Will.Simply.Follow
Matthew 5:37
Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
Convicting right? Anything short of this simple command comes from the evil one? Jesus really isn’t kidding around here. This portion of scripture comes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. He starts off his sermon by lowering the bar that the Pharisees had set super high all the way down to the ground. Now that he has all the religious expectations out of the way Jesus starts to paint this picture. He calls his followers the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Now that the bar is so low that everyone is in, and he has given them their new identity, he then starts to share this new way of living with them. His laws are radical and very convicting much like the one I shared with you at the top of this page.
Have you ever listened to little kids interact with one another? Have you ever heard them say things like “I swear I will be there next time…” ”I promise I won’t do that…” Essentially it implies that at one point in time there yes wasn’t a yes… and their no wasn’t a no… The reality is that its not just little kids that say these things. I think if we are honest we have all been guilty of having to over compensate with our words at one point in time. I think we have all used words like “I swear” or “I promise.” I think we all know what it feels like to be let down by someone else. To be stood up or forgotten about. To pressure that other person next time around to “really mean it” this time as they say something.
As you look at Genesis 1 you see right off that bat that God’s words simply create. That in heavenly realms speaking and doing go hand in hand. That saying something is no different than doing something. God doesn’t create light, he simply says “Let there be light!” and there was light. God speaks and actions follow. And Jesus is saying as you speak let your actions follow just like my Father’s in heaven. After all we were made in his image right?
Next time you reach for the words “I promise” be reminded that those words are completely foreign to the God that created us. It is my hope that your yes be yes and your no be no. It is my prayer that you grasp this concept that Jesus is so passionate about. And its my dream that as you speak your actions Will.Simply.Follow
-Billy
