No Need To Swear

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No Need To Swear

"Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one."
Matthew 5:37

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Devotional Thought For The Day
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It really bothers me to hear someone "swear" to the truthfulness of something. Usually the matter is trivial. Often the matter is uncertain. Always, I wonder why the person doesn't simply depend upon the truthfulness of what they are asserting.

Advertizing is constantly embellished with assertions. We have been conditioned to believe that if the assertion is voiced often enough and forcefully enough, well, it just must be true. We want to believe that people making assertions wouldn't intentionally lie.

A wise man once said, "If you tell the lie often enough, pretty soon people will believe it." Another wise man said, "A big lie is often more believeable than a small lie."

The words of Jesus call us away from all this! First tell the truth! Don't swear at all! Just leave it at that. Remember, "anything beyond this comes from the evil one."

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Prayer For The Day
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Lord, forgive me for not always telling the truth. Forgive me also, for embellishing my untruths and half-truths with emphatic assertions, and sometimes even swearing. Help me to be honest and simple in speaking the truth to others. Amen.

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Daily Devotion