Let Your Yes Be Yes: Jesus' Teaching on Truth and Integrity

Let me ask you something. When did we stop trusting each other? Not long ago I went rock climbing with my buddy Jonathan — a 220-pound guy who scales a wall faster than anyone I’ve ever seen. But before either of us could touch the rock, the front desk handed me a stack of paperwork. One contract to walk in the door. Another for each of my kids. Another to climb. Another to belay a man on a rope. I signed five contracts before I ever left the ground — literally eighty pages of fine print. Now I get it. We live in a litigious society, and I own a business here in Miami, so we’ve got to cover ourselves and protect people. But if we’re honest, we do all of that for one reason: we don’t really trust each other. I’m Pastor James Drake, and this Sunday I got to bring you God’s Word on what happens when words lose their meaning — and the better way Jesus is calling us into.

Because here’s the thing those eighty pages can’t fix. Jesus is dreaming of a different kind of world — one where your word is your bond and a handshake is enough. That’s the world He paints in Matthew 5:33-37: “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all… Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” This is the word of the Lord.

”But I Say to You” — Jesus Goes After the Heart

If we read this passage quickly, we’d be tempted to do exactly what the Pharisees did: shrink it down to a rule we can keep. Don’t take oaths. Let your yes be yes. Close the book and move on. But that misses the whole point. We’re in a series called Jesus Said What?, walking through the greatest sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount. And five times in this chapter Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said… but I say to you.” He’s not undermining Scripture. He’s taking it deeper than anyone ever thought to take it.

You think you can’t murder — but if you’re angry, you’ve already murdered in your heart (Matthew 5:21-22). You think you’ve never committed adultery — but if you’ve looked with lust, you have (Matthew 5:27-28). And here He’s saying: you know you shouldn’t lie, but I’m telling you, you shouldn’t even need to pile on extra phrases to underscore that you’re telling the truth. As I said this Sunday, “it’s not so much the hand that God is concerned about, it’s the heart, because whatever is in the heart will eventually manifest itself in the hand.” You see, Jesus is always going after the heart. The Sermon on the Mount was never given so we could try harder, do more, and be better. It was given so we’d see we can never live up to it — and that we need a Savior to stand in our place.

Did Jesus Ban All Oaths? Reading the Bible in Context

So is Jesus saying we can never take an oath, period? On the surface it sounds like it. But the rest of Scripture won’t let us land there. In the Old Testament, God Himself commands oaths in the courtroom — it’s a big part of why we still put a hand on the Bible and swear to tell the whole truth. And in the New Testament, the very man carrying Christ’s message and planting churches everywhere — the Apostle Paul — takes an oath three times, always in an official, legal setting.

So Jesus is after something deeper than a rule. He’s asking: why do we have oaths in the first place? And the answer stings. We need oaths because people lie. Or they don’t fully tell the truth. Or they tell half-truths — which is exactly what the father of lies does. That’s precisely what the Pharisees were guilty of. They had built a whole system to wiggle out of their commitments. Later in this same gospel (Matthew 23:16-24) Jesus calls them fools for it — they’d say it’s binding to swear by the gold of the temple but not by the temple itself. They strained out a gnat and swallowed a camel, fussing over the tiny things while neglecting the weighty matters of God: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. They made laws they could keep, then stacked the heavy ones on everybody else’s back. That’s the heart Jesus is exposing — speech that’s looking for a loophole instead of simply being true.

When Words Lose Their Meaning, Everyone Pays

Let me take you somewhere uncomfortable for just a minute. Think back to COVID. I know — some of you are getting whiplash right now. But stay with me, because we lived through what happens when words stop meaning what they’re supposed to mean. It was a hard season, and real people were making hard decisions to protect others. But somewhere along the way, many of us began to question what we were being told. It felt less like we were following the science and more like we were following an agenda. And public trust eroded to an all-time low.

Here’s why that matters: ideas have consequences. When trust collapses, even the truth gets ignored. Jobs were lost, money was wasted, opportunities were missed. As I put it Sunday, it was “like everybody was talking with their fingers crossed behind their back, and you never knew if what they really said was true or not.” And that’s the exact tension Jesus’ first listeners felt — a society where nobody knew what to believe. This is why it matters so much that we, as followers of Christ, say what we mean and mean what we say. We follow the very One who said, “For this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth” (John 18:37).

What this means for your week

Watch the small stuff. Most of us aren’t telling whoppers — we’re hedging. We exaggerate the win, shave the number, soften the no into a “maybe,” and speak with our fingers quietly crossed. This week, let your yes be yes and your no be no. When you say you’ll be there, be there. When the answer is no, say no, kindly and clearly. People can build a life on a person like that.

Back to the Handshake — The Better World Jesus Wants

When Heidi and I first started in ministry, of all places they sent us to a city called Christchurch, in New Zealand. One free weekend we went paragliding. After exactly one lesson — running across a field getting the wing up — the instructor walked me to the edge of a cliff over a gorgeous valley that ran down to the water and said, “All right, same thing. Just run, take off, and listen to the walkie-talkie.” And I thought, I’ve signed no paperwork. There’s been no waiver. I’m not even wearing a helmet. That would never happen in America. But you know what? I loved it — because we did business on a handshake. It was simple. It was clear. Your word was your bond.

I think that’s the world Christ wants for us. He’d rather we get through all the red tape and the legalese and the catch-22s and just move forward knowing that what we say is what we mean. Wouldn’t that be so much better? In verse 37 He brings it all home: simply let your yes be yes and your no be no. Be people who say what you mean and mean what you say. It really is a pretty straightforward test.

Anchored by Grace, Not Propped Up by Oaths

But I’d be doing you a disservice if I left you there, because this is exactly where the gospel comes alive. Here’s the heart of it, the one line I want you to carry: Jesus wanted His people “to be so anchored by grace they didn’t need to be propped up by oaths.” In other words, these are people who simply speak the truth, because they’re following the very One who is the Truth.

Think about Peter. He denied Jesus three times — under oath. And when the risen Jesus came back to him (John 21:15-17), He didn’t make Peter grovel. He didn’t demand an apology or a promise to do better. He simply asked Peter to feed His sheep, forgiving him three times by grace. You see, we’re not telling the truth so we can become truth-tellers. We tell the truth because the Truth already lives within us — Christ our Lord, beginning to shine through us.

I love the story of Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel. A friend asked him why he labored over details no one would ever see, and Michelangelo said, “God sees them, and that’s enough.” His painstaking work didn’t make him an artist — he was already an artist, so he painted like one. That’s the gospel pattern exactly. We don’t tell the truth in order to become honest people; we tell the truth because Christ has already made us new from the inside out. When you’re that loved by your Heavenly Father, you don’t have to cover your mistakes or present yourself as better than you are. You’re set free.

Not “Try Harder” — A New Heart for a New Year

New Year’s is right around the corner, and I’m just like you. The gyms will be packed for a few weeks, everybody will set their goals, and most of those goals will be broken before the month is out. And here’s the thing — it’s not because people don’t mean it. It’s not because you and I don’t mean it. It’s because we’re broken, and what we need isn’t more willpower. We need a new heart.

That’s the difference between this and every self-help message you’ll hear this January. The gospel is not “try harder, do better.” It’s a better story for a broken world. As I said Sunday, “Christ does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He not only saves us, He sustains us.” So this year, don’t white-knuckle your way to integrity. Look to Christ, and let Him give you a new heart and change you from the inside out. As you rest in His grace and His truth, He will set you free to become the truth-teller this world is desperate for. You can’t make yourself a person of your word — but He can. Rest in His finished work, and then go be sent into a world that’s forgotten what truth even sounds like. (For more on how Jesus keeps going past behavior to the heart, see our reflection on what Jesus said about anxiety.)

Common Questions About Integrity and Honesty

What did Jesus mean by “let your yes be yes and your no be no”? In Matthew 5:37 Jesus calls His followers to radical simplicity: when you say yes, mean yes; when you say no, mean no. The point isn’t to abolish formal oaths but to expose the heart behind them. Jesus envisions people so trustworthy that extra assurances become unnecessary — where your everyday word is your bond. As Pastor James put it, He wants His people “to be so anchored by grace they don’t need to be propped up by oaths.”

Did Jesus forbid all oaths and swearing on the Bible? No. “Do not take an oath at all” is not a blanket ban on every formal oath. In the Old Testament God Himself commands oaths in the courtroom, and in the New Testament the Apostle Paul takes oaths three times — always in an official, legal context. Jesus is going after the heart behind oaths: we only need them because people lie, hedge, or tell half-truths. A courtroom oath or a wedding vow doesn’t violate this teaching. The lying and image-managing of everyday speech does.

Why does Jesus go after the heart instead of just the behavior? All through the Sermon on the Mount Jesus moves past the act to the motive — anger behind murder, lust behind adultery, half-truths behind broken oaths. As Pastor James said this Sunday, “it’s not so much the hand that God is concerned about, it’s the heart, because whatever is in the heart will eventually manifest itself in the hand.” Jesus always goes after the heart, because real change happens from the inside out.

How does grace make us honest instead of just trying harder? This isn’t a New Year’s resolution to do better. Most goals fail not because people don’t mean them, but because we’re broken and need a new heart. Christ doesn’t just save us — He sustains us and changes us from the inside out. We don’t tell the truth to become truthful people; we tell the truth because the One who called Himself the Truth lives in us.

Why do we need so many contracts and legal protections today? We need fine print because we don’t trust each other. Pastor James shared signing five contracts — eighty pages — just to climb at a rock gym. We do that because people don’t always keep their word. The COVID era made the same trust crisis visible on a national scale. Jesus calls us to a better way — back to the handshake, where your word truly is your bond.

What does the story of Peter teach us about truth and grace? Peter denied Jesus three times under oath. When the risen Jesus restored him in John 21, He didn’t demand an apology or make Peter promise to do better — He simply asked Peter to feed His sheep, forgiving him three times by grace. We become truth-tellers not by white-knuckling our way to integrity, but because the Truth Himself has forgiven us and now lives within us.

Questions for Reflection

• Where in your life are you most tempted to hedge, exaggerate, or speak with your “fingers crossed behind your back”?
• What would change if your simple yes or no carried the weight of an oath because people knew your word was your bond?
• In what area are you trying to “try harder, do better” when what you really need is a new heart from Christ?
• How might being “anchored by grace” free you from managing your image and covering your mistakes?

Want to keep going on this? You don’t have to clean yourself up before you come. Join us this Sunday at 11 AM at 8485 SW 112th St, Miami, and take your next step with a community that’s learning to rest in grace together. You can also explore more sermons and reflections on our blog.

Credits

Adapted from Pastor James Drake’s December 29, 2025 sermon, “When Words Lose Their Meaning.”

By Pastor James Drake, Lead Pastor, Christchurch Miami.

Christchurch Miami is a Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) congregation in Miami, Florida, led by Pastor James Drake. Services are held Sundays at 11 AM at 8485 SW 112th St, Miami, FL 33156.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Photo by Cytonn Photography on Unsplash.

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