Look Forward . . . Be Consistent

Above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment.

—James 5:12

While we await the blessed hope of Jesus’ return, while we look forward to that glorious moment, we should live with consistency. Our lives should match what our lips say we value and believe; our walk should match our talk. Let’s consider, then, the kinds of words that come out of our mouth.

When James said, “Do not swear,” he was not talking about using profanity. He was saying that we should be careful about taking oaths, about saying something like “I swear I’m going to do this or that.” James’s point was that our word alone should be our bond. When we say yes, we should mean yes. In James’s first-century world, people rarely, if ever, signed contracts as we do today. They swore oaths to each other instead. James’s point was that a believer should be such a person of integrity that an oath was unnecessary.

Oaths, however, played an important part in ancient Jewish life. God even used an oath:

When God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” And so, after [Abraham] had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath. (Hebrews 6:13–17)

At one of Jesus’ trials, the high priest Caiaphas provides another example of the use of an oath. We read that, as Jesus stood before Caiaphas, “Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, ‘I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘It is as you said’ ” (Matthew 26:63–64).

Why then did James say, “Above all . . . do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath”? By the time James wrote these words, oaths had earned a shady reputation, they were used so frequently they had lost their significance, and loopholes abounded. People were using oaths in the same way a child might say, “I cross my heart and hope to die,” all the while having his fingers crossed behind his back.

Remember, too, that these instructions from James came originally from the Lord Himself. Jesus said, “Do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one” (Matthew 5:34–37). It’s dangerous to call on God to give witness to our lies or exaggerations. He takes integrity seriously, so James was telling us to be careful to say what we mean and to mean what we say. As we look forward to the Lord’s coming, we are to be sure our life is consistent with our words. What we profess on Sunday, we should practice on Monday.

Still, confusion may surround the oath we take when we have jury duty. Also, if we’re a witness in a trial, we’re asked to raise our right hand and say, “I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God.” James wasn’t forbidding the taking of oaths in a court of law. In our fallen and imperfect world, oaths are used in a court of law to help guard against perjury and to help ensure that truth will be spoken. Taking those oaths is a concession we believers make in the secular world. However, in church, oaths should be unnecessary. If we profess to follow Christ, we ought to truly mean what we say. We, above all others, should be men and women of integrity. As we look forward to Jesus’ return, we should be consistent: our walk should match our talk.

If consistency does not characterize who we are and how we live out our faith, James warned we could be in danger of “[falling] into judgment.” After all, each of us will one day give account of whether our yes was really yes and our no, really no. The fact that our Lord is coming again should motivate us to be consistent: what we say should match how we act. Remember, as we have previously noted, James’s epistle is not about faith and works. It is not about faith or works. It is all about a faith that works, one that is characterized by words that are consistent with actions.

Finally, James was addressing believers who were living every day in anticipation of Christ’s return, and so should we. These believers longed to see Jesus, touch Him, hug Him, speak to Him. We also long for Jesus’ physical presence among us. We joy in His perpetual spiritual presence, but we look forward to seeing Him face-to-face.

Yet in a very real sense, this great event is not something we can get ready for. As Jesus Himself said, it will come when we least expect it, like “the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west” (Matthew 24:27). Paul said Jesus’ return would be like a “thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2). You can’t get ready for it. You must be ready for it!

Jesus is coming again. And James’s advice was the same to us as it was for the early church and the generations in between. Look up and be calm. Look in and be clean. Look back and be challenged. Look forward and be consistent—until the coming of the Lord.