“Your Hand is Always on the Bible”
(James 5:12)
Series: Living the Faith (James)
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson
• I invite you to take your Bibles and join me in James, chapter 5 this morning (page 814; YouVersion).
In a moment we’ll be studying verse 12 of chapter 5, this verse where James says we are not to swear by heaven or earth or with any other oath. He says, “Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No,’ lest you fall into judgment (James 5:12).” It is a verse that almost seems out of place.
But if there’s one thing we’ve learned about James it is that he has much to say about the use and misuse of our tongues. And while chapter 3 stands out as the main chapter where James treats the misuse of the tongue, his teaching really begins as early as the first chapter where he cautions against one’s “saying” he is tempted by God (James 1:13) and then in chapter 2 where he warns against our “saying” to the poor and shabbily dressed worshiper, “You stand over there” (James 2:3). He also rebukes us for ever “saying” a Christian can have faith without works (James 2:12).
James writes in chapter 1 in verse 26, “If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless (James 1:26).”
And then there is that extensive and exhaustive treatment of the tongue in chapter 3, verses 1 through 12. James warns of our tongues being like a fire, a world of iniquity (James 3:6) and, “an unruly evil, full of deadly poison (James 3:8).”
James warns in chapter 4 and verse 11, “Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother…speaks evil of the law and judges the law (James 4:11).”
In our passage this morning in chapter 5, James returns to addressing the misuse of our tongues, our words, our speech.
Remember from last time as we looked at chapter 5 from verse 7 and following that James has been writing about the Lord’s return, His second coming, how we are to live in such a way as to anticipate His coming, to yearn for His coming, to be ready for His coming. Did you live that way last week? Did you begin each day with a true, heartfelt cry, “Come, Lord Jesus?” Even today. Come. We live for you.
James challenges us to cultivate patient endurance in the midst of injustices, trusting in the Lord’s perfect timing, living a life of loyalty to Christ.
Perhaps James has in mind Peter’s behavior on the night Jesus would be betrayed. And Peter was rather “oath-like” in his verbal stand for Christ. Remember he was like, “Lord, come what may. Everyone else may flee, but I will stand with you.” And then later, he fled in denial. And even then he was popping off at the mouth with another oath. When asked if he was with Jesus of Nazareth he said, “I swear I do not know the Man!”
Maybe that was on James’ mind as he wrote these words in verse 12 about our not making oaths. The truth is, when we are under the pressure of temptations, difficulties, and injustices, we may well be tempted to say things we shouldn’t say, tempted to outright lie or otherwise compromise our convictions.
James may even have in mind the popular oaths taken in Old Testament times and even taken today: “Lord, if You’ll get me out of this, I will do this or that.”
James has certainly demonstrated time and again that, just as Jesus taught, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:33).” James is always echoing the words of his big brother, Jesus. James teaches in chapter 3, verse 14, ‘If you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, [you will] boast and lie against the truth (James 3:14).” What is in the heart comes out of the mouth.
This is precisely what Jesus taught in Matthew 12:33-37:
33…For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
35 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.
36 But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.
37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
• Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
12 But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment.
• Pray.
Well, it was virtually impossible for me to study this verse last week without thinking of one of the most famous episodes of the 3 Stooges. I know this is not the most scholarly and intellectually stimulating way to open a sermon, but there is a famous episode of the 3 Stooges released in 1934 entitled, “Disorder in the Court.”
There is a classic scene where Curly is being sworn-in to testify as a key witness to a murder trial. There is this extensive back-and-forth between the bailiff and Curly as the bailiff tells him to take off his hat and place his hand on the Bible and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And with Curly’s difficulty in simultaneously trying to take off his hat, hold his cane, and place his right hand on the Bible, the scene just goes on and on and really is quite funny.
So, the question is whether that is what James forbids here. Is James forbidding the taking of an oath such as one does in a court of law? There are some who think so. They look at this verse and statements made by our Lord Jesus as strictly forbidding the taking of a solemn oath, especially the idea of placing one’s hand upon the Bible and swearing to tell the truth.
And on the face of it, on strictly a superficial level, it would seem that this verse would teach as much, but, given the wider sweep and wider scope of the Scriptures, I don’t think the Bible forbids wholesale the taking of oaths as in a court of law.
So let’s consider what the Bible does not forbid before we take a closer look at verse 12 to ask what it does teach and how we are to live out verse 12.
Let’s begin by remembering that oaths used in Jesus’ day were used much as many use them today—not so much to bind one to a commitment as to get around one, to fudge the truth, to find the loophole, or an “escape hatch” to free one from what he or she had actually promised.
So, for example in Matthew 23:16-22, Jesus says:
16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’
17 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?
So imagine someone says, “Look I know I promised. I know I gave you my word, but you need to remember I swore only by the temple, not by the gold of the temple! So I am not obliged to keep my promise.”
18 And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’
19 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?
20 Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it.
21 He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it.
22 And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.
So Jesus is addressing the misuse of the tongue, making an oath in such a way as to get out of our word.
It’s not unlike what many of us learned years ago as children. It takes me back to my childhood memories of the playground at Walnut Heights Elementary School in Walnut Creek California. You made a promise to someone about something, but it’s okay, you don’t have to keep your promise, or you don’t really have to tell the truth if, and only if, you have your fingers crossed! And you could hide them behind your back, you see. So you could say one thing, but it was undone by the loophole, the escape hatch. It was used as a defense: I had my fingers crossed.
What a silly thing these oaths we used! “Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye,”—what does that even mean?!
So this kind of the thing, lying, fudging the truth, is absolutely forbidden by the Scriptures.
Of course, we ourselves are not the problem, are we? We have never once told a so-called “white lie” or a “half-truth.” I’m afraid the Prophet Isaiah speaks truthfully for every one of us when he says in Isaiah 6:5, “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.”
More than once have I referenced a book we have in our church library: Jerry Bridges’ Respectable Sins. I tried to locate the book recently in our library and actually I discovered one of you had checked it out. So that was a good thing! I found my copy later at home.
Respectable sins. The subtitle is: Confronting the sins we tolerate. Like James, Jerry Bridges challenges Christians concerning their worldliness. As Bridges says in the preface, “This book…is about sin—not the obvious sins of our culture but the subtle sins of believers,” sins such as those listed in Chapter 19, entitled “Sins of the Tongue.”
Chapter 19 addresses gossip, slander, criticisms, lying and other sins of the tongue. Bridges recommends Ephesians 4:29 as a helpful verse to bring correction to sins of the tongue. It is a good verse:
Ephesians 4:29, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.”
As we look at Ephesians 4:29, we see that we are not to let any corrupting talk come out of our mouths. Corrupting talk is not limited to profanity or obscene speech. It includes all the various types of negative speech…Note Paul’s absolute prohibition. No corrupting talk. None whatsoever. This means no gossip, no sarcasm, no critical speech, no harsh words. All of these sinful words that tend to tear down another person must be put out of our speech. Think about what the church of Jesus Christ would look like if we all sought to apply [Ephesians 4:29] (page 160).
Now Jesus also addresses the danger of our speaking in such a way as we might seek to enforce our words by oaths. In the Sermon on the Mount, he says in Matthew 5:33-37:
33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’
34 But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne;
35 nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
36 Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black.
37 But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.
It seems that it is this teaching of our Lord’s that is foremost upon James’ mind as he pens verse 12:
12 But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment.
The idea is, “Don’t seek to strengthen or enforce your words by an oath.” So again, the Bible does not seem to forbid wholesale the taking of oaths.
Jesus Himself took an oath in Matthew 26, for example. Jesus, during His trial the high priest looked at Jesus and said, “I charge You under oath by the Living God, are You the son of God?” And Jesus replies, under oath, “Yes, I am; it is as you say (Matthew 26:63-64).”
Paul took an oath in 2 Corinthians 1:23, Galatians 1:20, Philippians 1:8. Paul took an oath.
God the Father took an oath when making His covenant with Abraham. The writer of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 6:13, “When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself.”
So when we compare Scripture with Scripture it is really hard to conclude that the Bible strictly forbids the taking of an oath, such as in a court of law.
In the words of William Barclay: “The New Testament [does] not entirely condemn oaths but [deplores] the human tendency to falsehood which on occasion makes oaths necessary.”
I agree. It is precisely for this reason, because we are fallen human beings, it is for this reason, because we are sinners, liars at heart, that oaths are required in a court of law. Given fallen man’s propensity to try to find a loophole, a solemn ceremony where one is bound to tell the truth is of utmost if not necessary importance to the survival of modern civilization.
Think about it: Why is there a need for the placing of one’s hand on the Bible, anyway? In other words, if one has to place his or hand on the Bible in order to guarantee that he or she is now going to be telling the truth, what does the very requiring of such a custom say about the way a person naturally goes about speaking and behaving when he or she is not placing a hand upon the Bible?
But we say, “Oh, I mean it now. I’m placing my hand upon the Bible! No, I’m placing my hand upon a stack of Bibles!” I swear on a stack of Bibles. A stack!
And we hear in our own words the Pharisee speaking: “I swear not merely by the temple, but by the gold of the temple—oh, I mean it! I swear by heaven; I swear by earth!”
Don’t seek to strengthen or enforce your words by an oath:
12 But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment.
Do you see what James is implying? As we move to more pointed application of the text now—and we have been making application throughout the exposition—but let me give you two explicit takeaways from this verse. First:
1) There are No Levels of Truthfulness
For the Christian there are no levels of truthfulness. It’s not like, “Well this is one level of truth here, and then there is this little bit of gray area and this truth has just a little shade to it.”
James is saying, “You don’t place your hand on the Bible only when you really mean it. If you’re a Christian, your hand is always on the Bible.”
“You’re a Christian; you are always truthful. Placing your hand on the Bible doesn’t suddenly make you a truth-teller. Placing your hand on the Bible, for the Christian, is really of no consequence because the true Christian always tells the truth.
There are no levels of truthfulness; your hand is always on the Bible. God, is the Judge. You are always under oath. You are always “Sworn in.” God is the Judge who is everywhere present. Remember back up in verse 9 from last week, last part of James 4:9, “Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!”
So Christians are always to tell the truth. There are no gray areas for the Christian. Be a man of your word; be a woman of your word.
There are no levels of truthfulness to your employer, to your clients, to your co-worker. Let your “Yes” be “Yes” and your “No,” “No.” Be a person of your word. Tell the truth every time. Don’t fudge. Don’t look for the loophole.
James implies, “You are a Christian. Don’t lie like a non-Christian. Don’t be like an unbeliever who has to enforce his words with some oath. Your hand is always on the Bible. You always live this way.
There are no levels of truthfulness in your work, in your family, in your church.
Be a person of your word; your hand is always on the Bible.
So there is a wider application, then, that surfaces from this matter of truthfulness. If there are no levels of truthfulness then, we may say also that:
2) There are No Levels of Integrity
Again, our hand is always on the Bible. We will not compromise in any way.
Christians will not fudge the truth, or compromise our morality, or cheapen our integrity. We endeavor to walk not in worldliness, but in holiness.
So there are no levels of integrity in your marriage. You said to your spouse, “I do. I will.” There was no qualification to that commitment. You said, “Yes” so let your “Yes” be “Yes.”
You said, “For richer or for poorer, for sickness and in health, for the good times, and the bad times, too.”
No compromise.
The people within our sphere of influence should regard us as those who always tell the truth and always endeavor to live a life pleasing before God and others. We are to be a people “set apart” from the average person.
We are they who do not lie. We are they who always tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Need a motivation? Think about God.
God does not have levels of truthfulness. His “Yes” can be taken to the bank. Imagine God’s changing His “Yes” to “No.” So God is like, “Come to Me and I will in no way cast you aside. Let anyone who is thirsty, come and drink. I forgive you of all sin.” So one day God says to you, “Look, I didn’t really mean you. I didn’t really mean all of what I said,” or, “I wasn’t talking about forgiving that sin!”
Here is the supreme motivator for our own faithfulness: God’s faithfulness to us. God’s faithfulness to us motivates our faithfulness to Him and our faithfulness to others.
12 But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment.
• Let’s stand for prayer.
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