Jesus has really been challenging us as we have been working through the Red Letters by showing the separation between God’s standard and man’s standard. There has been a lot of “You have heard” followed by “but I say”. Today we will be covering vows, making promises, swearing by things. How often has our Lord’s name been used in vain due to empty promises or even worse used as nothing more than a swear word? Exodus 20:7; Leviticus 19:12 You are advised to keep all of your vows but those that did not mention God were ones that if you were to break a vow… those would be the ones deemed ok to do so. One commentary stated, vows taken that you did not mention God’s name in were not as binding as the ones you did. And what Jesus is revealing is that in actuality all vows end up coming back to God. The solution: stop making vows and let your simple “yes” be a “yes” and your “no” be a “no”… that’s all you need. Matthew 5:33-37 Jesus is telling us, it’s not ok to separate out our promises and vows and say that, “some were made before God and everyone and others weren’t.” John 1:3 So then any vow you make is actually before God and whomever else is present. And any “thing” that a vow is sworn by actually comes back to God, the One who created it. See, all things come back to God. Unfortunately we live in a society that doesn’t trust you and forces you to enter into legal agreements because in their view a person’s word is no longer enough. When you stop and think about it. People have been burned by idle promises and vows. Matthew 5:37 Let your “yes” be “yes” and your “no” be “no”. Jesus challenged the people of His day with this teaching the same way we are being challenged today. If we truly believe that His word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, then we have to take the hard teachings with the easy. We have to receive the challenges the same way we receive praise. We have to desire to be more like Jesus Christ rather than making allowances for bad habits and entrenched behaviors. Will you simply say, “Yes”?