Post #4424725

16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ 17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? 18 And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ 19 You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. 22 And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it. -Matthew 23:16-22 Jesus said earlier in this Gospel that a Christian's word should be trustworthy: his yes means yes and his no means no, and no one can accuse him of falsehoods (Matthew 5:33-37, James 5:12). This is in condemnation of the odd sort of jewish oaths, where they would swear by important objects rather than by God's Name. It is not that He is condemning the things we would call oaths today - promises, contracts, the pledge of allegiance, wedding vows, or even the oaths included in the Law of Moses. He is banning the unserious swearing that His kinsmen started to do according to the teachings of the Pharisees. Here He gives examples of why pharisaic oaths are so injurious. "If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath." Why wouldn't both of these oaths be binding? If a man gives his word to something, it shouldn't matter what he swears on - it should matter that he made a promise and must keep it! But the Pharisees wanted escape clauses, loopholes, and ways to lie without sin. It is no accident that Jesus calls them blind guides. If a man will not be a champion for truth, then whatever he says is untrustworthy. The Pharisees are blind because they cannot be trusted nor trust one another, and yet teach people the very things that would make everyone untrustworthy. If they can make up rules that negate their promises, who's to say they haven't introduced other rules to permit lies in other matters? How can they even trust themselves?