12. But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.

Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no.  What does it mean when we say, "I swear that this is really true?"  Does it mean that everything else we’ve said up until that point may or may not be true?  If we have to say, "I swear this is true."  What does that say about everything else we’ve said?

And how can we swear by heaven or earth or anything else because as Jesus said, "you can’t make one hair white or black (Matthew 5:36)."  We just need to simply say yes when we mean yes and no when we mean no and keep our word.  When we get off into making promises we don’t have the ability to fulfill or not really meaning what we say or not keeping our word, then we get ourselves into trouble.

Our lives should show that we mean what we say (Our children should know that too, not that you mean it the 5^th time you say it, but the 1^st time).  Our words are important we shouldn’t take them lightly or everyone else will too!

Confession:

I will let my yes mean yes and my no mean no.  I realize the importance of my word.  I will mean what I say and not make promises I’m unable to keep.