The outline of the book of Matthew is drawn out in the book The New Testament in Antiquity. My topic for this article is how Jesus forbade oaths. In the book of Matthew in verses 31-37 Jesus talks about how people need to fulfill their oaths unto God. If they swear by the name of God then that oath must be brought about. In Leviticus 19:12 it says, “You shall not swear falsely by My name, so as to profane the name of your God I am the LORD”. For this Jesus says, “ But I tell you, do not swear an oath 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.” (Matt. 5:34-35). Jesus says not to swear any oaths at all.

We cannot be certain that we will keep our oaths. To make an oath we make an unbinding promise. So when one swears to God, they are making an unbinding promise to the one most high. When you make and unbinding promise you cannot break it. For breaking it would be a sin. So when one makes a promise to God and breaks it, they are directly sinning against God. To me, there is not a greater sin than this. People then think well they will not swear to God. They can swear on their own lives. One of the swears I have heard often in “I swear on my mother’s grave”.

Again, Jesus has an answer for this. “Do not swear on your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.” (Matt. 5:36). We do not even have the power over our own bodies. Without this power our promise is utterly meaningless. For we cannot swear on anything that is not under our control. For we as humans do not have control over anything. God is all-powerful, and he is the one who has control over our lives. So if we make a promise on our heads we are still making a promise unto God which is a sin.

Jesus then finishes this teaching by saying, “All you need to say is simply yes or no; anything beyond this comes from the evil one” (Matt. 5:37). What this means is that we must just say yes or no. We do not need to explain or swear by what we say because that's an excuse, and excuses or sin. We must just answer the questions we are asked with yes or no. For it says in Exodus “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name” (Exodus 20:7).

What that commandment meant is that people were to hold true to their promises for if they didn’t they were personally sinning against God. Jesus changed this. Jesus said do not make an oath or swear at all. For no one has the power to keep their oath. Jesus in a sense made this more difficult for people today. Look at examples of everyday life. People swear on the Bible in a courtroom. They swear on the Bible when they become president. All over we are basically forced to make oaths based on society. In a sense, we are not following the refinement of the law about oaths at all.

Why is it that in this society people think that it is necessary to make oaths? We are all guilty of this. I have made many oaths in my life, but I did not know the law. We must look. Why do we feel the need to make these oaths? Is it so we feel more inclined to feel good? What happens when we do not fulfill it? We feel terrible. Like Jesus said we just need to say yes, or we need to say no. Otherwise we are deliberately sinning against God.