SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/12/2020 10:21 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Perspective of Divine Truth”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 5:34-37
Message of the verses: “34 “But I say to
you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 “nor by
the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the
great King. 36 “Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one
hair white or black. 37 “But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For
whatever is more than these is from the evil one.”
This
is a very difficult passage for us to truly understand as it seems that Jesus
is saying that we should not make any oaths of vows however if we go back to
Matthew 5:17-18 we read the following “17 "Do not think that I came to
abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18 “For truly I say to you, until heaven
and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law
until all is accomplished.” The
highlighted parts of these two verses show us that all of the OT Law will be
fulfilled and that He did not come to abolish the Law but fulfill the Law, and
a part of that Law has to do with vows and oaths, but once again I want to
point out that the Pharisees interpreted it all wrong. MacArthur writes on this that “He [Jesus] had
just said that He did not come to destroy the smallest part of the Law (Matt.
5:17-18), a law that taught proper oath-making by both precept and
example. Additionally, in the early days
of the church, even the apostle Paul gave a type of oath in saying to the
Romans, ‘I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience
bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 9:1). He called on Christ and the Holy Spirit as
witnesses with his own conscience to the truthfulness of what he was about to
say. That is swearing by God.”
So
just as Paul did here and in accordance with the Old Testament Standard, we are
to swear by no other name but God’s—not “neither by heaven, for it is God’s
throne; 35 “nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it
is the city of the great King.” Now as
we look at swearing or appealing “by heaven, earth, or Jerusalem” and even
other such things was considered by most Jews to make their oaths less
binding. These were great things, but
compared to God they truly were in no way more proper as to swear by, as seen
in Paul’s writings.
In
Matthew chapter 23 we see a series of “Woes” that Jesus gives against the
hypocritical Jewish leaders. “16 “Woe to
you, blind guides, who
say, ’Whoever swears by the temple, that is nothing; but whoever swears
by the gold of the temple is obligated.’ 17 “You fools and blind men!
Which is more important, the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold? 18 “And,
’Whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the
offering on it, he is obligated.’ 19 “You blind men, which is more important,
the offering, or the altar that sanctifies the offering? 20 “Therefore, whoever
swears by the altar, swears both by the altar and by everything on it.” MacArthur adds “By what twisted logic, He
asks, should that which is less valuable make an oath more binding?”
He
goes on to write “But the greatest error in the system was not in its logic but
in its basic deceptiveness and dishonesty. As a matter of accepted policy, some oaths are
used to undermine the very purpose they purportedly were meant to serve: the truth.
In spite of the fact that an oath is given to reinforce and emphasize
the truthfulness of a statement or the reliability of a promise, over the years
an intricate system of duplicity had been devised that virtually promoted the
use of oaths for deception.” Is it no
wonder that Jesus is preaching about this in His Sermon on the Mount?
Jesus
was not done with this as he therefore went on to condemn the system still
further: “21 “And whoever swears by the
temple, swears both by the temple and by Him who dwells within it. 22 “And
whoever swears by heaven, swears both by the throne of God and by Him
who sits upon it.” Now however and
whenever the truth is profaned we will see that God’s name is profaned.
I
believe we can see that Jesus’ point was that God is the Creator and the Lord
of everything, and He is the God of truth in everything. If someone carelessly and dishonestly call
any part of His creation as witness to a false oath this would be something that
dishonor’s God Himself, even whether or not His name was invoked. MacArthur writes “To dishonor and compromise
any truth is to dishonor and compromise His truth. ‘Heaven’ is God’s, the ‘earth’ is Gods, ‘Jerusalem’
is God’s and every person’s ‘head’ is God’s.
It is therefore wicked and sinful to use anything of God’s, whether His
name or a part of His creation, as witness to anything that is dishonest,
deceitful, insincere, or in the least way knowingly false. God has no separate categories of sacred and
secular. Everything that pertains to Him
is sacred, and all truth is His truth, just as all creation is His
creation. Every lie is against God, and
therefore every false oath dishonors His name.”
Lord willing we will look at some comments from William Barclay as we
begin our next SD.
9/12/2020 11:02 AM
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