“Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:”
My Notes
What Does Matthew 5:33 Mean?
Jesus addresses the oath-taking culture: you've heard the old instruction — don't break your oaths, perform what you swore to the Lord. The Law required that oaths be kept (Leviticus 19:12, Numbers 30:2, Deuteronomy 23:21). Jesus is about to go further: don't swear at all (verse 34). But first, He states what they've been taught.
"Forswear" (epiorkēseis — to swear falsely, to perjure) means to make an oath and break it. The old standard: if you swear, keep it. The crime was in the breaking, not the swearing. The oath itself was legitimate. The failure to fulfill it was the sin.
Jesus will elevate the standard: the problem isn't just broken oaths. It's the oath system itself. When a culture needs oaths to guarantee truth, it's because the culture's basic speech is untrustworthy. The oath compensates for unreliable communication. Jesus says: make your regular speech so reliable that oaths are unnecessary (verse 37: let your yes be yes).
Reflection Questions
- 1.Is your basic speech reliable enough that you don't need oaths to make people believe you?
- 2.Does the oath culture (needing to swear for credibility) describe any dimension of your communication?
- 3.How does Jesus elevating the standard (from keeping oaths to making all speech reliable) challenge your everyday honesty?
- 4.What would it look like for your yes to genuinely be yes — no qualifications, no fine print, no escape clauses?
Devotional
Don't break your oaths. Keep what you swore. That was the old standard. Jesus is about to raise it.
The culture Jesus addressed was oath-saturated: people swore by heaven, by earth, by Jerusalem, by their own head. Every serious statement required a divine guarantee. Because ordinary speech was untrustworthy. The oath system existed to compensate for a credibility deficit: I can't trust what you say normally, so swear by something bigger.
The old instruction: if you make an oath, keep it. Don't perjure yourself. Don't swear and then break the commitment. The crime was in the breaking. The Law was clear: fulfill your vows.
Jesus doesn't disagree with keeping oaths. He disagrees with needing them. Verse 34-37 will say: don't swear at all. Let your yes be yes. Let your no be no. Make your regular speech so reliable that additional guarantees are unnecessary. If you need to invoke heaven to make people believe you, your basic honesty is already compromised.
The oath culture reveals the character culture: a society that requires swearing for credibility is a society where speaking is unreliable. The more oaths you need, the less truth your culture contains. The oath-free society would be one where every word is as trustworthy as a sworn oath. That's Jesus' target: not the elimination of oaths, but the elevation of ordinary speech to oath-level reliability.
"Perform unto the Lord thine oaths" — the old standard kept the oaths sacred. Jesus makes the standard more radical: make ALL your speech sacred. Don't partition your communication into sworn (reliable) and unsworn (unreliable). Make every word reliable. Let yes be yes.
The question isn't whether you keep your oaths. It's whether your regular speech is trustworthy enough to make oaths unnecessary.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Again, ye have heard that it hath been said,.... Besides what has been observed, in ver. 21 and 27 you know it has also…
Thou shalt not forswear thyself - Christ here proceeds to correct another false interpretation of the law. The law…
We have here an exposition of the third commandment, which we are the more concerned right to understand, because it is…
(γ) Oaths, 33 37.
33. Thou shalt not forswear thyself The special reference may be to the third commandment. Cp. also…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture