I was watching a television sitcom recently and the question “Are you serious?!?” kept coming up again and again in the dialogue. “Betty went to the movies with Billy . . . are you serious?!? ”After-wards they went for pizza . . . are you serious?!?” “Billy’s ex heard about it and was not happy . . . are you serious?!?”
Really! That’s how lame the dialogue was. In this sitcom the question didn’t seem to be a genuine inquiry as much as some sort of exclamation. However, “Are you serious?” is a good question that we need to regularly and honestly ask ourselves. Because often when we should be speaking seriously, we are not.
I once heard a politician cynically say, “the purpose of words is to conceal thought.” As an observation on how we sometimes talk, this comment is too true to be good! Don’t we regularly talk for effect, often saying things we don’t really mean and could not defend? Are we not often guilty of casually giving assurances which we have little-to-no thought of fulfilling?
A reluctance to value our word as our bond — to count ourselves committed by what we’ve actually said — is no slight error and can eventually destroy our integrity. Why are business contracts, marriage vows and even ordinary pledges — to do this, to see to that, to be here, to go there — so frequently broken? Why are our lives littered with promises we failed to keep, whether from malice, bad management, self-seeking or sheer carelessness? Isn’t it because we frequently fail to take our own words seriously?
The Bible, however, takes words and promises seriously. Why? Because trustworthiness is part of God’s indelible image pressed upon us. He desires that aspect of His image be faithfully reflected in us. And without such fidelity, relationships — indeed all of society — disintegrate.
When Jesus rejected the idea that one can break a promise sworn by any sacred object, so long as God’s name has not been explicitly mentioned, He was teaching that you cannot keep God out of any promise, pledge, or transaction. He is everywhere, and all promises are made in His presence and involve Him, whether His name is mentioned or not (cf. Matthew 5:33 ff). So all promises are sacred, in that sense, and should be kept. Our kids seem instinctively to know this and feel this strongly. Too bad that moms and dads often forget it.
Promises (words) that honor the Lord are made cautiously, but kept conscientiously once made, knowing that failure in this area is no slight error. How hard it is for us to learn this. And yet, how much we need to understand that our word is to be a sacred trust.
Pastor Mullinax