught, and have been impressed by the Spirit of God, that it is a fearful thing to lie to their Maker. When put under oath they are made to feel that they are not testifying merely before men, but before God; that if they bear false witness, it is to Him who reads the heart and who knows the exact truth. The knowledge of the fearful judgments that have followed this sin has a restraining influence upon them.
But if there is anyone who can consistently testify under oath, it is the Christian. He lives constantly as in the presence of God, knowing that every thought is open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do; and when required to do so in a lawful manner, it is right for him to appeal to God as a witness that what he says is the truth, and nothing but the truth. "
Jesus is once again getting at the heart of the matter. He doesn't want loop holes, or ways to get around the law, or using the law to be untruthful.
He ends this passage with a sentence that so beautifully captures it all.
"All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one."
Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no. you need nothing else.
Jesus wants crazy transparent integrity that is truth through and through. He wants integrity that is not governed by the law, or the loop holes there in, but integrity that is transparent to God.
Ellen White says, "These words condemn all those meaningless phrases and expletives that border on profanity. They condemn the deceptive compliments, the evasion of truth, the flattering phrases, the exaggerations, the misrepresentations in trade, that are current in society and in the business world. They teach that no one who tries to appear what he is not, or whose words do not convey the real sentiment of his heart, can be called truthful..... Everything that Christians do should be as transparent as the sunlight."
One a TV show a ".... house wife says, "integrity is not something you have- but who you are". Jesus wants integrity to be who we are!
Here is the question, how?
Do we even know how?
Is our society so immersed in stretching stories, covering up sins, breaking promises, finding loop holes that we can't be integrity?
How do we?
This really breaks down to this. Truth. What is truth? Let me ask it this way, who is true?
So if God is truth then if we are to be true we first have to be immersed in him. We have to know Him, be saturated with truth (Him), understand truth before we can be creatures of integrity.
Once again Jesus takes a subject a place where they are getting away with what they want, finding ways to keep their surface..."tidy"... while their insides, their hearts were vile! Yet again, Jesus is taking us, and going DEEP, opening us up, and saying....
"Beth or ____________(you) stop trying to look so perfect, stop blaming others, looking for loop holes, stop flattering people so you get the reaction you are hoping for, stop looking one way at church and a completely different way at home, stop, stop, stop. Let me in and let me be the hope that really transforms you. Let me come and clean you from the inside out so you will be as transparent as the sunlight.
Are you transparent?
Are you authentic?
Are you integrity?
Who am I because of who He is?
There are very many who do not fear to deceive their fellow men, but they have been taught, and have been impressed by the Spirit of God, that it is a fearful thing to lie to their Maker. When put under oath they are made to feel that they are not testifying merely before men, but before God; that if they bear false witness, it is to Him who reads the heart and who knows the exact truth. The knowledge of the fearful judgments that have followed this sin has a restraining influence upon them.
But if there is anyone who can consistently testify under oath, it is the Christian. He lives constantly as in the presence of God, knowing that every thought is open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do; and when required to do so in a lawful manner, it is right for him to appeal to God as a witness that what he says is the truth, and nothing but the truth. "
Jesus is once again getting at the heart of the matter. He doesn't want loop holes, or ways to get around the law, or using the law to be untruthful.
He ends this passage with a sentence that so beautifully captures it all.
"All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one."
Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no. you need nothing else.
Jesus wants crazy transparent integrity that is truth through and through. He wants integrity that is not governed by the law, or the loop holes there in, but integrity that is transparent to God.
Ellen White says, "These words condemn all those meaningless phrases and expletives that border on profanity. They condemn the deceptive compliments, the evasion of truth, the flattering phrases, the exaggerations, the misrepresentations in trade, that are current in society and in the business world. They teach that no one who tries to appear what he is not, or whose words do not convey the real sentiment of his heart, can be called truthful..... Everything that Christians do should be as transparent as the sunlight."
One a TV show a ".... house wife says, "integrity is not something you have- but who you are". Jesus wants integrity to be who we are!
Here is the question, how?
Do we even know how?
Is our society so immersed in stretching stories, covering up sins, breaking promises, finding loop holes that we can't be integrity?
How do we?
This really breaks down to this. Truth. What is truth? Let me ask it this way, who is true?
So if God is truth then if we are to be true we first have to be immersed in him. We have to know Him, be saturated with truth (Him), understand truth before we can be creatures of integrity.
Once again Jesus takes a subject a place where they are getting away with what they want, finding ways to keep their surface..."tidy"... while their insides, their hearts were vile! Yet again, Jesus is taking us, and going DEEP, opening us up, and saying....
"Beth or ____________(you) stop trying to look so perfect, stop blaming others, looking for loop holes, stop flattering people so you get the reaction you are hoping for, stop looking one way at church and a completely different way at home, stop, stop, stop. Let me in and let me be the hope that really transforms you. Let me come and clean you from the inside out so you will be as transparent as the sunlight.
Are you transparent?
Are you authentic?
Are you integrity?
Who am I because of who He is?
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