Matthew 5:37 Commentary and Bible Study

All these things are beyond your control and you are not responsible for them, but there is one thing that is within your control and which you are fully responsible for: the integrity of your own word. Since this is all you have control over in the matter of your speech, stop trying to link your simple word to all sorts of other things which are beyond your control in an effort to enhance your credibility. Your credibility will be best served by not going one step beyond the simple truth, not dressing up your words in any way, not hiding your meaning, not trying to please both sides and say two things at once. Let your speech be plain and straightforward. A person who speaks the truth does not need any other witness to convince himself or others that he is speaking the truth. The truth testifies to itself in his own heart, and the constant practice of sound words will convince others that he is a trustworthy person. The sense of always needing to add an oath proceeds from the consciousness that what is said is false and so has to be dressed up to make it more convincing. John Brown says, ‘He who is known to be a liar, will not get credit even by his oath; and he who is a man of truth, voluntarily exposes his character to suspicion when he condescends in ordinary conversation to confirm his words by swearing’ (Discourses and Sayings of our Lord, volume 1, page 205). Let your ‘yes’ be an unembellished ‘yes’ and your ‘no’, an unembellished ‘no’; this is sufficient to convince. If you feel it necessary to go beyond these, it is almost certainly the case that you are being tempted by the evil one and are yielding to that temptation.