Tell The Truth – Sermon on the Mount 6

Scripture: Matthew 5:33-37 (Click link for scripture in Bible Gateway) 33 “You have also heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not break your vows; you must carry out the vows you make to the LORD.’ 34 But I say, do not make any vows! Do not say, ‘By heaven!’ because heaven is God’s throne. 35 And do not say, ‘By the earth!’ because the earth is his footstool. And do not say, ‘By Jerusalem!’ for Jerusalem is the city of the great King. 36 Do not even say, ‘By my head!’ for you can’t turn one hair white or black. 37 Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one. (Matthew 5:33–37 NLT) Don’t over-complicate this, friends! Jesus is saying, “When you tell someone something, tell them the truth. When you say you’ll do something, do it! If you have to add anything to your statement to try and convince your hearers that you’re telling the truth, you’ve got a credibility problem that “swearing on a stack of Bibles” can’t fix.” What is Jesus not saying? He’s not saying that if you have to appear in court and are required to speak “under oath” that it’s wrong to place your hand on the Bible and swear to “tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth!” Jesus is saying, “Don’t lie about things. Don’t embellish the truth. Don’t try to make yourself look better by altering the ‘facts’!” I’m hearing that we’re living in a “post-truth” society, and to some extent I believe it. Powerful and influential people seem to have little or no conviction of the importance of speaking the truth. We can’t trust things we read on the internet unless we first check them on one of the unbiased fact-check sites. We can’t trust the motives or promises of our political leaders. We’re no longer shocked by that, in fact we’re learning to accept that people we should be able to trust aren’t trustworthy! We’re losing the love of the truth! Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 2:10 that those who refuse to love the truth quickly become deceived. Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life…” Jesus said we should speak the truth. The simple truth. The plain truth. So, dear friends, let’s be truth lovers and truth speakers. Besides, if you always tell the truth, then you don’t have to remember what you said! How are you doing at being a truth-speaker? Prayer: Father, Please make us people of Truth. Give us a love of the Truth. Give us the courage and integrity to always tell the Truth, whether it makes us look good or not! May our “Yes” be yes and our “No” be no and our hearts be true and truthful. Amen!