Matthew 5:34 Commentary and Bible Study

As Christ’s criticism in Matthew 23 shows, the Pharisees had developed the practice of distinguishing between one oath and another, so that they taught that an oath was either more or less binding depending on what a man swore by. ‘Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! ¹⁷ Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? ¹⁸ And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty’ (Matthew 23:16-18). This graduated scale was fatal to any genuine integrity. Christ tells them that what they considered to be lesser oaths were in fact binding them in the most solemn way, ‘Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? ²⁰ Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. ²¹ And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. ²² And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon’ (Matthew 23:19-22).The Pharisees taught that it was acceptable not to keep an oath, if it was a lesser oath, allowing themselves a whole world of dishonesty. The problem was that they had become so disconnected from simple honesty that not even an oath could manage to make them tell the truth. Instead they reasoned that some oaths were less binding on them and so they could use them and still bend the truth a little. Christ works backwards from this practice towards the truth in reverse order. Starting with the more extreme form of lying under oath to God, he advances to oaths made by lesser created things and then finally to the need for truthfulness in every word that comes out of our mouths, whenever we affirm anything. To swear by heaven is unavoidably to swear by the one who dwells in heaven and whose throne is heaven. How can we take such an oath and not call God to be our witness? The earth is no less connected with Almighty God for he made it also, and therefore to swear by earth does not excuse a person from telling the truth. It is, as Isaiah says, God’s footstool (Isaiah 66:1) and therefore it is vain trifling to think that we can swear by earth in order to deceive men about our veracity, and not at the same call God to witness against us. And Jerusalem itself is the city of the great King (Psalm 48:2), the coming Messiah. Therefore don’t swear by such a city either if you wish to risk bringing the wrath of the Lamb down upon you. Words matter, and every careless word will be judged.The Lord corrects them: ‘You swear by all these things and you should not make these distinctions between different oaths; you should not swear at all. He tells them that there is no such thing as a small oath, because even the lesser things they swear by are linked to other greater things. ‘Swear not at all.’ Does he mean, never make an oath, lawful oath, so that we join with the Quakers in refusing to swear in a court of law? Or with the Mennonites? No, we believe he speaks of private oaths, not public, when he forbids any oath at all. A voluntary or private oath, which I make is what is in mind. In a court of law or even in church discipline oaths are right. Our forebears would, on solemn occasions, put people under oath. Was this wrong? No. Just as the divine law against murder, does not forbid going to war, so too the prohibition against oaths does not forbid formal oaths in a public setting. In Matthew 26:63-64 Christ responded to an oath, and Paul three times affirmed before God, ‘I lie not.’ Paul is assuring those who are inclined to doubt him. Does he disobey God in doing this? No. It is a proper use of an oath. The Lord is criticising imaginary teers or levels of conduct. The Pharisees taught that there were different teers, different levels: binding real oath which had to be kept; non-binding oath or lesser significance, and words spoken with no oath at all. These were absurd distinctions. We are to be like the Lord, and to only let truth come out of our mouths. There should only ever be one teer of righteousness. Every promise Christ makes is true and he keeps it.