Let’s suppose for a moment that I’m the new pastor of a church in which you are a long-time member. When you come to me and volunteer to serve in a critical ministry where we desperately need more workers, I’m very thankful.
But, as a pastor who’s had a lot of experience with people who initially promised great things, I have a question I’d like you to think about:
How much can I trust what you say?
If, for example, you tell me that you will be in church next Sunday, on time and ready to serve, should I make my ministry plans based on that fact? Or would it be more prudent for me to put your assurance into the maybe column in my mind and build contingencies into my plan in case you don’t show up as you promised?
Or, if I happened to see you walking into a motel late at night in the company of someone of the opposite sex that you are not married to, should it put my mind at ease when you tell me that the person was an old friend you hadn’t seen for years, and the two of you just sat in the lobby and talked? Or should I be worried that you may be hiding something?
In other words, how much should I believe what you say just because you said it?
Jesus Calls Christians to a High Standard of Integrity
Look at the standard of godly integrity Jesus demands of His followers:
Matthew 5:33-37 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’ 34 But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.
Let your Yes be Yes, and your No, No
That’s the standard Jesus sets for believers.
He’s saying that Christians should have such a reputation for truthfulness and trustworthiness that our words never need to reinforced with an oath – whatever we say can be counted on to be the truth as we understand it.
Suppose, for example, that when I asked you about being at that motel you said,
“Pastor, I swear nothing happened. With God as my witness, I never even touched her!”
If you put it that way, should the fact that you invoked God as your witness give me more confidence that I can believe what you are telling me?
Jesus would say that the answer to that question for believers today is NO!
The Old Testament Standard Was Different
It was different in Old Testament times. Then, God’s people were taught that they should swear oaths before the Lord to guarantee that what they said was true.
Isaiah 65:16 So that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth . . .
At that period, whenever a solemn and unbreakable agreement was made between people, it was sealed – put into binding effect – by each one swearing an oath to do what they said.
For example, when Joshua sent spies to the city of Jericho before the Israelites came to destroy it, Rahab hid them in her house so that they would not be captured. Look at what she asked of them in return:
Joshua 2:12-13 Now therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the LORD, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father’s house, and give me a true token, 13 and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.”
And the spies gave her that assurance.
So, in the Old Testament, to seal a vow by swearing to it by the Lord was perfectly acceptable.
Jesus Calls Believers Today to a New Standard of Integrity
As New Testament believers, Jesus names us “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14), and as that reflected light (we reflect His light as the moon reflects the light of the sun) we are called to demonstrate to the world a standard of integrity that goes far beyond truthfulness that can only be assured by an oath.
Matthew 5:37 But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.
Jesus is telling us that for us as Christians, if we think we have to swear an oath to reinforce the truthfulness of what we say, that’s not a God-thing – it’s actually a devil-thing!
(Note that Jesus is not referring to the kind of oath we might be asked to swear to in a court of law. We take that oath not to bolster the believability of our words, but to enforce legal accountability if we fail to testify truthfully).
The Real Issue Is Integrity
Here’s the issue:
If you believe that I should be more convinced of what you say if you swear to it on the Bible, or in the name of the Lord, or by everything that’s holy…
If you believe that you swearing to something should influence me to trust you more than I would if you just said it…
Then you have an integrity issue.
The fact that someone swears on a stack of Bibles doesn’t mean anything if their heart is not right.
I learned that lesson the hard way as a child.
One of my friends had a cat. As we played together, the cat suddenly began spasmodically flopping all over the ground, foaming at the mouth. Then it died.
My friend was suspicious that I had stepped on his cat. I vehemently denied it, and to reinforce my denial, I went and got my Bible and swore on it that I did not step on his cat.
But the truth was that I was lying! And I was using the oath I swore on the Bible to make my lie more believable.
I learned that day to my shame (and it’s a lesson I’ve never forgotten) that for a person whose heart is not right, their oath is meaningless. On the other hand, if a person’s heart is right they don’t need to swear an oath in order for them to keep their word.
That’s why Jesus tells us that believers should be the kind of people who, if we say YES, then it’s YES! And if we say NO, then it’s NO.
In other words, we ought to be the kind of people who can be counted on to say what we mean, and to mean what we say
That’s the kind of integrity we ought to be known for.
Christians Should Be Known as People of Integrity
We shouldn’t have to swear up and down for somebody to believe what we say. People ought to be able to be sure that if we say it, that’s the way it is – period!
We won’t change it; we won’t try to wiggle out of it, or make excuses about it. THAT ought to be our reputation.
Jesus commands us that we must be the kind of individuals that if we said it – just because we said it – that’s all people need to know. They don’t need us to swear to anything because they know by experience that our word is good enough.
But What If We Can’t Keep Our Word?
Of course there will be times when, for one reason or another, we legitimately cannot fulfill the commitments we have made.
Even the Apostle Paul had to write to the Corinthian church (in 2 Corinthians 1) to explain that although he had fully intended to come to them he just wasn’t able to do so at that time.
That kind of thing will happen because we are human, and we have human limitations. So there will be times when, like the apostle Paul, we may have to contact a person and let them know that even though we are fully committed to following through on what we said, we are just not able to do it right now and we need to make other arrangements.
Our Commitment of Integrity
Because I am a Christian, people should be able to count on this from me:
- You can have full confidence in anything I say – you can count on the integrity of my word: if I say it’s true, it’s true; if I say yes, it’s yes; if I say no, it’s no; if I say I will, I will; and if I say I won’t, I won’t.
- If I am not able to follow through on a commitment I have made to you, it will not be because I just don’t want to or it isn’t convenient for me, but because I am genuinely unable to do so.
- If that happens, I will let you know as soon as I possibly can, and I will do my best to make other arrangements so that you are not left hanging because of the commitment I was unable to keep.
That’s what it means to be a person of godly integrity. And that’s the kind of person Christ calls us to be.
Further Reading:
- Bible Principles for Dealing With Criticism
- How To Deal With a Guilty Conscience the Bible Way
- How to Get Back Up When You’ve Messed Up
- How to Overcome Selfishness by Being Unfair to Yourself
© 2026 Ronald E. Franklin
