The Gospel of Matthew #12 – Oaths and Revenge

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The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.

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Have you ever wondered why some people refuse to swear in court? They will come up to something and they’ll say, will you solemnly swear? And they’ll say, no, I won’t, but I will affirm. And so do you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Well, it grows out of this statement in the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus, Matthew 5 and verse 33. Again, you have heard it has been said by them of old time, you shall not forswear yourself, but you shall perform unto the Lord your oaths. But I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne. Don’t swear by the earth, for it’s his footstool. Don’t swear by Jerusalem, it’s the city of the great king. Neither shall you swear by your head, because you can’t make one hair black or white. But let your communication be yes, yes, no, no, for whatever is more than these comes of evil. Now, the whole idea of an oath, that is, of swearing by an oath, I do solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, is to make it possible for them to prosecute you if you lie. In other words, it’s to distinguish between an official statement under the law and a mere assertion that you make in a conversation or even a conversation with officials that has not been bound under the law. Now, in some states, the issue is sidestepped with the formula, I declare under penalty of perjury that all the above statements are true. You may have seen that on some driver’s license application. And all it means is that if you lie on this statement, we’re going to come get you and prosecute you for perjury. Or at least we can. I don’t know how often that takes place. Now, the truth is that there is no substantive difference between affirming and swearing. All it is is a matter of the words that are involved in it, right? I do solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, or I do solemnly affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth. The essential nature of the statements is identical. Now, in the Old Testament, you didn’t have to say anything to become guilty of perjury. It may sound strange, but in Leviticus 5, verse 1, it says this, And if a soul sin and hear the voice of swearing and is a witness, whether he has seen or known of it, if he does not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity. Now, the word swearing in this context actually is probably better rendered adjuration. In other words, someone stands before a crowd of people here and he says, now, I adjure, I command anyone here who knows anything about this crime to step forward and tell the truth about it. It is a formal declaration of, well, whatever, that you’re going to be considered guilty if you don’t come forward and testify. And in fact, they would prosecute you in Old Testament times if they found out you did know about it and refused to talk. But there’s something a little different going on in Jesus’ statement here. He says, for example, Again you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord. That’s the New International Version. Now, note the shift in emphasis. The oaths you have made to the Lord, which suggests other oaths, may not be so binding. In that time, much was made of the distinction between the binding nature of oaths. Swearing by heaven and earth was not binding. Swearing by Jerusalem was not binding. Oddly enough, swearing toward Jerusalem was binding. The whole question is of what oath bound you and what oath did not. And since the whole matter of oaths then was such a tricky little area, it became an occasion for a lot of clever lies and deceits. Jesus comes along and says, forget all that. Don’t swear at all. Don’t bother with oaths. Any statement you make must be the truth. No lies, no time, no way. So it’s a little bit different from what you might have thought of just commanding you not to swear but rather to affirm in court. His point is that you are not to play any games with your oaths. Just forget about the oath. Anytime you speak, it must be the truth or else you’re going to be guilty. He goes on to say, You have heard it has been said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you that you resist not evil, but whoever shall smite you on your right cheek, turn to him the other one also. Now once again, the question of literal interpretation comes into play. Remember we were talking earlier about the situation in which Jesus said, if your right hand offend you, cut it off. If your right eye offend you, pluck it out. And we notice that it’s not possible for Jesus to intend for us to take that literally because the eye cannot possibly be the offending member. The eye only does what the brain tells it to do. It looks where you tell it to look. You can close your eyelids and cut the eye off from the world anyway. Obviously, it’s what goes on in your mind is what the problem is. So we don’t look for the literal meaning of what Jesus said, but for his intent, right? Well, the same thing is true here. Now, the questions, the rational questions that arise from this statement, if you try to take it absolutely literally, take this one for example. Imagine that you and your young wife are walking home from a friend’s house, and you are accosted by a mugger who pushes you off to one side and begins to assault your wife. Are you expected to turn the other cheek and allow him to do as he wishes? Or can you use physical force to protect yourself and your wife? Now, common sense tells you that you ought to be able to use some force to protect yourself, to protect your wife, to protect your family. But here comes Jesus saying, don’t resist evil, but rather turn the other cheek. What could possibly be behind this? Think about it for a moment, and we’ll be right back to talk about it.

SPEAKER 02 : 6:34

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SPEAKER 03 : 7:02

So what are you going to do? Are you going to turn the other cheek and maybe hold a man’s coat while he slaps your wife around? Is that the idea behind this? The idea behind an eye for an eye is revenge, just simple vengeance. In other words, if in the process of time a man through some course of action causes another man to lose his eye, then the value of that eye or perhaps the eye itself, if you’re going to take a very hard line approach to it, is exacted. But it is exacted as a matter of revenge. of a setting of the scales right. It’s exacted as a matter of justice and generally speaking done by the elders, the leaders of a community, the judges. It is not a matter for private revenge. Now, if you have hurt me and I decide I’m going to hurt you, we can get a real vendetta going on here. But this eye for an eye doesn’t have anything to do with self-defense. What is oftentimes not understood is is that revenge is the central value of any system of judgment. But it’s not private revenge. It’s official vengeance that is permitted. For example, in Romans 12, verse 19, Paul says this, “‘Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.'” Now, I’ve heard it said that the death penalty is wrong because it is just mere vengeance, and that can’t possibly be right. But how could vengeance be wrong if God is prepared to execute vengeance Himself? And see, what is not often understood is the fact that God has actually delegated some aspects of this to civil government. For example, in Romans 13, not very far from the statement we read just a moment ago, that don’t avenge yourself, but give place unto wrath. It is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Just a few verses later, Paul says, Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. For there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. And make no mistake, he’s talking about the civil government. Oddly enough, he’s talking about the Roman government. He then says, Whosoever therefore resists the authority or the power, resists the ordinance of God, and they that resist are going to receive to themselves judgment, trouble, and nothing but. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Now, I know there are corrupt governments, and I know there are exceptions to this, and Paul is speaking, though, in generalities. Rulers generally are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Will you not then be afraid of the power or the authorities? Do what is good, and you’ll have praise from the authorities, generally. For the authorities are a servant of God to you for good. If you do what’s evil, you’d better be afraid of them, because he bears not the sword in vain. In other words, that civil government not only has authority, they have the ability to use force, violent force, even deadly force. He does not bear the sword in vain. Then he says, for he is the servant of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that does evil. The whole idea of justice is that the scales should be balanced, that a crime should be avenged. When the state fails to avenge the weak, then individuals are tempted to take matters into their own hands, vigilantism begins to arise, blood feuds begin to grow up among people, and your whole civilization can fall apart. You know, it’s a sad thing that in our courts nowadays, the victims of a crime are relegated to the position of just being onlookers. The truth is that the court should be acting as an avenging angel for those who have been hurt. The truth is, most of the time, the courts are acting on behalf of the state. They’re looking after the state’s interest. They’re trying to take care of society. They’ll keep crime off the streets in general, but they’re dealing with this thing apart from the victims. There is now a victims’ rights group that is working on trying to change that, but movement is a whole lot slower than it ought to be. So Jesus is using an aphorism, a proverb, when he says, turn the other cheek, to say that you should not indulge yourself in retaliation. In other words, when someone has harmed you and gone away, you can’t then pursue him and harm him. You should leave that to the official arm of justice. Jesus is not saying that you cannot defend yourself and your family when you are attacked. He then continues in verse 40 of Matthew 5 to say this, If any man will sue you at the law and take away your coat, let him have your cloak also. And whoever will compel you to go a mile, go with him too. What’s the message of this? Settle out of court if you can and don’t be niggardly about it and don’t fool around about it. You’re going to give up an awful lot of your life if you’re not awfully careful with it. In verse 42, he says, give to him that asks you, and from him that would borrow of you, turn not away. Now, you know, I think of that oftentimes when I pass a panhandler on the street or some guy hits me up for a buck for a cup of coffee or something of that nature. And he’s obviously kind of down and out. And sometimes you look at that and you wonder, well, is this how this guy makes his living? Some of them are earning more than $5 an hour actually panhandling on the street. Now, there are other passages that say things like, well, if any man will not work, neither let him eat. So it’s obvious that a certain amount of discretion is called for here, that just simply to give money to anybody that asks you is not necessarily what Jesus is talking about. He’s talking about the truly needy. But having said that, I think it is better for us to be taken advantage of. than to turn our back on someone or take a chance on turning our back on someone who really needs help. Then in verse 43, Jesus says, You have heard it has been said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Well, that seems logical enough. You know, at least you got your priorities right. You love the one you hate. You know who you love and who you hate. But Jesus said, No, no. Love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you. Pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you. Well, okay, but why? Why do I have to do this? I mean, why do I have to preoccupy myself in that way? Well, his answer is not exactly what you might think. His answer is, do this so you can be the children of your Father in heaven and For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and on the unjust. So I’m supposed to love my enemies and do good to them so that I can be like God? Well, that seems to be the case, for in truth, when it rains on my town, it rains on good people and bad people alike. There’s no particular difference. It’s really rare, I think, for God to rain down property lines and rain on one guy’s field and not rain on the other guy’s field. I suppose it happens, but I don’t think it’s regular. Certainly, this scripture says that it’s not. that God is very even-handed in the way he deals with man. Not only is he even-handed overall in the way he deals with man, but the truth is that he cares for men while they are still sinners enough to send his son to die in their place. That we’re told that we have not gone seeking after God, that he has come seeking after us. And so if God loves your neighbor down the road enough to die for him, should you not love him enough to be kind to him? Now, I think this is not, we need to understand, this is not merely a matter of being good to people who don’t deserve it, but rather a matter of trying to be in the image of God. Jesus went on to say, for if you love those who love you, What reward do you have? What’s coming your way as a result of that? Don’t even the publicans do that? And if you salute your brethren only, what are you doing more than anyone else does? Don’t the publicans do that? Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’m ever going to get there. Perfection? Being absolutely flawless? Well, in fact, the Greek expression that you find there, perfect, is not right. It doesn’t do it justice at all. The word perfect really means more, be you therefore complete, whole, and balanced, just like God. In fact, in this context, it would make a lot of sense if it read, be fair even as your Father in heaven is fair, or deal with people even-handedly, even as your Father in heaven is even-handedly. And don’t make this kind of a distinction toward people because if you think about it, the whole idea is that you do good to your friends and you do bad toward your enemies, you’re back into the old vengeance thing again. You’re back into the old I’m going to balance my own scales of justice thing instead of looking to God and saying, God, I’m going to trust you to balance out the scales. Now, there is a hidden theme that works its way all the way through this Sermon on the Mount. It’s a theme that has to do with character, with the kind of person you are, the values that you hold. And when you think about this question of vengeance and of hating your enemies and doing bad to people that don’t like you or that you don’t like, What is really wrong with this is not so much the harm you do to the others, although that may be true. On the other hand, they may deserve it, but that’s not the point. The problem is the destruction that you make or cause in the inner man, inside yourself, and the way in which you actually change your own outlook toward people and the world. Now, this same principle of the inner man is illustrated by the next item that Jesus brings up in the sermon about how we ought to conduct ourselves, what kind of character we ought to have, what kind of people we ought to be. He says in Matthew 6, verse 1, Take heed that you don’t do your alms before men to be seen of them. If you do that, you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven, which suggests that in the process of doing alms, that’s giving things to people who are needy, that if you don’t have it to be seen of men, that there is a reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, he says, when you do your alms, don’t sound a trumpet before you like the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so they can have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. The whole reward is having your name up here on the foundation of this building, saying this is the soul and soul memorial building. That’s all you’re going to get. But when you do alms, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand does. Now, there’s another beautiful little figure of speech, isn’t it? Because you can’t take that literally. There’s no way that one hand’s not going to know anything about the other hand in the first place, or assuming they can know anything, to think that they wouldn’t know what the other hand is doing. I mean, it’s ridiculous. But I understand what he means by it, and so do you. It’s don’t let even the closest ones to you know what you’ve done. that your alms may be in secret, and your father which sees in secret shall himself reward you openly. Now, when you give something to someone who needs it, you do that person quite a bit of good. But the good you do them will pass, and unfortunately a lot of times it’s forgotten, and the person winds up back in the same hole he was in before. But the other truth is that giving something to someone else does you a whole lot of good. It encourages and it builds the inward man. And as you continue that as a pattern of your life, it makes a very strong character indeed. The whole idea of alms is one of giving something of yourself to someone who has need. It makes the inner man better. But if you do it to get something for yourself, you corrupt the whole process. The inward man is made worse instead of better.

SPEAKER 02 : 19:43

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SPEAKER 03 : 20:13

And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. Surely nothing could be more corrupting than to bring one’s vanity, one’s ego, one’s self and self-aggrandizement into the very process of building a relationship with God, which is what prayer is all about. Jesus said, but you, when you pray, enter into your closet, get a private place, and when you shut your door, talk to your Father in secret. And your Father, which sees in secret, shall reward you outside of the closet. But when you pray, don’t use vain repetitions like the heathen do. Don’t just run around and around in circles. Don’t set up prayer wheels. Don’t program your computer to do your praying for you. Don’t be like that. Now, you have to realize that just simply repeating, repeating, repeating is not going to get you anywhere. He says, because your Father already knows what things you have need of before you ask Him. Now, I don’t know if you’ve thought about this. I surely have. Why do we need to pray at all if God already knows everything we need? Well, the obvious answer is that prayer is not necessarily altogether about the things that you need. It’s about building a relationship with God, about coming to know Him and to communicate with God. And to some extent, the answer to this question about why we need to pray at all is answered in the model prayer that follows. We call it the Lord’s Prayer, and there’s a good chance that most of you sitting there listening to this program could repeat that prayer with me if I were to lead you in it. But I want to look at it one part at a time and talk to you about it from the point of view of the building of the relationship with God. Jesus said, After this manner, therefore, pray you, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. The very first thing to know about this is it’s addressed to a father, which suggests it’s a relationship. And it suggests the kind of relationship that you’re going to have and that you’re going to build with him. It then goes on to say, Hallowed be your name. Now, I fear for the most part the beginning of most of our prayer runs along these lines. Well, Father, forgive me. I’ve done some really bad things. I’m in a lot of trouble. Get me out of here. The first thing, generally speaking, on the agenda in prayer is myself, what I need, what I want. Oh, Father, forgive me. I know what a rotten guy I am. I’m being very humble. I’m humbling myself before God. I’m bowing before Him. But the only thing I’m talking about is myself. Yet in the Lord’s Prayer, the first thing on the agenda is the honoring of God’s name. Hallowed be your name. Hallowed means holy or set apart. May your name be set apart from common use. May we honor your name. Would that all men would honor that name. This is a place to recognize the greatness of God, His great works, the great things that He is doing right now in the world at large. Then you went on in the prayer to pray, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. What we’re asking for when we ask this is that the rule of God would come to earth. And there are two ways that happens. It comes right now in my own life. May Your reign, Your rule come to me now. And may it come in time, hopefully soon, for the whole world. God is sovereign. God is over all. God has a will. He has a plan. And I want to be submissive to that will and cooperating with that plan. And so if I open my prayer by saying, “‘Honored be your name, and may your kingdom and your rule come, and may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,’ I’m going in sync with what God is doing. And I want to know, Lord, what are you doing today?’ What are you going to accomplish today? Is there any way I can get in on what you’re going to be doing? In a way, you know, this is like asking God, well, Lord, how has your day gone? What do you plan to do tomorrow? Can I go along and help? All the way up to this point in your prayer, your attention is on the other. on God. And you know, if you think about this for a little while, what kind of relationship do you build with other people when the only thing you want to talk about when you get with them is yourself, your problems, your kids, your job, your loneliness, your hurts, your sickness? I know some people like that, and I will have to tell you, conversation with them is a little bit boring. You get tired after a while, and you just yearn for the moment when someone would look at you and say, well, how has your day gone? Tell me what you’re going to do. Let me listen to you for a while. And in a sense, that’s what Jesus tells us we should do in prayer with God. Lord, what are you going to do today? Can I go along? Then Jesus says, the next thing in prayer is, give us this day our daily bread. Now, there was a time when I took this very much for granted. I prayed, thank you, Lord, for the bread I’ve already got. I felt funny saying, Lord, give us this day our daily bread when I had a cupboard full of food. I had more food than I ought to eat. There was food on the table that I ought to leave and do something else with. I’ve got all I need. Why shouldn’t I say, give me this day my daily bread? I didn’t need to ask. But then I woke up and realized that what I had in the cupboard was not really mine. In fact, the cupboard wasn’t really mine. The roof over my head was not really mine. Oh, my name’s on the mortgage, and my name is on the deed and the title, but it’s not really mine. Everything belongs to God, and he allows us the use of it for a little while. So now I go back and I pray, Lord, give us this day our daily bread. Give me my daily needs out of your cupboard, out of your store. and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. It occurred to me when I got to this point here, which other Gospels say, forgive us of our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. It occurred to me that every bit of this prayer is in the first person plural. I’m not asking God to forgive me. I’m asking God to forgive us. I suppose… There is a kind of communion among all of us who know him. And when I ask him to forgive us, it would really be kind of foolish for me not to forgive others. How can I pray, for example, that God would forgive you and then hold a grudge against you at the same time? Think about that until next time. This is Ronald Dart reminding you.

SPEAKER 02 : 27:26

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SPEAKER 01 : 27:57

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