Making Vows

“If a man vows a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.”

~Numbers 30:2 (ESV)~

“When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it; for He takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.”

~Ecclesiastes 5:4,5 (NASB)~

We live in a culture that does not take commitment seriously and the church has not gone untouched from the culture. Divorce in the church is as rampant as divorce amongst those who do not hold to Christian values. The typical marriage vows end “until death do us part”, but half of marriages end long before the death of a spouse.

It is not my intention to pick on divorcees, but simply to point out an obvious example of how undervalued our word is in today’s culture.

I remember my mom scolding my sister and I when we would “swear to God” that we were telling the truth.

At the time, I understood we must be doing something wrong, but I don’t recall my mother ever explaining the reasons why we shouldn’t “swear to God” when we were trying to convince each other we were telling the truth. As a child I had little understanding of the holiness of God or the seriousness of making vows to Him.

Jesus even instructed his disciples not to make vows.

“Again, you have heard that the ancients were told ‘ you shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great kind. Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your statement be ‘yes, yes’ or ‘no, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.”

~Matthew 5:33-37 (NASB)~

“The principle here is clear for Christians: do not make vows, either to the Lord or to one another. First, we are unable to know for sure whether we will be able to keep vows. The fact that we are prone to the errors in judgment which are part of our fallen nature means that we may make vows foolishly or out of immaturity. Further, we don’t know what the future will bring—only God does. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow (James 4:14), so to make a vow that we will do or not do something is foolish. God is the one in control, not us, and He “works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). Knowing this, we can see that it is unnecessary to make vows and that it indicates a lack of trust in Him. Finally, Jesus commands that our word be sufficient without making vows. When we say “yes” or “no,” that’s exactly what we should mean. Adding vows or oaths to our words opens us up to the influence of Satan whose desire is to trap us and compromise our Christian testimony.” (Excerpt from a Q&A on GotQuestions.org)

It is clear that the Lord expects us to be honest, to follow through, and to do as we say we will. It is one thing to start out with good intentions, but the reality of keeping our word can be difficult. That is why it is a good reminder to me to be careful what I commit to; to be realistic. And that is hard.

“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.”

~James 5:12 (NASB)~

~Jaime Scharf