Matthew 5:33-37
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.[b]
James 5:12
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.
Both Matthew (5:37), and James (5:12) state that swearing oaths by heaven or earth …isn’t something we’re supposed to do. We are simply supposed to let our “yes” be yes, and “no” be no.
Ironically this is one of the things many people have trouble doing. When asked a question that requires a tough decision, many people avoid saying yes or no to either save face, protect their feelings, or protect the feelings of another.
In James, much of the book talks about the power of the tongue and how it wields both life-giving properties as well as death. That being stated, I think that while many people take answers like “no” as answers of death, they actually produce perseverance and life. It’s the gray area that causes stagnant living and death.
I think Revelation 3:16 (Aramaic translation) puts it best:
“And you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I am going to vomit you from my mouth.”
God would rather you pick a side of the fence than straddle it. In fact, He says that he will VOMIT (powerful expression) you from His mouth. Imagine, being able to make the creator of EVERYTHING so sick because of your lack of being cold or hot, that He, the most powerful, might, conquering being in the universe….would vomit you out.
There’s a lesson to be learned about answering life’s questions with a yes or a no…but it doesn’t end there.
After answering, if we go back to chapter 1 in the book of James it says this:
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
It says to live by what the word says. So if we apply this to the “yes” or “no” challenge for the day…it would seem that God gave us everything in black and white. The gray areas of life are what make Him want to vomit us out of His mouth. Interestingly enough, a lot of people live in gray areas hoping that one day things will figure themselves, where God has basically stated that we humans are the ones creating the gray area and He can’t stand it.
Today’s challenge is to live a life on God’s side of the fence rather than straddling the “gray” fence that we might honor God and honor one another with our words and our deeds.
Let your “Yes” be yes and your “No” be no.
