Oct 21, 20215 min read

When is it Okay to Swear? REST in the Teachings of Jesus Christ. Part 7

"What does Jesus say about swearing?"

"Is it okay to swear?"

"When it is okay to swear?"

These are questions that you may have or have had and they will be answered in this teaching of Jesus Christ about oaths and swearing.

Today's episode is part 7 of the teachings of Jesus Christ. I pair this with scripture, prayer, and 3 takeaways. If you haven't checked out parts 1-6 of the teachings of Jesus Christ, I have those on this podcast so you can go check those out after this episode. In the world today, swearing on things has become so normalized, and today we will be able to discern the truth and know what Jesus says about swearing.

First I want to say a quick prayer... Lord, I pray that you lift up every single person reading this right now. Please give us knowledge and understanding to know exactly what it is that we're reading and the wisdom to implement it in our daily lives. Lord please open up our eyes to see the truth, know the truth, discern the truth, and live by the truth. Lord, I pray that whatever it is that you want us to get out of this teaching, that we receive it and we live by it. I love you with every ounce of my being. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Let's go straight into some scripture:

"Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' But I tell you, Do not swear 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. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one." -Matthew 5:33-37

So in this teaching here we see that based on the old testament we should keep the oaths that we made to the Lord, but we shouldn't swear by anything. We shouldn't make any promises that we can't keep and we are not in control of anything. The Lord is our creator. He is the Almighty. He created us. He knows all of the hairs on our head and he's the one that's in control of everything. We can't swear by something that we have no control over. So we simply have to let our "yes" be "yes" and our "no" be "no." If someone asks us a question, we just say "yes" or "no," we shouldn't make a promise or swear by anything about anything.

There are a few other verses that I wanted to read:

Above all, my brothers, do not swear--not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned. -James 5:12

"When a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said." -Numbers 30:2

" 'Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.' " -Leviticus 19:12

So like it says in the teaching in Matthew chapter 5, long ago in the Old Testament that we just read in Deuteronomy, it says not to break our oath to the Lord. Also in Leviticus, it says not to swear falsely by the name of the Lord, but like Jesus says in this teaching and like we read in James, we shouldn't swear at all either by heaven or by the earth. I know in the world today, it's just become second nature whenever we're telling someone something or they ask us like, "Is that really true to that really happen?" To be like, "swear," or I swear to ___ that happened." But really we shouldn't be doing that at all. Our "yes" should be "yes," and our "no" should be "no." We have no control over anything. God is the one that directs our steps. God is the one that created us. He's the one that made heaven and the earth. He's the one that controls everything and we have no authority to be able to swear by anything. We just have to do our best to always do what we say we're going to do and be truthful and honest, but we have no authority to make any promises or to swear by anything.

Here are some takeaways about swearing:

1. We have no authority to make promises or swear by anything.

2. The Lord our God, our Creator, the Almighty is in complete control.

- God is the one that has all authority.

3. We should let our "yes," be yes and our "no" be "no."

- it's our duty to make sure that we're being truthful and honest in our answers, but we have to make sure that we're not making any promises or swearing by anything because we're not the ones in control.

- Just like it says in the teaching, "we can't make a hair black or white."

- The Lord Almighty is the one that has all the authority, he is the one that's in control, and we shouldn't go any further than just saying "yes" or "no," we shouldn't swear by anything.

- When we're being truthful and honest, then our word is good and our "yes" or "no" should be good enough. We shouldn't have to try and make someone believe us by swearing, by making a promise to them, or by swearing by something.

So I hope this episode helped you guys to really know and understand the teaching of Jesus Christ about oaths and if we should swear by anything or make any promises. And to know that God is the one with all of the authority and he is the one that is in control. We have no authority to swear by anything and we have no authority to make promises that we can't keep.

I love you guys so much.

Never forget to choose faith over fear.

-Lorena Camille (Faith Fuels My Fire)

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