Christ Is King Baptist Church

With the opening, -But above all brethren,- James introduces the closing section of his letter, listing various exhortations in a row. The first of which is sinful swearing and illegitimate oaths.--Because the Bible has several examples of permissible oaths, including several made by God Himself, we know that James is only forbidding sinful oaths. He commands us to avoid rash oaths that are made deceptively. In their place, we should have such integrity of speech that nobody would ever question our words, and we would have no need to swear to confirm the truth of our statements. This can only happen as the Spirit of Truth indwells us.--We must avoid the mindset that swearing by things other than God -e.g. heaven or earth- gets us off the hook. To swear by holy things is to still swear by God's name, and our deceit drags God's reputation through the mud. God is jealous for the glory of His name and will not leave unpunished those who use His name in vain.