Unvarnished Truth
The Truth about Oaths and Lies
Again you heard that it was spoken by the ancient ones, “You shall not commit perjury, but render your oath to the Lord.” But I say to you, “Do not swear at all: neither by the heaven because it is the throne of God, neither by the earth, because it is the footstool for his feet, neither to Jerusalem because it is the city of the great King; neither swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair strand white or black. Rather, let your word be yes, yes, no, no. But whatever is beyond these words is from the evil one.” Matthew 5:33-37
When I thought about a name for this Substack last January, I almost decided on “Unvarnished Truth,” but there was another Substack with the name “Unreported Truths” (by Alex Berenson) that sounded too similar. Since that time, I’ve seen the phrase numerous times, so I am glad I didn’t use it.
But today’s post seemed the perfect time to resurrect this title, though placing “unvarnished” next to “truth” is actually redundant.
True truth is unvarnished—varnished truth is not truth.
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The Oath
Matthew 5:33-36 is the unequivocally stark word of Jesus both then and now about the truth—the unvarnished reality—of any situation.
Maybe even starker in our current post-truth age.
A saying I read recently goes, “Truth has no agenda.”
Jesus’s words cohere perfectly with that statement.
In courts today, there is now no Bible for an oath, and “so help me God” is optional (at least in California)—just an “I do” to the judge’s words “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
I am the measure of my words.
My personal integrity and the threat of perjury charges are the only checks on the veracity of my words.
In a sense, the first of the two is exactly what Jesus called for.
There is no need for an oath at all. Your integrity is the oath.
My word is my oath.
Truth comes from personal character no matter the consequences.
“Do not commit perjury”
When Jesus moved to this next “antithesis,” he appeared to quote something from somewhere.
Up to this point he had specifically connected what he said to the OT Law, especially the Ten Commandments, whether murder or adultery or desire.
Yet when he said “You have heard it spoken by the ancient ones, you shall not commit perjury, but render your oath to the Lord,” a search of the OT or any other Jewish literature will come up empty for this exact quotation.
Further, the word for “commit perjury” (ἐπιορκέω) is used only here in the NT and only appears in the the Greek OT (the Septuagint or LXX) in the non-canonical books, usually called the Apocrypha. Zechariah 8:17 would be the closest in the canonical books: “Do not love a false oath.”
Yet the content of the words fits very well with a number of places: Exodus 20:7; Leviticus 19:12; Numbers 30:3; Deuteronomy 23:22.
Jesus effectively placed the ninth commandment “Do not bear false witness against your neighbor” along side the positive action of Numbers 30:3: “When a man makes a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.”
Jesus never denied what “was said of old;” rather he clarified it and made the entire conversation moot in light of God’s desire for truth-telling.
Do not swear at all
The whole notion of perjury and vow-taking was a massive conversation among the rabbis of Jesus’s day and one that continued for hundreds of years after. Entire sections of rabbinical debates in the Mishnah, the Tosephta, and the Talmud focus solely on oaths (for those interested the chapter or “tractate” in each is called Shevuot). What constituted a valid oath? When could the oath be broken? And so on and so on. The detail of the discussion was mind-numbing.
With his “but I say to you,” Jesus wiped all of that conversation away.
Stop!!
Just tell the truth.
Your word is your word.
Lying is lying.
No oath or species of oath will change a truth or a lie.
(I personally have no problem speaking the oath in court because I have already determined that my words are before God, not the human court.)
Jesus cited but a few of the anemic attempts to mitigate a statement that is not the whole truth: “I swore by my head, not Jerusalem.” “I swore by Jerusalem, not the earth!” “I swore by the earth, not heaven!”
These oaths are not for telling the truth, but justifying a lie.
The rabbis of the day had perfected this artful form of lying (in the name of religion!) and the ordinary people just imitated them.
Choices and lies
We are no different.
There are many choices in life that appear to have a combination of good and bad, strengths and weaknesses, advantages and disadvantages.
We often lie to ourselves, though.
I don’t even think the truth to myself.
I try to justify every action with a caveat. “Well nobody will know.” “It’s not that bad.” “Just for a while.” “Just this once.” “Just one more.” “There’s nothing wrong with a little fun.”
I am sure you can think of many others—lies to justify my actions to myself and maybe to others, that then turn to more lies when confronted with the consequences of my actions.
Marriage, kids, co-workers, not to mention politics—dare I even say churches and boards of Christian organizations. “It will look so bad if we tell the truth.” “It will damage the credibility of the Gospel.” “So many people have been saved,” “Our ministry has been so impactful.” “People might lose their jobs.” And here is a favorite, “The truth just seems so unloving.”
Often times the lies simply boil down to money.
Let your word be “yes, yes,” “no, no”
Yes or no.
Black or white.
One or zero.
On or off.
Alive or dead.
True or false.
God’s creation embeds absolutes that cannot be changed, modified, broken, or other wise considered anything other that they are. Attempt to deny them we may, but not forever.
Jesus above all humans knew this reality.
Jesus lived a truthful life in a world filled with lies.
Can you imagine that?
We think that Jesus only suffered on the cross, but he suffered his entire life. He suffered the knowledge of a world that constantly lied, when he knew the truth about everything.
Only a person of the truth can see lies for what they are.
But when that person exposes the lie(s), persecution comes, because the liar does not want his lie to be uncovered.
When Jesus spoke the truth, many hated him for it because his truth-telling unmasked their lies.
Jesus died as a result of speaking yes, yes, no, no.
Jesus loved us by speaking the truth.
And he loved us in spite of our lies.
The Evil One
For Jesus there was no other choice but yes, yes, no, no: “anything more than this is from the Evil One.”
With this final phrase, Jesus tied every lie ever told back to the first lie in the Garden of Eden:
[The serpent] said to the woman, “Did God really say: You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?”
The woman replied to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. But from the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said: ‘You shall not eat of it or touch it, lest you die.’”
And the serpent said to the woman, “You are not going to die, but God knows that as soon as you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:1-5
The first lie was that we can be like God, that we are immortal.
Somehow, that very lie continues.
Jesus not only revoked lying, but he revoked the father of lies, Satan.
And in doing so he presented a choice to every person: are you a follower of God or a follower of the Devil?
Every lie is from the pit of hell.
Jesus told the truth and he calls us to do the same, come hell or high water.
A Prayer for Truth
Father, forgive us for the lies we believe, for the lies we tell. Open our eyes to see the Truth (“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”) and to see the Liar and all those who follow the Lie. Give us courage to speak the truth and to live the truth. Amen.
**All comments are welcome.**