Jesus opposed Oaths, so why do we swear to him?

By: Art Jannicelli
www.WhatTheHellAmIDoingHere.com

“Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep your oaths you have made to the Lord.' But I tell you, Do not swear 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. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your ‘Yes' be ‘Yes' and your ‘No', ‘No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”

~Matthew 5 Verse 33-37

This is a section of Jesus' famous sermon on the mount. In it Jesus is saying that people ought not swear to God, Jerusalem, the earth, or yourself, because these are God's things and you have no right to swear on them. Instead, Jesus says that let your word stand on its own merit.

Today it is common practice to swear to God. We do it in court as a vindication that we speak the truth and that God will punish us for doing otherwise. The President of the United States lays his hand on a Bible when he takes his oath of office to protect the constitution; which is interpreted as swearing before God. People do it every day to express sincerity or just out of frustration.

The violation of this ethic has become the accepted practice today. In fact, to be unwilling to swear to God is viewed as being obviously untruthful. So is this just another ethic that ought to be cast aside? Like so many others that have been due to their irrelevance or inappropriateness 2,000 years later?

The ideals of fidelity and integrity are timeless. An integral component of the human condition is the fact that we never really can know if people are telling us the truth unless we have supporting evidence; even then we can never be really certain. Jesus certainly recognized this when he spoke of it in this famous sermon.

In the book Conquering Deception , by Jeff Nance, he directly discusses the validity of swearing oaths. Jeff Nance was a Police interrogator before writing his book. He notes that when someone said, “I swear…” this was a major warning that someone was lying. “Sometimes they're used to qualify an assertion, to make a denial sound more credible…”(176). He also noted that invocations are especially telling of liars. “People who feel they need these kinds of invocations to enhance their believability have something to hide” (179). Therefore, swearing oaths are not a reliable means of assuring the truth on the contrary they seem to do the opposite.

Not only are oaths a poor means of verifying the truth, they can also be dangerous in another way. Oaths bind a person to a specific course of action or way of life. Some would even say it binds the immortal soul to the action. A rational person would acknowledge that there are bound to be instances in life where a person is better off using their own judgment then sticking to a long established rule. For instance the congress could pass an amendment demanding euthanasia of anyone over 64 years old to lower Medicare costs. The president is technically is required by his oath before God to defend and uphold the constitution. This would be an obvious situation where the President would be morally obligated to stop this even if it violated his oath. For the sake of rationality people should not be required to swear oaths, simply because no one can foresee every eventuality. Instead we should just ask that people do what is best, rather then binding them to absurd actions.

Knowing that oaths are not approved of by God, nor are they effective means of assuring integrity they should be discontinued. This is one case where the Bible knows best and should be applied liberally and literally. People should draw meaning from the words of Jesus that they should accept the words of each other on their own merit. The President should not have to swear on a Bible. As an elected representative of his people, our votes should be all the vindication of his word that is needed. People testifying in court, should not be founding their word by swearing to God, they should testify truthfully and in that way justify their words. Interpersonally as soon as people are made aware that swearing to God is not a means of verifying their integrity they would stop this blaspheme.

The issues of fidelity and integrity are critical to ethics of character and virtue. To have a virtuous character you would first need to be able to trust in your own word. If you were unable to do this, you would be guilty of Bad Faith; more simply known as believing in your own lies. Once you have established with yourself only then you would be capable of practicing it with other people.

Fidelity & Integrity are important in another sense besides being true to yourself; without them society would not be possible. The foundation of society is built on the idea that we can trust each other. You trust that your boss will pay you for your work, that you are not being over charged, that your possessions are safe in your home, that no one will kill you etc. It is from this mutual idea of trust and respect that society continues. Which is one more reason that it is an important part of having a virtuous character.

This ethic is a great Bible ethic. It is as sound today as it was in the time of Christ. It is applicable to a fundamental part of the human condition, and governs it wisely. It alleviates the unnecessary and potentially costly burden of upholding constrictive oaths. This ethic translates easily to the secular; since they would rather not swear to God and would likely agree with Jesus that a person's word should stand on its own.