Swearing by things is to be avoided.
Never, Ever Swear With An Oath
James 5:12
Please turn to James 5:12. As you are turning there, please listen along as I take a stroll down memory lane and tell you about some experiences I had about twenty years ago. At the time I was involved in the pro-life movement. I was involved in a very unique strategy where I had the privilege to be used by God to save the lives of babies in San Antonio, and various other States. Essentially, the horror that was taking place is what still takes place by the thousands every day in this wicked country that is marked by spiritual deadness. Yes, this nation reflects spiritual deadness, and it has the judgment of God upon it. Why does it have God's judgment upon it? Because at the founding of the Republic, it swore to God that it would protect the lives of the innocent. It swore to God that it would guarantee, and protect the rights of its people. It swore to God, because it said that we are one nation under God. It said that God is the one who gives people our rights. But, it lied, and in its lie, it has turned to murdering people while they are little babies in the womb, partially in the womb, and sometimes even outside the womb; and the most bizarre aspect of this transgression against God and the lives of innocents, is that there are millions upon millions of people who have survived this abortion holocaust through the narrow escape of being deemed worthy to live, or for some other reason that enabled them to escape the womb alive. Those millions upon millions of people populate this nation today, and for some strange, dark, mysterious reason (which I will call bizarre), now that they have made it into the world out of the womb, they can not figure out whether killing little babies is wrong. They want to call doing this kind of thing, one's right. So, because they can not figure out whether killing little babies is wrong, they refuse to admit, care, or understand that such little people (baby persons) are worthy to have their lives saved. Not only can they not figure it out, some of these folks promote the execution of infants with passionate ambition. Actually, killing babies has been an industry of big business for decades, where murder is merchandised, marketed, and mandated. So, our nation swore, by charter to protect the innocent. It lied, and now it has fallen under God's judgment. The same thing was going on twenty years ago when I had the honor of being used by God to save some baby's lives that were being led to slaughter. At the time, organized baby rescues were being done in various parts of the country. Some people mistakenly called them protests, or demonstrations; but that is not what they were. They were baby rescues. A fire fighter doesn't go to a fire where people are trapped in a building and call it a fire protest, or a fire demonstration. A paramedic doesn't arrive on the scene of a car accident to save lives, and call it a car accident protest:
Why are you here? Well, you see, I'm demonstrating against this wreck.
A baby rescue is not a protest or a demonstration. A baby rescue is an operation in which babies are rescued from murder. The down side for baby rescuers is that they are not treated like firemen. They are not treated like paramedics who are honored, hired, and paid, for saving lives. They are not treated like servicemen who fight in just wars. Baby rescuers, in our culture that has cursed itself and has been judged by God, are treated like the enemy. You say,
The enemy of who?
Well that is the bizarre thing about it. Baby rescuers certainly aren't the enemies of the little babies that they set out to rescue from a torturous execution. Baby rescuers are the enemies of a selfish sinful culture that has become enemies of God in self consumed sin. In other words, when culture defines what is right, then culture will tell you that you do not have a right to rescue babies that culture says, do not have a right to live. Nevertheless, I was blessed to be an enemy of culture and a friend of the unborn as a Christian saving babies lives. Part of that blessing was to see some of those children over a decade later when they were older. I was being personally thanked by them for being there to stop their mother from killing them. The mother's also thanked me. They thanked me from keeping them from becoming murderers of their own children. It was one of the most eye opening experiences of my life--to see children that I had been able to be part of rescuing from imminent death, at a stage in life that enabled them to give thanks to me for being there when they were not able to thank me.
You may wonder how one stops a mother from killing her child. Well, I imagine there are numerous ways to do so, but the way we chose was to simply walk up to the abortuary and sit down. You may be thinking,
That's it?
That's a baby rescue?
Well, yes. We would sit down in front of the door, and when the mother would come to mutilate her child, she would be turned away, and generally what we found out through studies is that when a mother does not make it to a scheduled execution, whether it be because she accidentally slept late, or she had a flat tire, or she had a headache, and so forth, usually she would not reschedule the appointment with the executioner. Isn't that an amazing fact? I knew of two independent studies at the time that confirmed this eery statistic. I always thought about how fascinatingly odd it was that the life of someone was held in the balance of such a casual turn of events. Part of the consequence for the rescuer (like for example me, along with dozens of other concerned pastors and decent citizens) was to be arrested and thrown in jail. In a cursed, judged nation, this is how baby rescuers are treated. I remember that I would be arrested and through the process of indictments and going to trial and all of that kind of ceremony, I would be asked to tell the truth. I remember the first time I awaited trial. I kept thinking that when I get in there, they are going to hold up a Bible and ask me to swear on the Bible. You know?--like in the movies. So, I mentally prepared myself for the moment. I memorized the words that I was going to say. When I would be asked by the agent of the state to swear, I decided that I would invoke our passage under study this morning. Let us read it now, James 5:12,
"12 But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment." James 5:12
We are going to learn from this passage this morning. So I ask you to pray with me that we would grow and be edified through God's precious word in this sermon from James chapter 5, titled,
Never, Ever Swear With An Oath
[prayer]
There are so many important nuggets of exhortation in James. They are strong commands that God has preserved in His word to protect us, build us up, and bring Him glory. Thinking back again to when I would be in the kangaroo courts finding myself having to defend myself for loving little babies enough to stop their murder, I eagerly waited for the court to ask whether I swore to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God. So, there I am waiting. They call me up there to the judge. I get there in anticipation. I'm prepared to blurt out,
According to James 5, I can not swear on the Bible, but I will let my yes be yes and my no be no.
I've got it all memorized, so I'm ready. But, to my surprise, there was no Bible, and I was never asked to swear on a Bible. I was only asked if I promised to tell the truth. In response, I simply said yes. Now the question is:
Why did I go through all of that preparation for a human court because I thought I was going to be asked to swear on the Bible so help me God?
The answer is because of the seriousness of our passage. Notice how James starts this out. He says,
"12 But above all, ..."
When someone says but above all, they are saying that what I am about to say is even more important than what I just said. What James just said was to be patient, to persevere, and to strengthen your hearts until the coming of the Lord. While doing so, don't complain from inner brooding bitterness against one another so that you won't be judged. The non-Christians of that generation were going to be judged without mercy for their inner hatred of the body of Christ. Non-Christians of any generation will be judged for hating Christians. So, Christians need to be different. James is saying that you need to be about manifesting the royal law to one another. Christ is at the door. The point is that when we complain against one another in the body of Christ in deep contempt, gossip, grumbling, and prideful smug arrogance, according to James, we will be judged for it. So we should not slanderously complain against one another in the body, as the body, in respect to the body. The judgment for doing this is real. But above all of this there is another judgment, and there is another thing we need to do to avoid this judgment. It is higher, so James says,
"12 But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath;"
This high warning is one of the many parallelisms of Christ's great sermon on the mount. Quite a few of these parallels can be found in James. Jesus said in that sermon,
"34 But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 But let your statement be, 'Yes, yes' or 'No, no'; anything beyond these is of evil." Matthew 5:34-37
Okay, in looking at this, we must realize that there is a specific meaning, and there is a specific reason why both Jesus and James are saying this. James and Jesus are talking about swearing an oath. More specifically, we are going to see that swearing with an oath is to swear by something. Remember that. Swearing with an oath is to swear by something. In our culture, we might wonder what exactly it means to swear by something with an oath. It is not as prevalent a practice here as it was back there and then. In light of this, we must understand that there are some things that James and Jesus do not mean by this, and it is helpful to know what they are. For example, James and Jesus are not talking about making a contract. There is nothing inherently wrong with making contracts. People have to do business, and so they need to make contracts to lay down the terms of the deal. In the contract, there is an agreement to the terms of the conditions. Further, James and Jesus are not talking about making a covenant. Covenants are okay. God makes covenants. People make covenant promises which have terms that go along with the whole thing. James and Jesus are not talking about making a promise. They are not talking about merely saying, I am telling the truth right now; like Paul asserts,
"I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit," Romans 9:1
This is not an oath. Paul is saying that in Christ, (as in being in the body of Christ as an adopted child of God who is saved) and in the Holy Spirit, he is telling the truth, and Paul sees no problem with giving this assurance. Let me read something else that is not an oath. Paul also asserts,
"For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) ..." 1 Timothy 2:7
Paul is simply asserting the truthfulness of what he is saying. On the other hand, Jesus and James are talking about a specific practice of making a specific type of statement where one swears in a certain way. We need to know what this is, because God wants us to avoid doing it. To understand what this is, the first thing I want us all to notice is that when James says don't swear, he says don't swear by things. Notice that Jesus says the same thing. In this particular teaching on swearing an oath, the word by, is important. It also applies to any other oath in James' context because this is a key attribute of the oaths that James and Jesus are talking about. We notice that Jesus and James list swearing by heaven, by earth, by Jerusalem, by your head, or swearing with any other oath, which means to swear by anything else other than those items listed, or people that are listed. I want us all to keep this in mind, because we are going to get a full picture of what swearing with an oath actually is by looking to some more teaching of Jesus. The place is the temple in Jerusalem. It was still standing at the time. Jesus arrives there. The scene is Jesus confronting the apostate scribes and Pharisees on the last leg of His pre-cross earthly ministry as Messiah. The picture is that Jesus is soundly rebuking the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus says,
"16 Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is obligated.' 17 You fools and blind men! Which is more important, the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold?
[Well unfortunately swearing by the gold was more important to these apostates because their mouths were where their hearts were. But here is the big point--notice that swearing with an oath is where one swears by something that is supposed to be very important according to verse 17. This is the big point. Also notice that in swearing an oath, the practice of swearing by something else of importance is what is meant to obligate the person who is swearing according to verse 16. Also, notice how when one does this, choosing something that is considered of no value makes the particular oath practice something that is seemingly paramount to no value itself. This is the essence of what swearing an oath means in the respect that Jesus and James are talking about. But there is more, and we see it as Jesus continues His rebuke of the scribes and Pharisees' foolishness, where He points out;]
"18 And, 'Whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering on it, he is obligated.' 19 You blind men, which is more important, the offering, or the altar that sanctifies the offering? 20 Therefore, whoever swears by the altar, swears both by the altar and by everything on it. 21 And whoever swears by the temple, swears both by the temple and by Him who dwells within it. 22 And whoever swears by heaven, swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it." Matthew 23:16-22
This is the kind of swearing that James and Jesus are talking about, where swearing with an oath is to swear by something. There are two more examples, and the reason why I want to give all these examples is because I am hoping there will be no confusion about what swearing with an oath actually means. There are some Christians today that give some modern definitions of what they think an oath is, and what swearing with an oath is, and because of these definitions, there are Christians who refuse to make contracts, go into covenant, make promises, or affirm that they are telling the truth. And so they take their definition, and then they use this passage to justify their actions. So, in the same way that we need to know what this passage is talking about in respect to avoiding this practice, we must also know what this passage is talking about because we don't want to avoid practices that have nothing to do with what James is saying.
Okay, the other passages are out of Hebrews. The first one is very important because the word oath is used in such a way as to help us to see that there is a specific swearing by things that equates to swearing with an oath. Notice the connection as I read,
"For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. ... For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, [which is God's oath given]" Hebrews 6:13, 16
Notice the important detail. The oath given as confirmation is to swear by one greater (that is, unless He is God) in which case God swears by Himself. So here is the definition of what James, Jesus, and the writer of Hebrews are all talking about in a nutshell:
It is the specific practice of invoking something that you think is important, or someone that you think is greater than you are, and so you swear by it, or the person, as that which both obligates you, and is a confirmation.
Let me repeat that for clarity; Swearing with an oath according to Jesus and James, and the writer of Hebrews is the specific practice of invoking something that you think is important, or someone that you think is greater than you are, and so you swear by it, or the person, as that which both obligates you, and is a confirmation. Jesus and James are telling us not to swear with oaths. What God is telling us to do here, through James, is to simply do something else,
"... but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no, ..."
It is really that easy, and what this is, is a matter of simply to seek to give the truthful answer to the best of your own ability. Instead of swearing on the Bible, or instead of swearing by your dear departed mother, or instead of swearing on your honor, just say "yes," or say "no." We are children of God. We are Christians, and so we should be doing all we can to be honest in our answers based upon the facts as we know them and discover them, and upon being effectual doers of the word who are lovers of God, and lovers of our neighbors as Christ loves us, and we are expected to do this because we are born again. Our spirits are alive. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit of God. As Christians, we should be expected to give the answer based upon God's importance, which gives us our own importance as saved people in the body of Christ. We have our state of salvation to look to, and we have our obligation to our Father. We have all of these things, and further, we have the confirmation that simply comes from being truth bearers. This is why Paul urged the Ephesians to,
"put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another." Ephesians 4:24-25
We belong to the standard of truth Who is God. We have been created in the righteousness and holiness of pure truth. Therefor, we should already be known as those who are seeking the truth in our investigations, and then acting upon it once we discover hidden details; and also as those who are always trying to do our best to speak truth to our neighbors as our continuous ambition. When, we as Christians, are in the work place, we should be known as the ones who look for the truth in making our decisions. We should also be known as those who proclaim the truth. Though we are not perfect, we should be the ones known as the employees who answer without making oaths because we are seeking to be accurate with our answers. We should be the business owners, managers, and bosses who are seeking to determine the truth, and proclaim the truth. At school, we Christians should be the ones who are known for not cheating on tests. When it comes to paying taxes, we should be the ones who are the ones who answer truthfully without needing to make an oath. The world is in a lie, and is of the prince of liars. The world operates in deceit as a matter of its nature, so when someone who is unsaved is in the practice of telling lies, then it should be expected. This fact about the sin nature of the unregenerate is what makes me surprised to find any non-Christian who consistently seeks to uncover the details of the truth, or makes it their ambition to tell the truth. But for us, speaking truth to one another as members of the body of Christ is to speak in the name of Christ whether you invoke Christ's name, or not. The point is that we should not invoke others into our answer, and taking it further, there is no reason to think that we should ever need to invoke something higher in our answer. As a child of God, simply answer yes, or no. Also, God is telling us that there is an inherent unrighteousness to doing otherwise and following the practice of swearing with an oath. God says that swearing with an oath in swearing by something that you think is important, or someone that you think is greater than you are, as that which both obligates you, and is a confirmation, is really truly of evil. We must remember that in Jesus' parallel teaching on swearing by things with oaths, He says,
"37 But let your statement be, 'Yes, yes' or 'No, no'; anything beyond these is of evil." Matthew 5:34-37
We are God's children. We don't want to speak things that are of evil. Further, we don't want the consequences of speaking things that are of evil. To avoid it, just get rid of all the ceremony. Drop all the unneeded, unnecessary, swearing language when answering with yes or no. Now, I want us to recognize something else about what both Jesus and James are saying. Jesus talks about your statement being Yes, yes, or No, no. James simply says your yes is to be yes, and your no, no. Think about what these words are. They are answers to questions aren't they? In other words, you don't just walk up to someone and say,
Yes.
If you do, they are going to look at you and say,
Yes what?
The reason is because yes and no are responses to questions that are put to you by someone else. This is very important because it identifies the substance of this practice, that James is talking about, even more. Let me give you an example of what I mean. If someone asks you if you really are a certain age, and they give some number in years, then you can either say, yes, or no. You are answering them. But think about this at another level; If someone comes up to you and says,
Do you swear by God that your are telling the truth?,
and you answer yes, are you not giving the answer that Jesus and James say not to give in the two choices that they teach? Think about it; If someone asks you if you swear by God that you are telling the truth, and you say yes, then you have just sworn by God in an oath. But, this helps explain why yes and no are the proper answers to choose from, but only one is the answer you should choose. Why? Because, the answer of no is the proper answer to this particular question, even if you are telling the truth. The reason that no is the right answer is because you are not to swear by God that you are telling the truth. You are not allowed to do so, so you don't agree that you are swearing. Now, certainly you can explain yourself and say something like I was going to blurt out in court,
According to James 5, I can not swear on the Bible, but I will let my yes be yes and my no be no.
Or you could say,
I am not going to swear by God that I am telling the truth, but I will say that I am telling the truth.
So, in recognizing that Jesus and James are talking about answers, we understand that one very big issue here is whether we are answering questions Biblically, and another big issue is whether we are answering questions with the ambition that we are answering them as honestly as we possibly can, in Christian integrity and in wisdom. In other words, this teaching doesn't mention questions, but this teaching is about answering questions. When we know all of this through a proper breakdown then it becomes crystal clear that Jesus and James are not talking about making a contract, or about making a covenant, or making a bargain, or agreeing to an endeavor, or about making a promise, or about proving that we are telling the truth. What they are really talking about is sticking to the basic yes or no answer in endeavoring to be honest, in integrity, and in contemplative thought to the best of your ability.
This leads to a final consideration, and that is that there is an element of self preservation in this righteous way of answering. In other words, there is a consequence that we avoid when we don't swear with oaths. James goes on and tells us what the consequence is that we avoid. He says it is,
"... so that you may not fall under judgment." James 5:12
In other words, this is no light matter. It is the matter of the tongue that James has already warned us about. How we answer in respect to oaths brings judgment, and we should not be surprised. James has already identified so many other ways that our tongues make us fall under judgment. For example, Do you teach? Do you want to become a teacher? Well James says in 3:1 that when you become a teacher, you will incur a stricter judgment,
"1 Let not many of you become teachers, my brothers, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment." James 3:1
Teaching has to do with what you teach, which is what you say, why you say it, and how you say it; and it will most assuredly bring a stricter judgment from God if you are teaching untruth as if it is the truth. Do you complain bitterly against other members of the body of Christ? Do you speak out against people that are here around you?--outside of here? I see people gossiping about other Christians all the time, and it is detrimental to others, but also to themselves. I see it happening on the internet too. It has become a big popular thing in our age. It is something that nobody could have imagined would be the case twenty years ago, but it is, and it is horrible. People take on a whole different persona on the internet. It is really weird. But, I have seen something else come from bitter internet complaining and gossiping. I have seen the judgment come back upon people who do it. They have reaped what they have sown. While they were out to damage others, God allowed them to damage their own selves. Do you grumble against, complain against, and tear down other members of the body of Christ? James just warned in 5:9 about complaining against brothers in the body, saying,
"9 Do not complain, brothers, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door." James 5:9
There is judgment that we bring upon ourselves, and it has to do with what we say in sin from our hearts in sick complaining. But in all of this, we must understand that God is not out to scare us. No, rather, what God is doing is warning us out of love. This is why God warns us about not bridling our tongues,
"26 If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless." James 1:26
But, we are not perfect. And so we may be thinking we are bridling our tongues, and because we think we have that restless maverick tamed because of the bridle, we might be tempted to confidently say that we can safely swear to God, or we can promise on the Bible, or on our grandmother's grave, or swear on our honor, and all of these kinds of things. After all, we think we have bridled our tongue, so we are safe, and everything is going to be okay; but the problem is that we are not perfect. I think all of us here remember that little problem that we have; the problem of being imperfect, which means that we don't really know whether we might make a mistake in what we say. I'm not talking about starting out blatantly telling a lie. I'm talking about invoking others like God, or heaven, or earth, (which is already a mistake to do) but then after making that mistake, we make another mistake and go against what we previously stated, and so we magnify the problem because we have brought the object of our oath into our error, as if we are involving that thing or that person in our pledge problems. This is why James says that even though you think you are religious, and even though you think you are a teacher, and even though you think you are bridling your tongue,
"we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well." 3:2
I think we all realize how personally recognizable this passage is. I think of numerous times that I stumble in what I say. Kerry is not perfect. Kerry stumbles. We all do. This is why God warns us. All of us are imperfect, and even though we think we are careful and bridling our tongues, we still stumble in what we say. In other words, you can put a bridle on the tongue, but it remains wild while we are in this life. So, the bridle is there, right? But what does James say?
"8 But no one can tame the tongue;" 3:8
The bridle is there, but your tongue is still wild. We humans still sin. We still malign. We still gossip. We still say things wrongly, and we still lie. Yes, Jeremiah hit the nail on the head when he said that the heart is more deceitful than all else. Though you may invoke other parties of great importance in your sinful oath that God has already told you not to make, you sin both against God, and against whatever else you invoke when your untamed tongue is wrong, lies, fails, and sins. The consequence, then, is that you get judged for it.
/1/
So, what are the steps on the road to the remedy? The first step on the road to the remedy is to try to be correct in what you say, which means, try to get your facts straight and then stand by the facts. Making every effort to be correct in what you say also means to make it your ambition not to lie. In James' time and among the cultures of the world to which James is writing to the dispersed Christians, lying was rampant. Crete had such a horrible reputation for relentless lying that there was a saying that people repeated about Cretans like a proverb. Paul repeats it in Titus 1:12, where he said that
"Cretans are always liars ..."
Always is a strong word for how often Cretans lied. It was definitely not a politically correct statement. Interestingly enough, Paul goes on to say about this testimony concerning Cretans always being liars--that this statement is true. Paul is utilizing contemporary hyperbole of his time, but the point is that the problem was so bad that even Paul recognized that people from Crete were typically liars. If you thought about a Cretan, one of the first things you would think is,
He's a liar, and he is probably going to lie to me.
In our culture, people lie all the time. Maybe someday it will become a saying,
Americans are always liars.
Why wouldn't this saying come about? After all, America kills babies in legalized abortions and lies and says it isn't murder. People will tell you that they will show up to church, and then when Sunday arrives, they never had an intention of going to your church. But, they told you they would be there, and when they told you, they said it like they were telling you the truth. I'm not talking about when some real emergency comes up, or when some facts change in a situation, and so you have to change your decision based upon wisdom, or something like that. There are legitimate reasons to say that you are going to do something, or that you are not going to do something, and then you change your mind on the matter. But, what I am talking about is when someone says something, and they were just outright lying. Christians do this, and I am finding that it happens more and more in our wicked times. They do it with marriage, which is one of the most sacred institutions created by God. Marriage is a covenant relationship where both parties enter into covenant in agreement by stating a promise to be married. But, when one of the spouses commits adultery, then that person has shown that they have lied in respect to their yes answer of agreeing to the marriage covenant. When someone seeks a divorce on unbiblical grounds, then that person is a liar who lied to God, and lied to their spouse in answering the covenant. They broke their word in the covenant. So the first step on the road to the remedy is to be seeking to be correct with both your facts, and with your honesty.
/2/
Secondly, the next step on the road to the remedy in taming our tongues concerning the truth, is to strip down our answers to yes and no in our agreements or disagreements aside from oathing so that if we are wrong we have not sworn an oath which brings judgment upon ourselves. I am not saying that there are no explanations that can be given for prudent changes of action later on, but if you say yes, then you better have meant yes at the outset. Don't come back later and say,
Well, the whole time, I really meant something else.
The same goes for no. Don't say no expecting that you will come back and say that you really meant something else. If circumstances change, then that is a different story. But, at the outset, try to say what you mean according to the facts at hand, and the situation you are familiar with at the time, and say it as a Christian speaking forth the words of truth. The circumstances that change ones course of action later on are another issue, and even with those kinds of things, the same standards of integrity need to be used to analyze our course of action. The point is that the words of a Christian should be known to be completely trustworthy when all circumstances are considered in the final analysis. Think about this: If you think that what you affirm, or deny, needs to be established by swearing by someone, or by something with an oath, isn't doing so an indication that your own self is not worthy enough to be considered reliable? Think about it; Such a practice knocks you down. It makes it seem like your own words are unreliable because you are somehow inferior to that which you are swearing your oath by. To a certain degree it is like admitting that you are really pretty much just a common liar unless you have bound yourself by an oath. Folks this is not what God wants us Christians to do. We should be the ones that are known for the sure, precise, honest answers every time. We should be known as having such integrity that our answer is based upon our own word, which should be considered high enough that nothing else needs to be invoked anyway. Also, when we tell the truth we are bringing glory to God, and so in that respect we are expressing a kind of worshipful exaltation of Him as a truthful child of His. Finally, we should be known as people who take God's word for what it says. Even if we are misunderstood by this lost dying world culture for doing things like trying to rescue babies from abortion, or if you find yourself smuggling Bibles, or if we ever have to meet in a secret church meeting, we still need to be recognized as the ones who are known to be so honest that others look to us for truthfulness, instead of anything we can appeal to, or by, for our confirmation and obligation.
I urge all of us to let our yes be yes, and our no be no, as we bring glory to God in our speech and actions. Practicing this keeps us out of trouble, and it glorifies God. Simply set out to be honest in the first place and then make every attempt to abide by your honesty to the best of your ability. Do this, but never, ever swear an oath. Don't say, "I swear to God." Don't even simply say, "I swear." There is no need for it, and God says don't do it.
