Christians should not swear oaths, including in court.

Question

I never thought about this before, but it got me thinking. What are the bounds of Jesus' command to "not take an oath at all" (Matthew 5:34)? How do we know if this is universal or particular in its application?

Matthew Ward · Accepted Answer

I'd love other's thoughts as well on Matthew 5:33-37 because I hadn't thought about it much until this year during a Bible study when it was brought up. Seeing as I was in the military and swore and oath, on the surface it seems like I was wrong, so I'm like hmmm.

After digging in some on it, it seems like there is a cultural/context aspect here and it's displayed even within the passage itself. People were often swearing by "things" that were incapable of holding them accountable and swearing by things they don't actually control. "for you cannot make one hair white or black".

So in short, it seems to me that the error in the oath is a result of a misplacement of where and how the oath is placed.

Deuteronomy 23:21-23 Is an interesting thing to consider because making a vow or oath to God is not seen as a sin, inherently. When Jesus elevates a standard he doesn't take something that is inherently not sinful and now makes it sinful. Instead he takes a standard of something that's considered sinful and then elevates that standard, exposing the heart or truth behind what makes it a sin. This is kinda beside the point but this passage shows that everything that comes out of our mouth as a promise, whether it's an oath or not, is "to the Lord" and so we must follow through.

I think there is more to this than what we may pluck out and say "Do not take an oath at all" is right there in the text so therefore any oath is wrong.

Thoughts on this?