“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil. (emphasis mine)

Matthew 5:33-37

In the verses above Jesus challenged His listeners to a new level of authenticity.

Recently Patrina and I watched a television show hosted by Mike Rowe called “Somebody’s Got to Do It.” On this episode he was interacting with a group of Mennonites who raised chickens. His production company provided a release form so they could appear on the show. It was a long and heavily “lawyered’ form, like any contract we might be required to sign off on before making a purchase.

The Mennonites refused. Instead, they wrote a couple of sentences on a piece of paper and signed their names. Authenticity is simple, isn’t it?

Why is it that we struggle with integrity and the truth? I think that is the essence of Jesus’ statement above. People should be able to trust what we say. I should be a man of my word. If I say yes, I mean yes. And “no” means no. No embellishment. No half-truths and no reason to doubt.