LIVING IN HIS PRESENCE: Don't Swear


Anchor Scripture: Psalms 24:3  
"Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?"

Focus Scripture:  "But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil." - Matthew 5:37

Admonition 
Most of the time, many professing Christians find it difficult to differentiate between the things of God and those of the devil. I understand that there are factors responsible for this, and the major three of them are, traditions and customs, wrong teachings and the absence of the Holy Spirit. But chief amongst these is the absence of the Holy Spirit because He is the one that was to teach us all things (John 14: 26) 

To some Christians, even Pastors on the pulpit, there is nothing wrong in swearing, even using the name of God, which the Bible says is HOLY. Such people hardly could talk without saying "God" in order to convince their listeners that whatever they are saying is the truth, even though most of the times, they lie. Yet, they just throw up the Holy name of God flippantly. At some other times, it's even the listener that would demand that the talker swear so that they would believe whatever they say. 

One of the chapters of the Bible that I love to read most is Matthew chapter 5 because therein, Jesus Christ sets some records straight, correcting the wrong teachings  of the past. And since the Bible says that He is the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12: 2), I have no reason to doubt whatever He says concerning any matter for the Bible says all things were made by Him and for Him (John 1: 1 - 3) and in Him, all things stand together as one (Colssians 1: 16).

One of the wrong teachings of the past aptly corrected by Jesus Christ was the belief that it was okay to swear as long as you're saying the truth. Even verse 4 of Psalm 24 says to live in God's Presence, don't swear deceitfully. What is deceitful swearing? That is swearing when one knows they aren't saying the truth. However, our Lord and Saviour says we MUST NOT SWEAR AT ALL BUT LET OUR "YES" BE "YES" AND OUR "NO" BE "NO". It will then be left for the listener to choose what they like, whether to believe or not because anything outside "YES" and "NO", we can not say we are speaking in Christ anymore, but in Satan himself as rightly pointed out by our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, in our Focus Scripture this morning. 

This places a serious burden on believers because living in Him requires that we possess His very nature (Amos 3: 3) and become like Him (Mat. 5: 48). In actual fact, that was the main reason Jesus Christ had to come and die for us. We will notice that all the Holy Spirit had been teaching us have only one theme: becoming like Him. The reason for this is that without becoming like Him, we will not be able to live in His Presence; not now, not later as propounded by Revelation 21: 1 - 5.

So, as we round off this morning, let us always remember that swearing is forbidden for us as children of God. Swearing is of the world. We are not of the world. We are heaven's citizens and we need not follow the way of the world. Swearing by whatever, even His Holy Name, will drive us away from His Presence. And in living away from His Presence, we will not FINISH STRONG. 

Till Monday when we shall meet again on this beautiful journey of FINISHING STRONG together, please, keep keeping on in Him. 

N. B. Please, pray that the Lord forgives you your past swearing and grant you the grace to live henceforth as He wants. 

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