As we read and study the 49 scriptures that are Jesus’s commandments, let’s ask God to help us observe these words, apply them, and faithfully follow them throughout our lifetimes. The command we will focus on today is “Keep your word.”
Verses of the Day
“Say only ‘yes’ if you mean ‘yes,’ and say only ‘no’ if you mean ‘no.’ If you say more than that, it is from the Evil One.”
Matthew 5:37 ERV
Lesson of the Day
Jesus commands us to keep our word. Jesus is saying our word should be enough. We don’t need to swear on anything or pile on promises to prove what we mean. This command is like the lust command in that both are about the heart. Jesus is interested in our hearts being pure.
Keeping our word seems simple, but it’s actually got teeth. The whole setup is Jesus calling out the oath system, where people swore by heaven or earth to make promises sound binding, and basically everyone knew there were loopholes. So Jesus strips it all away and says our plain word should be enough. If we need extra promises to be trusted, that’s a heart problem, not a language problem.
The deep part is what it says about character. A yes you actually keep and a no you actually hold mean people can trust you without a contract. It’s about being the same person in private that you are in public.
Integrity is really just being the same person when nobody’s watching. Proverbs 12:22 says lying lips are an abomination, but those who act faithfully are His delight, so God’s got strong feelings about this one. The beautiful thing about a yes being a yes is that it makes you safe to be around. People don’t have to guess what you meant or wonder if you’ll flip.
Encouragement
This command makes us look inside ourselves. Can we be trusted to keep our word? If we can’t be, then that’s evil controlling us. I’m not going to sit here and say that I always keep my word. I most certainly try to. However, there are times when we underestimate a promise that we’ve made.
Maybe we didn’t anticipate how heavy something might be. For instance, marriage calls for a yes meaning yes and a no meaning no. However, it’s hard to anticipate the lows of marriage. We can’t see the future, but we make the promises anyway.
In today’s society, marriage vows don’t always mean forever as promised. They mean until we have differences, hardships, or want someone else. As Christians, we are obligated to keep our word to God, our spouse, and all witnesses present during the vow. If we don’t, then Jesus says evil is controlling us. If someone is unsafe, they can separate and get to a safe place while still honoring their vow.
I’ve been married for 38 years now, so I can honestly say that I kept my vows, but it wasn’t easy. There were many times when I wanted to break the vows. My husband and I both made mistakes that broke some of the vows. However, with God’s help, we were able to keep our vow to stay together.
The enemy will try to get us to break our vows, but we must keep God in the marriage to prevent evil from controlling us. Remember, we want to keep Jesus’s commands because He says if we love Him, then we will keep His commands.
So if you find yourself in a situation where you are faced with keeping your word or not, think about how much you love Jesus and keep your word, no matter how hard it will be.
Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, You are full of integrity. When You say that You will do something, You do it. You always keep Your word. You say that You are not a man that You should lie. You aren’t capable of being a liar. You know that evil wants to control us, so You command us to resist evil and do what we say that we will do. Thank You for always wanting the best for us. Continue to teach us Your ways and Your words so that we may please You and show our love for You. Father, give us peace in knowing that You will always help us keep our word. May our lives imitate Jesus’s. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray, amen.