The Third Law

The Third Law
Saying the Truth

"Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord’. "But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is His foot stool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King." "Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black." " But let your ‘Yes’ Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one." [Matthew 5: 33-37]

God’s law is applicable for all ages and not limited to a specific time. He Himself is eternal. When God orders a commandment, He strengthens you, so you are able to obey it. No one can claim that the commandments of the Kingdom of Heavens are not suitable for our present time.

Disobeying these laws, is probably the reason why we don’t feel blessings nowadays in the church, in spite of the many obvious activities. This is because we don’t follow these laws. Doesn’t any person living in a country obey its laws!

God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on the mountain, so the people don’t sin. God completed these commandments in His sermon on the mountain, so we don’t think wrongly. It is our thinking that leads us to action.

The third commandment was about "saying the truth". St. James repeated that, "But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your "Yes" be "Yes" and your "No," "No", lest you fall into judgment." [James 5:12]

It means without doubt: Do not to swear at all. God doesn’t support who swears falsely in His name. The law clarifies that God’s children need not to adopt two ways to testify. Meaning that when they swear they are supposed to be telling the truth. On the other hand, it implies that you may be saying lies when you do not swear. You have to state the truth and be truthful all the time. A Christian should not have two different measurements, but only one way, that is to say "Yes - Yes, or No - No"

God says what he means and He means what he says. We have to follow His path and be truthful in what we say. Our "yes should be "yes" and our "no" should mean "no".

People doubt those who swear and wonder if they don’t lie at all!. People commit sin s after sin and they falsely swear. God, never – in the Old Testament – forgave those who did swear falsely by His name.

Thanks to the fact, that it is permissible for Christians, in Egypt, not to swear in court, in a way that may contradicts their faith. You can tell the court that you are not permitted to swear, according to the Gospel, but you are committed to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. It is clear that telling part of the truth may hurt the other party if you hide part of your testament.

A judge may say that Christians had sworn before and you can do the same. St. Augustin once mentioned that, if one was forced to swear, then under these circumstances has not sinned. The jurisdiction now respects your right not to swear. On occasions, they may bring the Bible, not to swear on, but to say the truth in the presence of the Bible and the court accepts your testament as right.

St Paul wrote to the Colossians saying, "Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds." [Colossians 3:9] Lying was a pattern of the old man’s deed. We have been liberated from these deeds by Baptism. We died with Christ, buried for three days, and then became new men. Our sins had been pinned to the cross through Christ’s death on the cross. Baptism is not repeated as Christ died only once for the world.

In the past, the sinner used to put his hand on the head of a sacrifice and confess to the priest that he indeed had sinned. Then the sacrifice would be slaughtered. The sin accordingly was transferred to the sacrifice, that was slaughtered and by its death it resembled Christ who carried our sins, saved us from death and we became sons to God. This is also repentance, a confession, through determination, and a promise in front of God.

When we confess we do talk about our own sins and not of the sins of other people. When you confess in the presence of the priest, don’t misunderstand the fact that your confession is to God and not to the priest. Be courageous and reveal the truth with truthful tears and ask for forgiveness. You will hear from the priest an advise not to sin again. He will put his hand on your head and reads what he is authorized to inform you that your sins had been forgiven. Just look only at yourself without interfering with other’s sins. The forefathers considered confession as a second Baptism as mentioned by St. Keprianos.

Committing a sin is considered to be against the Lord Who adopted us. When we sin, we are denying the relation of the caring Father Who adopted us. We are literally smearing His good name.

Accordingly, our talk should be clean, honest and trust worthy. Our communication with others must be respectful and straight forward, so others can accept us as truthful. God’s sons need to be truthful all the time, without reservation. They don’t need to lie, as lying is not a character or a nature of the new man. Lying is a character of the old man that we got rid of, when Christ was pinned to the cross. The day we received Baptism, we won salvation by the second birth.

But alas, still we notice that lying and deception are present in our daily conversations without realizing it!

Unfortunately, the community we are living in still lags truth, honesty and love. Swearing became a necessity of life! Equally as if it is a necessity to man as drinking water! There is also a stupid tradition of lying on April first! Many people can be hurt.

There is no need to lie, even for good intention. Nothing can justify doing wrong to achieve a goal. Nothing good comes from lying.

Any problem that can be solved by lying doesn’t live permanently. Wrong doesn’t correct wrong, it may for a short period only.

Listen to St. Paul saying, " Therefore, putting away lying, each one speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another" [Ephesians 3:14]

Or in the Book of Isaiah, "I, the Lord, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right." [Isaiah 45:19]

It is only Satan who is a liar and those who lie do not enter the Kingdom of God, "Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord." [Proverbs 12:22]

Thus we have when we say "yes" that we mean it and when we say "no" we mean "no" too. Let us find out where we stand in our life, in our community and at our work.

Our daily life

It is necessary for our children to understand that we mean what we say.

Is that what we say?

Here are some examples:

First:

A child cries while asking to have something. The mother says no. The child keeps on crying. The mother gives in and gives the child what he asked for. The child then will stop crying. Now the child realizes that when his mother said "No", it didn’t mean a thing.
A father warns his son of punishing him if he refuses to obey his order. The child doesn’t obey and the father doesn’t punish. No wonder when the child grows up, he will never obey a thing and never be truthful. The child will be out of control. Again, the "yes" wasn’t a "yes" nor the "no" was a "no". If they were, the children would have learned the truth.

Once a clergyman told me that he was saddened by the fact that many of the children around him were constantly lying. He prayed for them and wanted to see for himself why they behaved this way. He came to the conclusion that the problem was around their homes. One Sunday he gave sermon and talked about lying and said it originated at home. Some of the congregation was unhappy for what he mentioned and was offended. Few weeks later he visited one of these unhappy parents. While he was there, their son came and asked his father about where he put the hammer so he can use it. The father simply told his son that he didn’t know where it was. Few minutes later his wife came and he told her that their son wanted to use the hammer and asked her to remove it from behind the door so their son wouldn’t see it. The clergyman couldn’t help but addressed the father that he lied to his son and his son knew that he was lying.

Later he went to visit one of the ladies who was also unhappy with the sermon and seemed to be offended by what he said about lying. While there, he heard loud disturbance in their apartment. The mother in a threatening loud voice warned her daughter Mary to stop it or she would punish her. The daughter ignored her mother, who again said that she would kill her if she didn’t stop it. The priest gave the mother his staff, but surprisingly she asked him why. The priest that he simply giving her something to kill her daughter as she said. The mother confessed that she didn’t mean to kill her, but just to scare her. Of course she didn’t mean that but her daughter was sure that she was just lying.

Exaggeration of what one says is similar to lying. Unclear or distorted statements can give a totally untrue impression to cover something else.

Second:

Our community is full of lies and deception.

Here is a lady, sitting at her window, saw a woman, she didn’t like, approaching her house, coming to visit her. Once she stepped into her home, she met her with a welcoming face and pretended great pleasure for seeing her! She embraced and kissed her and kept saying how she missed her.
A lady was visiting a family, then when she left, the lady of the house told her husband that their guest had "two faces". "Meaning deceiver." The next time she came, their son who heard his mother’s comment the other day, looked carefully and from different angles to the face of the visitor. When she noticed what the boy was doing, she asked him why he was behaving strangely. The boy told her he wanted to see her other face his mother was referring to.
A lady in her prayer asked God why she didn’t have grace, though she prays fasts and reads the Bible? God replied, "Some people came to visit you. You received them well and pretended that they should have visited you more often, even invited them to stay for dinner and you didn’t mean it. You only permitted them to leave after they insisted that they had to leave. After they left, you wondered why these people imposed themselves on you and for their failure to call first before coming and wasting your time, and disturbing your peace." The Holy Spirit blamed her and she realized why God doesn’t answer her prayers.

It is better that the truth would be our guide and our "yes" should be "yes" and that no" means "no".

At work:

A Sunday school servant thought he shouldn’t serve as a Sunday teacher. He figured that one day a week is not enough for teaching, besides he behaves an opposite away from what he teaches. He was working at a dairy farm selling butter and eggs. His employer instructed him to tell the customers that these were fresh, while they were not. He resigned from his job and God rewarded him for getting away from lying.
Sales at stores reaching large discounts up to 50% may be a gimmick. Potable the merchants could be bankrupt if this was true, unless the merchandise were not good.
An employer at a shoe store had to tell ladies that their feet measured much less than what they were, to make them happy. If he didn’t the boss may fire him. He was lying.
A secretary types what the CEO dictates her. She knows that he is lying and she is forced to spread the lie.
A telephone operator says that her boss is not there, while he was and she was told to say so.

A lie may not hold!

A father, at the window, saw a friend coming. He asked his son to lie and tell him that he wasn’t home. The friend asked the son to remind his father not to leave his head at the window when he leaves home.

These examples are full of deception, lies and dishonesty.

One of the servants that I knew lost his job when he chose to follow honesty. He was asked to pack merchandizes in boxes in such a way that it would be almost impossible to count them correctly, with the aim to fool the government and pay less dues for exportation. When this employee refused to do an illegal and dishonest thing, he lost his job. The manager told him that many others would be happy to take his job. This chap grew spiritually in the right direction and he was instrumental in bringing others to follow Christ’s path. He was blessed in his life and succeeded his private work flourished and grew with his principles, truth and honesty. He just followed what was written in the Bible, " But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you." [Matthew 6:33]

A priest visited a lady, and while talking to her, he commented that she was a good lady. The lady corrected him and said that she is not and has many sins. So the priest added that she could repent. The lady became furious and asked him if somebody badmouthed her and claimed that she was a sinner. The priest replied that she was the one who just said it. He wondered if she said the truth, then why she was angry?

While chanting a hymn, saying "O God we give You all we have", the collection box passes by them and each one was pulling the smallest coin from their pockets for that box. Lets us mean what we say and let us try this and avoid lying to God, particularly while we are praying!
When we say the Lord’s Prayer, " Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us". Let us remember that we do not forgive the others! Once I noticed a lady expressing her unforgiveness towards her friend and I blamed her for it. She then said that she will forgive her but she will cut her off her friendship. When I replied, "Do you want God to treat you similarly? Do you really want God’s forgiveness be the same with you? Do you want Him to forgive you, but never deals with you afterwards?

When the Late Great Bishop Abram, attended a council investigating a monk, he opened the meeting with a prayer but saying, "O God, don’t forgive us our trespasses as we don’t forgive those who trespassed against us." He was asked why he did say that and he replied that this is exactly what they were going to do. "We came here to judge him, at a time we are equally burdened by sins, we have to follow what we say in our prayers" He said. That was a hard lesson to the council, who forgave the monk for what he did.

Once a disciple that asked one of the fathers, about the time the Holy Spirit filled him. The father replied, "About the time when I stopped lying during my prayers. We say we love our God, but we don’t know how we love Him. We say we forgive others, while we are full of anger against those who trespassed against us, till the end of our life."

We need to learn to say the truth during our prayers!

In the 32nd Psalm there are four blessings:

Blessed he whose transgression is forgiven
Whose sin is covered
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity.
And in whose spirit there is no guile.

What it means, is to be pure and clear like crystal without any deceit and to follow St. Paul’s teaching in adopting the truth, when dealing with others.

A lady asked a clergyman about how she could rid herself from exaggeration, and overstatements. He told her that she can, simply if she called this problem by its correct name, that these were lies. He asked her to pray so God would clear her from this sin.