Keeping Your Word

“When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow.” (Ecclesiastes 5:4)

As Christians, we must be people of truth and never lie. When we make a vow, we are to keep it. When we promise an individual something, we are to be found trustworthy. We are to carefully weigh the words of our oaths so that we are not found to be full of empty promises.

To tell the truth is God-like. Every oath we make is mimicking the truth-telling of God. And when we promise anything to man, we are making a promise to God.

This was true in biblical history as well. If you swore by God, your oath was binding and if you swore by anything or anyone else, your oath could be broken or shouldn’t be taken as seriously. The closer to God that you were basing your oath upon, the more serious that oath was to be taken.

God knows every promise you have made. Hebrews 4:13 reminds us, “And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposedto the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” God sees every promise we make.

• God hears the wedding vows.

• God hears the promises we make to our children.

• God sees the oaths we make to our employer about time worked on a given project.

• God knows every cent that should be taxed on our tax forms.

Don’t make a promise unless you intend to keep it. The reality is we allow the Evil One to convince us of all kinds of lies about being truthful. For example …

• We think if put our hand behind our back and keep our fingers crossed that our promises are hidden.

• We try to convince ourselves that “stretching the truth: or a “half-truth” isn’t really a sin.

• We use the description “white lie” or “little lie” when we think our dishonest isn’t going to hurt anyone.

• When we break a promise, we try to invoke phrases like “I forgot” or “I was busy and got distracted.”

Should we ever make oaths? Yes!

• Abraham made a promise to Melchizedek to give him a tenth of his wealth (Gen 14:22-24).

• Abraham had his servant promise in the name of the Lord that he would not find wife a wife for his son Isaac among the Canaanites (Gen 24:2-3).

• Isaac made an oath (Gen 26:31).

• Joseph promised his father not to bury him in Egypt (Gen 47:31; 50:5).

• Hannah made a vow to God to give her son Samuel to God’s service (I Sam 1).

• David and Jonathan made an oath towards one another to be loyal as friends (I Sam 20:16).

• Caiaphas demanded Jesus identify Himself under oath and Jesus did (Matt 26:63-64).

• God made an oath to Abraham to give him many offspring (Gen 22:16-17).

Making oaths is not the problem. Keeping oaths is the issue. If there is any hesitation, don’t promise.

If someone says, “Can you make it to our house by 8:00pm?”, and you say, “Yes.” Then come at 8:00pm. If you are late, apologize for breaking a vow.

If you tell someone who is hurting, “I will pray for you,” and know you may forget, don’t tell them you will petition God on their behalf. And if you don’t pray for them as you profess, seek their forgiveness for lying.

Making promises are only reliable as the one who makes them. Be a promise-keeper, not an oath-breaker. In an age where we are accustomed to fake news, broken wedding vows, and falsified taxes, we must swim upstream in culture and be promise-keeping Christians. Don’t underestimate the Gospel-power of a professing Christian that keeps his word. Lies destroy; truth builds up.