Word of Salvation – March 2025
It’s Okay To Swear
Sermon by Rev. John Westendorp on W.C.F. ch.22 & Isaiah 65:16
Reading: Isaiah 65:8-16; Matthew 5:33-37; Westminster Confession – ch.22
Singing: BoW.500 The Kingdom of God is justice and joy
– BoW.186 And can it be that I should gain
– BoW.392 I will sing of my Redeemer
– BoW.515 Sing we the King [1,3]
Theme: The validity of a meaningful oaths in God’s name
Introd: Today we’re going to consider the subject of swearing.
And we’re doing that under heading: It’s okay to swear…!
Because by swearing I don’t mean: curse words… or bad language… or blasphemy.
We’re not talking about expletives… we’re talking about the swearing of an oath.
That’s a subject the W.C.F. thought important enough to devote a whole chapter to.
So we have a one page study of Lawful Oaths and Vows.
Maybe that doesn’t strike you as a really important subject.
You might think that we could easily skip over this chapter.
Well, let me give you some reasons why it’s important.
Firstly, because the swearing of oaths is a subject that the Bible often addresses.
More than sixty times the swearing of oaths is mentioned in Scripture.
And vows are mentioned even more often than that.
Secondly, it’s important because at times we meet Christians who think it’s wrong to swear.
They refuse point-blank (on Biblical grounds) to take an oath under any circumstance.
And at first glance their so-called Biblical arguments sound somewhat convincing.
Thirdly, because sometimes we are in situations where we are asked to take an oath.
In a court of law… or at a citizenship ceremony… or when joining the armed forces.
And all of us have made vows… and we will continue to make vows.
A] THE MEANING OF THE OATH.
- First we need to be clear what an oath is. How do we define the swearing of an oath?
The WCF points out, first of all, that oaths are a part of religious worship.
We’re not inclined to think of oath-taking as an act of public religious worship. But it is.
Think about it.
On some appropriate solemn occasion a man calls on God as his witness.
In a court of law a woman takes the stand and swears with her hand on the Bible.
In those instances we are calling on the God who knows all things and sees all things.
He knows the deepest thought of our minds the motive behind our every action.
And we are calling Him to evaluate the truthfulness of those thoughts and actions.
We are invoking the name of the Almighty Creator… the Sovereign of the universe.
Recognising that He judges with perfect judgment and without prejudice.
And we call Him to be the witness to our words and to punish us if we are false.
We are doing all of that publicly… before the watching world.
We are publicly appealing to God for His help: So help me God…!
That is nothing less than an act of religious worship.
An oath is calling on the name of our God.
And when we do that with integrity then that brings honour to the name our God.
When our Reformed Confessions approve of oaths that has an historical context.
Because in those day there were Christians – the Anabaptists – who opposed oaths.
They read those words in Mat.5 and said: There you have it. Jesus said: Don’t swear at all…!
- However, in our text in Isaiah 65 God speaks favourably about taking oaths.
The context there is the time of great blessing after the exile in Babylon.
Vs.9 speaks of God bringing back a remnant into the Promised Land.
There will be others who will continue to rebel and God will judge them.
But God’s believing people… that saved remnant… will eat and drink and rejoice (vs.13).
And in that context of their return to the land, the prophet then speaks these words:
Whoever invokes a blessing in the land will do so by the God of truth.
He who takes an oath in the land will swear by the God of truth.
For the past troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my eyes.
It’s a picture not only of the nation being restored to the land.
It is a picture of the true worship of Yahweh again being restored.
Because previously people invoked blessings by their idol gods.
Or they swore oaths in the name of Baal… or the god Moloch.
But now oaths will again be made only in the name of the God of truth.
Or more literally: In the name of the God of “Amen”.
As Israel is restored their oaths will be in the name of the God who is faithful and reliable.
Swearing by “the Amen”… the true God… as an act of public worship to Him.
The problem is that Israel – and we today – live in a world where the lie so often wins the day.
Where we’re not sure whether people’s words are trustworthy or not.
And so the purpose for an oath is to call God Almighty to be our witness.
In a broken and sinful world God provides the oath in order to safeguard the truth.
- Your response might be to say: So what?
I don’t intend to join the army. I’m already an Aussie citizen. And I won’t stand for Parliament.
And I hope that by the grace of God I’ll never have to testify in a court of law.
So I don’t foresee any need for oaths for me? Well, let me make three points.
FIRST: we said that the oath taking was part of religious worship.
We as Christians want to honour and worship the Lord in the whole of our life… always.
And so oaths and vows do remind us that we speak all our words in His presence.
SECONDLY: in vows we are calling on Him to be our Witness.
But He knows the truthfulness or otherwise of every word that we have ever spoken.
And we always live before Him who can see right thru our deepest motives.
THIRDLY: an oath is calling Him to judge us on the basis of our truthfulness.
But isn’t it true that we will all stand one day before His judgment seat?
All of my life is going to be evaluated on the day when Jesus judges our integrity.
IOW there is a sense in which we as Christians are always under oath.
That’s why in the church we don’t speak of oaths… we speak instead of vows.
Vows that we make in the context of public corporate worship in the presence of God.
And we make those vows on the day we are married… and at every baptism.
They are part and parcel of the installation of office-bearers and profession of faith.
In those instances the church never puts us under oath… just a simple “I do” is enough.
But what we said about oaths still applies…
because we make those vows, those promises, before Him who judges our hearts.
So the promises we make at Public Profession of Faith, at a Baptism, at a Wedding…
are as solemn and binding as any oath taken in a court of law.
B] THE ABUSE OF THE OATH.
- I mentioned earlier that the oath is a God-given way of guarding the truth in a fallen world.
The oath is an admission that this world lies in the grip of the enemy who is the father of lies.
But in our fallen world the oath is often abused too.
That’s why we have laws about perjury – lying under oath – that is a criminal offence.
But the oath is abused not only by perjury. Oaths are abused in many ways.
One increasingly prominent abuse is a refusal to take the oath at all.
Increasingly there are ways in which people can make a promise instead… so people avoid the oath.
In that category I want to include first of all unbelievers and atheists.
Their refusal to take the oath is really a refusal to worship God and to acknowledge Him.
It’s a refusal to admit that they live their lives in the presence of God.
A second category of people who refuse to take the oath call themselves Christians.
The Quakers… the Jehovah’s Witnesses… and there are others. They refuse the oath.
They claim that we may never take the oath… that God’s Word forbids it.
That sounds convincing… but it is a misrepresentation of Scripture.
And it fails to honour God before the watching world.
That’s why the WCF says that:
“Lawful oaths required by legitimate authorities ought to be taken.”
In section three it goes further and says:
“It is a sin to refuse to swear an oath about anything good and just,
when it is required by lawful authority.” That is strong language.
So it should be a pleasure for us as Christians to take our stand on the name of our God
when we are called to do that or when circumstances make it necessary for us to do so.
- In our text in Isaiah 65 we certainly see that vows are legitimate.
But if you turn back to Isaiah 45 you’ll notice that Isaiah shows the validity of oaths in other ways too.
It’s one of several places where Isaiah portrays the Lord God Himself taking an oath.
God is an oath taking God.
Isaiah 45:23 we read these words from the Lord:
By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked;
Before me every knee will bow, by me every tongue will swear.
But Isaiah is also concerned about the abuse of vows.
That was a big issue in the time leading up to the exile
Turn please, to Isaiah 48.
There the Lord laments in vs.1 that Israel’s oaths were seriously flawed.
Listen to this, O house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel,
and come from the line of Judah, you who take oaths in the name of the Lord
and invoke the God of Israel – but – not in truth or righteousness.
Their oaths were not in truth and righteousness because they were empty words.
The verses that follow show that they were merely a way of paying lip-service to God.
They made their oaths while rebelling against the God they invoked.
They took God’s name on their lips but meanwhile served their home-made idols.
They thought it was okay to swear while their hearts were far from God.
So their empty oaths were not true worship of God. They abused their vows.
- Some abuses of oaths are also mentioned in the WCF.
Listen to some of the abuses it attempts to correct in section 2.
Because oaths are part of religious worship they should only ever be in the name of God.
A Muslim might swear by the beard of the prophet… Christians don’t do that.
Some people might swear by saints or angels… Christians are not to do that.
Because oaths are part of religious worship they should never be taken rashly or in vain.
We all know people who use oaths to give weight to their words. I swear it’s true…!
Christians are not to treat oaths lightly… just as they don’t treat worship lightly.
In section 4 we get some more cautions against the abuse of the oath.
We don’t use oaths to give weight to our words when we are uncertain.
We may not use an oath to bind us to what is sinful, only to what is good and just.
Nor may we bind ourselves to something we can never deliver on.
And then finally we must make sure that what is vowed is in accordance with God’s word.
Here it deals with some of the vows that were common at the time of the Reformation.
Vows of poverty and celibacy imposed on those entering monastic orders.
So from a Christian Reformed point of views it’s okay to swear… taking oaths is fine.
As long as the content of those oaths are in harmony with Biblical principles.
Under certain circumstances we may and must ask God to hold us accountable.
C] THE REST OF THE BIBLE AND THE OATH.
- What do we do then with those other verses in the Bible that some Christians are keen to quote?
What do we do with the words of Jesus in Matthew 5? “But I say to you, Do not swear at all…!”
What about that text in James 5:12 “Let your ‘Yes’, be yes and your ‘No’ no!”
How do those teachings fit in? Doesn’t the Bible forbid oaths after all?
We need to two things in mind.
FIRST: both Jesus and James were speaking again the background of the abuse of oaths.
It was a time when oaths were treated lightly.
They were made at the drop of a hat… just to give one’s words a bit more weight.
And then the Bible says, “No!”
Not only that.
The Pharisees had come up with some devious ways of making oaths with fingers crossed.
They would take an oath in such a way as to give themselves a loophole..
So an oath could sound really good… yet not be considered as binding.
Eg. Swear by the gold of the temple… and that’s binding (Mat.23:16).
But if you want maximum mileage out of your oath swear by the temple itself.
That doesn’t matter so much… but at least the oath still sounds good.
Jesus says: You are abusing the oaths… then it’s better not to swear at all.
Keep in mind too that Jesus often spoke in absolute terms to make a point.
Like calling us to hate our family if we want to follow Him.
So Jesus is saying to these legalistic Pharisees: you’d better not swear at all.
So we really have two lots of teaching in Scripture and we need to balance them.
Isaiah 65:16 needs to be put next to Matthew 5:34.
- I could also point you to many other Bible passages about oaths.
We have to do justice to all the Biblical data.
For example: in the O.T. God gives detailed instructions for the taking of proper oaths.
Numbers 30 regulates oaths in the case where husband and wife disagree.
Deuteronomy 6 tells the Israelites to take their oaths in the Lord’s name.
It would be absurd for the Lord to give those kinds of instructions about oaths…
if we were never meant to take oaths in the first place.
In the O.T. we find that oaths were made by Abraham, by Jacob and by Joseph.
Oaths that the Lord honoured.
And in the N.T. too we read of oaths taken by God’s people.
We have several instances of a solemn oath from the lips of Paul.
But the point I want to make is this:
It is not so that oaths are biblical… simply because in the Bible people swore oaths.
Rather God’s people in the Bible used oaths because they knew
that when it is properly done then it honours God and meets with His approval.
- In case we should need any further evidence let me close with two examples.
First: Jesus Himself was put under oath at His trial before the High Priest (Mat.26:63).
When He was interrogated Jesus at first did not answer.
There was only silence.
But then the High Priest laid a solemn oath on Jesus:
I charge you under oath by the living God..!
Did Jesus reply: “It’s wrong for you to speak like that! Oath taking is sinful!”?
No! He responded to that oath and as a result was sacrificed for our sins.
He didn’t accuse the High Priest of going against Scripture.
Instead He affirmed the oath and it led not only to His execution…
it led also to the wonder of our salvation.
The other example is one we find in Hebrews 6:17 where again, God Himself swears an oath.
And because there is no one greater by whom to swear He swears by Himself.
But why does God do that?
To make our salvation even more certain.
God confirmed His plan to save us thru Jesus His Son with an oath.
An oath to make us all the more sure of His promises to us…
so that in a world of lies we might be convinced of His saving love.
Let me stress it again:
The oath is a gift of God in a sinful world.
And it’s true that oaths too can be abused in a fallen world.
Many take oaths without realising that it is part of the religious worship that is due to God.
But Jesus our Saviour submitted to the oath and yielded up His life.
And God the Father Himself swore on oath to save us.
All of that was so that we today could celebrate our salvation as God’s children.
But it was also so that we might have confidence in God’s name.
And to take our oaths in the name of this God of our salvation.
We do that for His glory.
Whoever invokes a blessing in the land will do so by the God of truth.
He who takes an oath in the land will swear by the God of truth.
Amen.