James 5:8, 9, 12 (ESV)

You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.

But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

What does it mean to “establish your hearts?” It means “Do not grumble….do not swear.” I find it interesting that James instructs the believers not to grumble, “but above all” not to swear. When he says “do not swear,” he is not talking about cursing or cuss words. He is not talking about bad language. He is talking about taking oaths. In our culture that is not such an issue I suppose, although in place of taking an oath, we draw up contracts for everything. We want it in writing. In James day taking an oath was intended to indicate absolute truthfulness. In our day having something in writing is intended for the same purpose. In neither case did it actually work. There is always a loophole somewhere. Oaths and contracts tend to be the tools of dishonest people. James says, “Just tell the truth.” James is echoing Jesus words here.

Matthew 5:33 (ESV)

“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.’ [34] But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, [35] or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

The legalist in me wants to ask, “Does that mean that I can’t “swear to tell the truth” when I testify in court? But that misses the point. This isn’t about Jesus or James adding another rule to the 600+ rules already in place in the Old Testament. This is a challenge to be truthful people. Jesus goes on to say, “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil” (Mt 5:37 ESV). James echoes Jesus words, “let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation” (Jas 5:12 ESV). Neither Jesus nor James are trying to add to the burden of laws we need to keep. They are saying that we ought to quit looking for loopholes to get around keeping our word, and just be honest.

Earlier James chastised the wealthy for not paying their workers. He chastised the workers for grumbling. Now he says, “Don’t grumble, but above all, tell the truth.” Here is the interesting thing, when I read this passage the don’t grumble part stands out to me. It catches my attention. Yes, I need to stop grumbling every time something goes wrong. The oath part gets glossed over. I don’t make oaths in order to get people to believe me, so I miss the force of the passage. But the real question is: Do I keep my word? Do I keep my word to people? Do I keep my word to God? Am I a man of my word, or am I constantly looking for ways to get out of my commitments? “I didn’t know it was going to be this hard.” “I didn’t realize these circumstances were going to occur.” Or perhaps the worst, “God told me…” What God told you was to be a person who keeps his/her word. What God told you was to be honest. What God told you was that just because keeping your word is inconvenient does not excuse bad behavior.

“Don’t grumble, but above all, tell the truth.” Hmmm… Am I a grumbler? Worse, am I an untrustworthy person who cannot be trusted to keep my word? What does it mean to “establish your hearts?” It means don’t grumble, and tell the truth. Yes Lord, I repent. Grow gratitude and truth telling into my life. I don’t want to be an untrustworthy grumbler. So, here is today’s challenge. Just for today, lets agree to not grumble, and to keep our word. If we stumble, let’s confess it quickly and go back to our agreement. After all, we want to be people who keep our word. Maybe tomorrow we can do it again, and again, and again until it becomes the practice of our life.