In the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, whose Word is the only reliable guide for everything we think, say, and do, my dear friends:

It seems that more and more these days people are making a fortune writing and selling books about what it takes to live as a Christian. I would guess that thousands of books have been published on the subject of Christian living. And I bet that even more come out almost every day. Christian bookstores have been very successful in selling books about Christian living.

Yet, with all due respect to those kinds of books and their writers, do we really need them? Can’t we find all the advice we need for Christian living in the pages of the Bible? Page after page, God’s Word guides us in our daily lives as His children through faith in Christ Jesus. These words of Jesus from His Sermon on the Mount are a good example. Here Jesus Himself tells us how He wants us to live.

Before we take a closer look at these words of Jesus, let’s make sure that we know what Christian living is really all about. With all the different books written about it, there are bound to be all kinds of wrong ideas floating around out there. Readers are often left with the idea that how you live is what decides whether or not you are a Christian. You have to measure up to someone else’s standards of what Christian living is.

But Christian living is not the way you have to live, if you want to be a Christian. We can’t do anything to make ourselves Christians. The Holy Spirit is the one who brings us to faith and keeps us in the saving faith. Christian living is the way you live because you are a Christian! You are a Christian because, by God’s grace, you believe that Jesus is the Son of God and your Savior. Because you are a Christian, you love the Lord and want to live a life that is pleasing to Him. Because you are a Christian, you know that Christ and His Word are the only reliable guide for your Christian living. Because you are a Christian, you gladly and willingly accept His guidelines for everything you think, say, and do.

How is a Christian supposed to live? Jesus’ Words will be our guide, as we make every effort to Live the Christian Life.

There never seems to be a shortage of people telling us what to do. When you’re a small child, it’s your mom and dad. When you get older, teachers at school or coaches on the field or the gym floor do their part. Then it’s your boss at work, or the government, or any number of other people who are ready to tell you what to do and how to live.

So, with all that guidance, why do we need to go 2000 years into the past to find someone else to tell us what to do? Why should anyone want to take Jesus’ advice? Who is Jesus to, not just advise us, but also actually tell us what to do?

People have made a habit of looking to great men of the past for daily guidance. Great religions have been built on that practice. Buddha is said to have sat under a tree for years looking for wisdom and then told his followers what they should do. Mohammed reported seeing angels who gave him instructions for godly living that he then passed on to his followers.

So, if we’re looking for guidance, why look to Jesus and not Mohammed or Buddha, or any of the other well-known religious leaders throughout history? Because they were just men. They thought their thoughts and taught their teachings. Some may have been right, but most were wrong. That’s the way it is with anything that comes from sinful human beings.

But Jesus is so much more than that. All those other religious leaders could never claim to be anything but men. Jesus is God made flesh. The others died, as all men do. Jesus died and rose again. He came to die for the sins of mankind. He died and then returned from the grave. He proved Himself to be who He said He was.

So, when Jesus speaks, it is God speaking. When Jesus says “I say to you…,” it is the words of God that we hear. When Jesus tells us what to do, it is God, our wise and loving Creator, telling us how He expects the people He has made and for whom He died to Live the Christian Life.

No book has been more misinterpreted than the Bible. From ancient times to modern, the world has seen its share of teachers of the Bible who teach it all wrong. And it’s no mystery why that happens. It’s obvious that the devil will do everything he can as he tries to destroy the Word of God.

The Jewish rabbis of Jesus’ day were the devil’s tools in his efforts to destroy God’s Word. In the law of Moses, the people were told to keep any oath they made to the Lord. But the rabbis took that commandment and twisted its meaning around, teaching some very ungodly things about taking oaths. They taught that oaths came in different varieties. An oath that actually mentioned the name of God was more binding than one that didn’t, they said. They said you could swear about anything, as long as you told the truth or kept your oath.

But that’s not what Jesus says. “I say to you, do not swear at all.” The rabbis’ mistake was failing to recognize how serious a thing an oath is. An oath is not to be taken lightly or thoughtlessly. When they saw just how severe the law of Moses was in its guidelines for oath-taking, they should have realized that they shouldn’t swear at all.

When Jesus tells us, “Don’t swear at all,” He’s telling us not to be the kind of people who take oaths at the drop of a hat. Too much of that goes on every day in this world. The words, “I swear,” have become the introduction to some of the most useless words to come out of people’s mouths.

Christian living guided by God’s Word does not allow that kind of speech. The rabbis said it did, but they were wrong. They didn’t read God’s Word closely enough. God’s Word explains itself, if the reader will just keep reading and let it.

As we turn to God’s Word to look for the Lord’s guidance for living the Christian life, we need to be careful to let the Lord have His say. We dare not look for loopholes that allow for our favorite sins or let us act the way the rest of the world acts. If God’s Word is to be our guide, then we will let it guide us and not try to make the Lord say something that He never said.

In this small part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, meant to guide us in everything we are to think, say, and do, Jesus focuses our attention on just one aspect of our Christian living--to speak the way He wants us to.

“Do not swear at all…But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.” This is the only time in the entire Sermon on the Mount that Jesus speaks of any sin as coming from the devil. That doesn’t mean that He denies that the devil has anything to do with other sins. Jesus feels it necessary to point out that this sin, like all others, is a devilish thing. That needs pointing out, because too often we forget that fact. All the other sins Jesus mentions in the sermon are things we recognize as evil right away: murder, adultery, divorce, and vengeance. But we aren’t always so ready to see the sin of thoughtless swearing that way. We tend to see it more as an innocent slip of the tongue, or a careless word with no harm intended.

But that’s not the way it is. The Lord tells us that it’s “from the evil one.” Those who commit the sin of thoughtless swearing are following the guidance of the devil. He’s never going to whisper in your ear, “Hey, why not swear a useless oath?” We’d recognize that kind of temptation a mile away. Careless speech, foolish oath-taking, is a sign that we’ve fallen to a more subtle temptation: the temptation to not care.

As Christians, we want our entire lives to show the respect and love that we have for God. “Whatever you do,” the Apostle Paul wrote, “do it all to the glory of God.” That includes the way we talk. It includes the way we deal with the use of God’s name and the attitude we have toward swearing. We will guard our speech and watch our mouths so that no hint of dishonor to God comes out of the way we talk. We’ll respect Him as our Creator. We’ll love Him as our Savior. And we’ll be grateful to Him for the privilege of calling on His name when taking an oath is really necessary.

The devil would rather we didn’t care. He knows that the way to get Christians to sin is not to suggest open rebellion against God’s commands, but to calm us into spiritual sleep so that we slip almost unknowingly into sin. He doesn’t lead us in a march to storm the gates of heaven and throw God down from His throne. He’d rather have us sleepwalk into sin.

Whose guidance will we follow? We need to wake up, open our eyes, and be thankful for the guidance we have from the Lord to live the Christian life.

How is a Christian supposed to speak? How is a Christian supposed to live? The words of Christ will be our guide, not only to speak, but to LIVE THE CHRISTIAN LIFE the way He wants us to.  AMEN