Whoo whoo whooo whooo
What am I doing?
I’m trying to blow out the fire, this pile of rubble is huge!
But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.
James 5:12
These verses are fairly self explanatory, in that it basically says to let your yes be a yes and your no a no. Don’t swear by heaven or earth nor by any other kind of oath. It goes on to say something I think rather extraordinary. It says lest you fall into what? Fall into condemnation…
I had another way I was going to write this blog and when I began to write The Lord spoke to my heart. One of the greatest things or rather emotions we face as believers is condemnation.
We are up and feeling good about life. God is on the throne. My family is healthy. My bank account is in the good then “BOOOOOOOM” Out of left field comes a speeding locomotive.
You ever stop to consider why that is?
Most of us would say; “Well that’s just that rapscallion devil messing with me” or that’s just that ornery devil trying to knock me out”
My favorite we all do is; with anointing oil in hand, worship blaring on the radio, we dance around screaming at demons “In the name of Jesus… I cOMmAND YOu to GOOOOO, NOW” (I meant the lettering to be different as means to show inflection of our words) I mean we pray and scream and pray and scream, binding this, rebuking that. All the while the gentle voice of the Holy Ghost is trying desperately to be heard.
Now I know that analogy is funny, but some of you know exactly what I’m talking about.
What does it mean to swear? Anybody know?
I did a little research in the Strong’s and this is what it means condensed version wise: take an oath. I’m not certain but one of the words in Greek is (prolonge), and could be where the English word prolong came from.
So basically it is saying don’t take on a prolonged oath. Which leads to the question what does oath mean?
I researched it as well, Strong’s condensed: fence, a limit i.e sacred restraint
So up to this point we have these instructions:
Don’t swear (take an oath) not by heaven or earth or by an other oath (fenced or sacred restraint). you could say don’t take a oath that would fence you in. Then he commands us to have a yes that means yes and a no that means no.
Now this is the part that got too me and the entire reason I changed the writing of the blog.
What happens if you do these things?
You fall into condemnation.
Are you with me so far?
So what does condemnation mean exactly? Glad you asked…
Condemnation according to the Strong’s Concordance means; (the long version) acting under a feigned part; figuratively: deceit.
The short version to this is; hypocrisy?
What? Wait a minute that’s not what he meant at all.
Well to be sure it shocked me as well, so I’m going to give you the number for the Strong’s and you can look it up. It is G5272. The literal Greek Word is: (hupokrisis (hoop-ok’-ree-sis) Pretty sure that is where our English word hypocrisy came from.
Recently my dad preached a sermon on Prayer verses praise when you speak. He talked about giving an account for every idle word. He also brought out that every word that results in a crown we can lay at Jesus feet, began and ended with prayer or praise.
Every word that is spoken that doesn’t fall into either category unfortunately goes into the wood, hay & stubble bin.
Mine, I’m sure is huge.
I can see God now shaking His head and sending the Angel for a 20 ton crane to add to my pile the additional crates of the stuff. However, as good as the points are, and they are good. We need an examination of our lives to see what things we have either accumulated or are storing up for rainy days. You know the ones I’m talking about?
If you put the writer James’ meaning into a English sentence it might would read like this.
Don’t tell God, who lives in Heaven you are going to do something nor should you tell your fellow man on earth you will do something, fencing yourself in by a solemn vow. Say yes or No to God or man because if you can’t keep your promise you will become the hypocrite before all. You will come across as a deceiver who makes short term promises with little regard to long term effects.
Clarified: Examples of our prayers
Father, if you will just heal me I promise I will serve you every day for the rest of my life!
Father, if you will open the door for that new home, that new job, that new car, I will serve you the rest of my life!
Father, if you will just send me a spouse that I can serve you with, I promise we will serve you together the rest of our lives.
Father, If you will help me with that promotion, those new bills I made, I will serve you and pay my tithes for the rest of my life!
Father, if you would be so kind to move my neighbor, Lord you know he/she drives me crazy. I know they do you as well, so for all of our sakes please move them. I promise I will never complain again the rest of my life!
I could go on & on & on & on. Many of us have prayed these prayers or similar and God was gracious to answer them.
Where are you now?
You’re healed, how often do you talk about it anymore? You got the house, the pool and the party goers? Do you still serve God as tenaciously as before? He paid off your debt, Do you tithe every payday or even once a month?
Maybe the point James was making is this; The best thing to do is “Do Not Swear or Make Oaths” period. What happens is that while you are gung ho for awhile, you soon are distracted, soon other things begin to crowd your mind.
Before you even know what hits you ” BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM” that locomotive called “Hypocrisy hits you in the gut.
When you get hypocritical you become arrogant, when you become arrogant you find your self further and further away from any form of sincere worship of God.
Suddenly God needs you or you’re talents. It’s all about me, me, me!
As for the wood, hay, stubble thing, down here we would call that a bonfire and somebody pass the hot dog buns please. Up there when we see others with crowns of gold, allayed with silver and precious stones in blues, reds & greens. We are going to be so shamed that our treasure for the most part is like dry kindling on a hot Texas night. That all that lost opportunity to give praise or say a genuine prayer, will grip our heart for a moment with extreme sorrow.
So my challenge to you isn’t so much in the treasure storing part, but rather in letting your “Yes” truly mean “Yes!” Your “No” and absolute “No!”
Like a formula in the Masters brilliant hand; all those absolute Yes’ or No’s sprinkled with the prayer of humble saints showered with Praise for a Mighty God, always result in a crown of righteousness in an abundance of everlasting joy!
Don’t get full of pride and hypocrisy, stay small and let God be huge!
When nothing makes sense either pray about it or give Him praise for it!
That is really the only thing to do that will result in peace in your life!
Have a blessed day!
I’m hid with Christ!
Shawn
Searching Gods Heart 