Article 20: Truth and the Avoidance of Oath - may my yes be yes...

As we return to our series on the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective, we come to several articles that tend to be distinctly Anabaptist in their perspective. These final five articles of our confession identify some of the Biblical concepts that we hold as part and parcel of the gospel, which other traditions tend to move to the periphery. Many of these ideas are woven throughout the first 19 articles, but here they receive the spotlight and gain greater clarity.

In Article 20: Truth and the Avoidance of Oaths, we harken back to the first Anabaptist confession of faith in 1527, the Schleitheim Confession. This confession only contained seven articles, one of which was "The Oath." Our modern version is pretty short and summed up in the first sentence, "We commit ourselves to tell the truth, to give a simple yes or no, and to avoid swearing of oaths."

There are a couple of things going on here that are worth mentioning, the first of which is telling the truth. To some this may seem like a concept that is so elementary that it need not even be mentioned; and yet it remains a daily challenge for many people, even believers. One may say, "Of course Christians need to tell the truth," and yet how often do we still confront lies even within our congregations or find ourselves rationalizing a "little white lie?" Moreover, telling the truth is more than just an effort to avoid the sin of lying, it is also as essential part of our witness to the world. Without honesty and integrity, what unbeliever would trust the witness of the gospel let alone believe in the transforming power of the Holy Spirit through the saving grace of Jesus Christ? Being truthful is so simple and yet so essential to our gospel witness.

Furthermore, we take Jesus' words in Matthew 5:33-37 very seriously and literally as a call to take our truth telling and honesty to a level beyond that of our surrounding culture. Jesus tells us not to swear any oaths and goes on to explain that we should not have to guarantee our honesty with an oath because our yes should always be yes and our no, no. Our culture and especially our legal system requires an oath to know that we are telling the truth; but as people of faith, that should never be in doubt and so an oath is unnecessary.

But then Jesus, as he so often does, goes one step further. He goes so far as to say that any thing that goes beyond a yes or no (ie swearing an oath), is from the evil one. Because of all of this, we do not swear oaths in court. We simply affirm that we will tell the truth and then do so. We also do not swear oaths of allegiance because our first and only allegiance is to our Lord Jesus Christ. Swearing any other oath, divides our allegiance and puts us in the service of two masters, masters that may at times be at odds with each other. This makes the avoidance of oaths key to our faith in Christ.