Matthew 5:37
“But make sure your statement is, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil origin.”
The other day we discussed Jesus’ words not to make vows. Today’s verse is at the end of that. He is not limiting our language to only two words. On the topic of vows and promises, people will swear by God or other things as evidence they are telling the truth. We aren’t to do that. It’s either yes or no.
On the topic of just saying yes or no there might be some gray areas. Proverbs 26:4 says, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be like him.” Fools and others may seek to trap us. They use manipulative language. An example is, “Do you still steal?” If we answer, “No”, we are admitting that we used to steal. We either ignore them or say that this is a false claim that can’t be answered with a yes or no.
Corrie Ten Boom and her family harbored Jews during the 2nd World War. When Nazi’s entered the house and asked where the jews were, the sister said they were underneath the coffee table. She was being honest, as she thought it was a sin to lie, but the Nazis ignored her as they thought she was being sarcastic. Corrie advocated it wasn’t wrong to lie to evil.
There is another truth in scripture that Jesus may have been referring to. It’s in Proverbs 10:19, “When words are many, sin is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.” This doesn’t mean much talking is sinful, but that the opportunities to sin increase with many words. A close cousin to this concept is in Proverbs 17:28, “Even a fool is considered wise if he keeps silent, and discerning when he holds his tongue.”
This verse is in the context of not making vows. This is great. God doesn’t want us to do that. He doesn’t want us to promise great things for Him. He just wants to adopt us as His children and to have a relationship with Him.
Wise words from Jesus. We aren’t to make vows, we are to be careful when we talk a lot, we also are to be wise with fools or manipulative people. Lord, Help us not to sin or make fools of ourselves with our words.