Will They Know We Are Christians Part 1: Keeping Your Word

 

"For real."  "I'm serious!"  "Trust me."  And, the phrase of the moment: "Not gonna lie."  What do all these sayings have in common?  They are uttered after a statement that the speaker thinks people might doubt, so that extra qualifier is required.  

Back in Biblical times, the equivalent was making an oath.  It's where we get "I swear to God."  Or you might say "a curse on me if this isn't true."  Seems overly dramatic to use such extreme language.  But it isn't evil to do...is it?

In Jesus' famous "Sermon on the Mount," he talks about just this, and it's smack dab in the middle of warnings about other obvious sins as murder and adultery.  "Let your statement be 'yes, yes' or 'no, no'; anything beyond these is of evil" (Matthew 5:37).  

If you claim to be a person of faith and yet kill others or sleep around, we'd call you out.  Yet how many of us lack integrity in our words, such that we have to add qualifiers like "not gonna lie"?  Conversely, what would it be like to be noticeably pure in our utterances, such that people know that our "yes" is truly a "yes" and our "no" truly a "no"? 

This may seem a trivial first example of "will they know we are Christians" but I think it is an important one.  As with many facets of Christian behavior, I fall short daily.  But I strive to do better.  And I do so knowing that when, by God's grace, I am successful, it is something that honors Him by marking me as different in the world.  

In the noise and cynicism of this present age, imagine a people who are known by the fact that they always keep their word.  Not gonna lie: that would be special.