Empty Promises

By Richard

In Matthew 5 Jesus tells His followers to mean what they say. He illustrates this with the idea that those who love Him should not need to make legal oaths before God. Simply, their integrity should be of a level where their “yes” is “yes” and their “no” is “no”.

Having just signed a contract I’m reminded that these days we don’t swear oaths before God but have legally binding pieces of paper with a signature on every page (at least in Spain). So how does this section of Matthew relate to us in 2006?

The Message’s take on this section is that we need to be careful about meaning what we say. For example I’ve been guilty, many, many times, of quickly saying, “I’ll pray for you”, but I never actually do it. It’s what The Message calls “a smoke screen of pious talk.”

I felt challenged to be more careful about what I say; to let my “yes” be “yes” and my “no” be “no”.