Beyond Boundaries

Matthew 5:33 ‘Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shall perform unto Yahweh thine oaths.’

What are oaths? According to the Strong’s Concordance the word ‘oaths’ as used here is ‘horkos’ and means ‘a fence, a limit, a sacred restraint, an oath.’ The Old Testament way of managing humanity was to set up boundaries. Mankind learned to limit his horizons and fence off possessions as well as land. People learned how to commit themselves to an area, to property, and to pledges with the people nearest them. In time, these avowed alliances took on a sacred meaning that has since become the unifying spirit of most human communities. It is also the unifying spirit that separates and causes war and strife between communities.

Matthew 5:34 ‘But I say unto you, Swear not at all. . .’

Yahshua is telling us to avoid becoming part of legalistic human unity, worldly communities. He’s telling us not to swear to anything, don’t fence ourselves in; don’t limit yourself. As Christians and citizens of the world, Yahshua wants us to see beyond the boundaries men and women place around themselves and around others.

Matthew 5:34-36 ‘But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven for it is the Creator’s throne; nor by the earth for it is His footstool; neither by Jerusalem for it is the city of the great King; neither shalt thou swear by thy head because thou canst not make one hair white or black.’ (Of course now they have hair-coloring products but that doesn’t change the fact of what one’s true hair color is)

We need to learn how to stop making promises we may or may not be able to uphold in the future. I don’t care how responsible or how successful or how organized you believe you are in life, you cannot make promises for tomorrow for no one knows what tomorrow will bring.

Matthew 6:34 ‘Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is evil thereof.’

And more importantly, you don’t know for sure what you are swearing to do is good or evil. Someday you may discover that the very thing you took an oath to uphold was an unjust and immoral cause – and now – because you held in your heart youthful sacredness towards it – you may not be able to forgive yourself and unbind yourself from it. You may not be able to absolve yourself for having made that oath.

Matthew 5:37 ‘But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.’

Oaths and promises are going to lead to evil. By boxing yourself into a certain determination of what you have to do, you instill in your own heart an obligation not only to accomplish the oath at all costs and protect your honor, but to uphold the honor of the altar to which you forswore it and the honor of those with whom you took the oath.

In other words, damn the truth and damn what is right, the oath has taken primacy in your life.

Romans 6:16 ‘Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey: whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness.’

It is your choice. Taking an oath to obey another person or a cause is you blindly yielding your life to someone or something who is not your Creator or judge. The belief has always mistakenly been that in taking an oath, we are forever trapped by it and wholly unreliable or irresponsible or even evil if we break it.

I have good news for you. You don’t have to believe that superstition anymore.

John 8:31-32 ‘Then said Yahshua. . .If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’

When Yahshua tells us in John 14:6 that is He is the way, the truth, and the life; He is also telling us that when the world crucified Him on the pole, it also crucified the way, the truth and the life. The world crucified the truth.

Why do you think the world did that?

John 3:20-21 ‘For every one that doeth evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in the Creator.’

When you discover that you have made an oath in this life that is burdensome and contrary to goodness and justice, you now have the power with a pure heart, to forsake that oath for the truth. The truth is stronger than any foolish carnal oaths you made because the truth has been resurrected unto eternal life. The old promises made by the old man simply die.

Romans 6:5-6 ‘For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.’

I don’t have to serve those foolish oaths and play by the world’s rules any longer. The world will not like it but I am getting a head start on my eternal life. I will walk according to the Spirit and not the flesh. The world will say I am being irresponsible because I am not focusing on this world and all its tomfoolery and vanity. They may well say I am welching on a debt – but I say, it is a debt I should never have had to owe. I was beguiled into making that vow. Sin is a debt. Promises are debts. Oaths are debts. The law of the flesh is the thing that makes these debts binding and gives them strength.

Romans 6:14 ‘For sin shall not have dominion over you:  for ye are not under the law, but under grace.’

Christians are under grace.  Our debts are paid in full.

In these tough economic times trying telling that to your bank when they want to repossess your car and foreclose on your house.  Trying telling that to the energy company when they want to turn off your heat and shut off your electricity.  Trying telling that to the store when you are hungry and can’t afford any food.  Trying telling that to the hospital when you are injured and can’t afford healthcare.

The world does not believe in grace or mercy; the strong feed off the weak.  When you lived according to the oaths you made to them and their systems, you fed them and they were satisfied with you.

1 Corinthians 7:23 ‘Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.’

Your government, your businesses, and even your denominations are vibrant economic entities with their roots sucking existence from an undulating stream of earthly mammon.  In their temporal world, it is all about the survival of the fittest.

Those who feed from the wellspring of money want you to pledge to it also – thus making you indebted to money for life.  All nations, organizations, and denominations have agendas much greater than any one person in it. 

This is the key to understand this tale of oaths. 

Christ believes that this is their greatest weakness and they believe it is their greatest strength. 

One is contrary to the other.

1 Corinthians 12:24-26 ‘For our comely parts have no need:  but the Creator hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked, that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.  And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. . .’

As Christians we are part of the body of Christ and members in particular.  We are all equally essential and cannot think like the lions of the jungle and prey on the weakest parts.  The lion’s of the world live by the oath of self-preservation and are willing to crucify one man, one member of the body, if it will temporarily preserve their elite and comfortable condition.  There is selfishness to their charity.  They don’t give more than they can afford to give and truly are not sacrificing anything.  When we really look at it, how many of us do?

Mark 12:42-44 ‘And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two (coins). . .And He called unto Him His disciples and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you that this poor woman hath cast more in. . .For all they did cast in of their abundance. . .’

Love, charity and truth do not water the nations, organizations and even the denominations of the world.  I want you to really think about it.  Find one named and recognized body of people that if the root of money were pulled out from under it, it would go on surviving.  From the U.S.A., to the Roman Catholic Church, without money – they all die.  They are all well aware of what keeps them alive even if they never admit it.

Matthew 12:36-37 ‘But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.  For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.’

We live in a generation and a time that is frantic with communication.  Here on the internet, as well as on the television and radio, everyone is a pundit and everyone has an opinion – and everyone speaks it.  Words, bold and foolish can be found nearly everywhere because so few really give any righteous, spiritual thought to what they are really saying.  Many people speak out of anger, others out of lusts, and many more from their entertainment driven hearts.

This is why I pray before writing.  This is why I sometimes write things that I cannot publish and don’t.  I have written this particular hub three times before and scraped all three.  I am careful about how and what I write.  I understand the grave responsibility I am accepting and I need all the courage and faith I can harness to open it up for debate.  I have to believe it represents my Lord and Savior to the best of my ability, knowing still; there are condemnations to come for my human errors.

James 3:1-2 ‘My brethren, be not many masters knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation for in many things we offend all. . .’

Have you noticed how upset some people get when they are criticized or condemned for things they speak or write? If you are offering your opinion, you need to realize that you are taking the stance that you are a master of what you are saying. Once you put it out there, you need to be prepared to take everything that is coming to you, the good and the bad.

Hebrews 12:7 ‘If ye endure chastening, the Creator deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chastens not?’

The worse part about being a preacher and a teacher of the Scriptures is realizing, that you can never completely relate to the listener and reader all the many truths of the word at once. Every time I write a verse of Scripture, there are virtually a million veins and conduits of truth I could travel with it. Every word I write and speak concerning the Scriptures is alive, and yet, once I have committed to saying it or writing it, I know I have fenced it in, I have brought it into bondage to a certain specific meaning – and others will be able to condemn me for that because it never will be the whole picture or the whole truth. The lawyers and the scribes will pick it to death.

No matter how we write or say Scripture, someone somewhere will be offended by it.

Hebrews 2:7-8 ‘. . .but unto them which be disobedient, the Stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.’

Ever notice that most of the strife and arguments in Christianity come from denominations debating against other denominations? They are all so locked into their universality and traditions, and divine necessity and greatest, they can’t see the truth anymore. They are upholding vain oaths and legends of past leaders and man-appointed saints to support their own place in history. It is a circus of religion that pretends at being holy and good.

I believe there are far too many preachers of Scripture in this world today and they are amazed and angry and disheartened by condemnation. I say, if they cannot humbly accept the condemnation the Scriptures tell us comes with the preaching of the Scriptures, they never should have become a teacher of it.

James 3:2 ‘. . .If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able to bridle the whole body.’

We of course cannot be perfect – but we can be perfect as He was perfect. Remember, the world didn’t think Yahshua was perfect either. The world was offended by Him and His teachings, and they crucified Him for it.

Matthew 5:48 ‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.’

Have you ever heard people condemn “God” because He doesn’t do what they would want Him to do, like feed the poor, and stop terrorism and make everybody rich and healthy? In their carnal minds, they can’t see beyond the boundaries of the flesh. “God” is not perfect because He does not fix everything the way they want it fixed.

The Garden of Eden is the beginning of the proof against us. We are discontented, disobedient and unsatisfied organisms. Everything is never enough. No matter how much we have, we will covet something someone else has. We will find fault in places and things it is not in our authority to find fault. We will rebel against anyone who tells us and teaches us and shows us a better and more productive way for everyone to prosper. The imaginations of our hearts are continually evil.

Yahweh sent His Word to live amongst us and teach us, and we crucified it.

We deserve to die in our sins. Praise the Lord for His grace.

Romans 6:7 ‘For he that is dead is freed from sin.’

As Christians, we need to stop living and do as it states in 1 Corinthians 15:31; die daily. We need to take up our pole and follow Him – be His soldiers. We need to believe we owe nothing to this world but to do what Christ has freed us to do.

1 Corinthians 7:22-23 ‘For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord’s freeman: likewise also he that is called being free, is Christ’s servant. Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.’

Do not bind yourself ever again with oaths and promises for nations, organizations, denominations or men.

Don’t go on believing that you are still bound by oaths the old man made to temporal reasons and meanings.

From now on, simply let your Yea, be yea; and your Nay, be nay.

We have a quaint saying in our home that we learned from my wife’s grandfather, the Bishop Roy McCain.

“Don’t promise to do anything. Only say when the time comes to make a promise, If the Lord says the same, then we shall do it.” From there on in everything is in the Lord’s hands, and that is the safest place our futures can possibly be.

Matthew 6:10 ‘Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven.’

There’s a whole new frontier out there beyond the boundaries of civilization, beyond the outdated and defeated fences of law and order.

Are you brave enough to break through that fence and go forth into the Promised Land and claim your spiritual freedom? I pray we all are.

Amen