All Vows

From Christ the Lord, we have this:

Again, you have heard that it was said to those in ancient times, 'Do not swear a false oath, but carry out your oaths to the Lord.' 34. But I say to you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God; 35. nor by the earth, for it is the footstool for his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36. Neither swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37. But let your speech be 'Yes, yes,' or 'No, no.' Anything more than this is from the evil one.
Matthew 5:33-37

Notice how total this is. The Lord does not give exceptions for marriage vows, nor courts of law, nor kings and queens, nor "civil servants" of modern kinds, and also, not pastors, bishops, and others.

I tend to class this as one of the 'toughest meat' elements of that which we have of the will of God, simply because in general people have found it so difficult to accept and to do. We even have it written that an Apostle was driven for a time by a vow he had sworn (Acts 18:18).

It's probably very important right now to see some differences that are often confused. For instance, when one uses any of the "words banned on TV" simply to describe something, that is not "swearing" in our context: that is simply using a very strong one-word descriptive parable, quite the same as the Lord did over and over again in this sentence:

You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of hell?
Matthew 23:33

In the face of that crowd, there was possibly no more offensive single word to describe them to their faces, than "serpents", because of Genesis.

What we are talking about, instead, is something today done in courtrooms, in other government functions, at a large number of weddings, and in a large number of church governments. People place their hand on a book, and they swear by that book, to behave in certain ways, to do certain things, to not do other things. And regardless of what God has said about the vow itself and the future things they may be bound to do by that vow, they call upon God to help them, forever.

Now it is also important to observe that there are people who do not swear vows for their weddings. They have a different concept, the concept of the sacred agreement. This is why there are no wedding vows anywhere in the Holy Scripture, but there are indeed agreements unbroken which are holy between man and wife.

And given that which Christ the Lord has said, it is certainly best for all to repent of vows, and when indicated, remember only the sacred agreement.

But do notice that there can be consequences.

Some courts of law do permit "I so affirm" instead of "I swear". With a friendly judge, you have still changed the pattern of the moment: be sure to inform your lawyer beforehand. With an unfriendly judge, your pattern change may have interesting, even very unpleasant, consequences. The consequences will be worth it to the Lord. But don't forget they may come. And then there are the courts of law which have no exception to swearing of vows.

It is also very important to note, how the oldest church-groups and some of the newer ones, have not been able to respect that which Christ the Lord has said on this subject. The levels of clergy in these churches are always defined according to the number and content of the vows offered to and taken by, each individual. In these groups, whenever you see an "arch-" or something, that always means more and more vows on top of whatever they did to get their "brother" or "reverend" or "father".

This is a clear example of how "older" is not "better". When the oldest church governments were forming, in the 4th century, all of the governments outside of the churches were basically tissues of vows, set up just the way the oldest church governments are today. This was also how the ancient Greeks and Romans held themselves, it is sin from which Christ the Lord came to free us. And this vow-tissue dominated, for more than a thousand years afterwards. This is what feudalism was: all people were defined according to their sworn vows.

For that thousand years, the vow-bound authorities of churches, did everything they could, to stamp out efforts towards the freedom in which Christ asked us to walk. They killed a lot of people for this purpose. But eventually, around the 16th century, they couldn't kill enough people, the printing press started to be used, and churches began to spring up in which there were fewer vows or no vows at all, and more and better freedom in Christ too.

Christ the Lord does not rule this world. But we can choose Him as King, and although it is often a struggle and painful, it is the only way to a completely worthwhile existence.

Jonathan Brickman
Please do email me!
jeb@christian-oneness.org