Keeping Our Word part 3
Category: Faithblogs
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There’s an old saying that goes something like this, When you can keep your word to yourself, you will tell the truth to others. Like New Year resolutions show us, our word to ourselves is sometimes the hardest one to keep. Why? Because there is often no accountability and seemingly no consequences to whether we keep our word to ourselves or not. However, once you start breaking your word to yourself, it becomes much easier to break your word to others.
Jesus makes it clear that whenever we give our word we do so in the presence of God. When we go back on our word, we’re not just lying to others or ourselves, we’re also lying in the presence of God.
Back in Jesus’ day, the Pharisees had developed elaborate rules governing when a man was bound by his word and when he was not. They would say things like, “If I swear by Jerusalem, I am bound by my words. If I swear towards Jerusalem I’m not bound” or “Any promise I make using God’s name binds me, but if I can avoid using God’s name when I make a promise, maybe I don’t have to keep my word.” And so, they began to swear by anything that sounded like it might mean something. In fact a whole book of their law-code dealt with making vows and promises – which ones you had to keep, and which ones you didn’t.
We’re really no different, we have similar oaths to make others believe we’re telling the truth – Cross my heart and hope to die, I swear on the Bible, May God strike me down if I’m not telling the truth, I swear by my mother’s grave, and as God is my witness.
But Jesus said in Matthew 5: 34-35, “I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King.”
If you’re one of God’s people, if you proclaim to be a Christian, a Christ-follower, then whatever you do, good and bad, reflects on God. And we must always remember, God takes lying very seriously. Prov. 12:22 – “The Lord hates liars, but is pleased with those who keep their word.”
The truth is we can do some terrible damage to our witness and even the cause of Christ when we’re not people of our word. People are looking for authenticity wherever they can find it, especially from those that supposedly preach the truth. Jesus told us in no uncertain terms, “No matter what, tell the truth!”
We have crossed the threshold into another new year, and I’m sure that this year will bring some changes as well as some unexpected surprises as well as disappointments. But this year let us be keepers of our word. Let us be truth-tellers – that when we speak people know they can trust us.
As someone once said, “There can be no greater witness to the world than telling the truth.” (Source Unknown)
I pray that this year will hold many blessings for all of us.
Christian St John M.Div, BChM, ACS
January, 2009
Picture by Steve Woods
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