When Hurricane Camille came ashore on Sunday, August 17, 1969, three people showed up at Istrouma Baptist Church in Baton Rouge: the pastor, there to keep an eye on the building, and Willie and Vercie Wales. Paw Paw, my grandfather, figured it was Sunday morning, time to go to church. What’s a little rain? He was a man of legendary integrity. His son was like him, a man so honest he would not open mail addressed to his wife.
When I was a child, I often overheard other children having scenes like this:
“Do you swear?”
“I swear!”
“Do you swear on the Holy Bible?”
“I swear on the Holy Bible!”
“Do you swear to God?”
“Umm … No.”
“See—you’re lying! Hey everyone, he’s lying! He won’t swear to God.”
We put a lot of stock in oaths, as if our fellow man is happy to lie, but afraid to lie under oath. But an oath makes little difference to liars; it certainly makes no difference to those who only tell the truth.
“Do not swear, either by heaven or by earth, or by any other oath. But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No,’ so that you do not fall under judgment” James 5:12.
The Bible says stop swearing. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. In other words, tell the truth consistently, so people will accept your yes or no answer without requiring you to buttress it by attaching oaths to it. Be honest.
The Pulpit Commentary adds that James is addressing a bad habit among Jews and Christians in the early church:
James wants to eliminate “those profane adjurations with which men who have no deep-seated fear of God garnish their common talk.”
In other words, ‘stop swearing’ means ‘stop cussing.’ Clean it up. Rid yourself of the “profane adjurations with which men garnish their common talk.” Willie and Ernest never cussed; James 5:12 is one of the reasons.
God, give us honest and clean speech. May we honor You with our words.
ΑΩ
Household Words: 