Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Yes or No. Just Do It. (James 5:12)

Today’s scripture: James 5:12

This is one of those verses of which I’m rather unclear, so I visited a couple of commentaries. The Adam Clarke Commentary offered some illumination. Apparently, the Jews were “
notoriously guilty of common swearing [which] is allowed on all hands; and that swearing by heaven, earth, Jerusalem, the temple, the altar, different parts of the body, was not considered by them as binding oaths ...”

So instead of swearing by something, just do what you say you’re going to do.

Don’t say “yes” and then turn around and do “no.”  To do so would be hypocritical (a couple of the commentaries I read said that “judgment” could be translated as “hypocrisy”).

It’s like the story Jesus told about the two sons:
“But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said to Him, “The first” (Matt. 21:28-31a). Do what you say you’re going to do.

Be true to your word.

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