Yes Means Yes and No Means No

This morning, while reading through Chapter 5 of the Book of James, I was reminded by the words “…let your “Yes” be “Yes” and your “No”, “No”,…” of a minor car accident that occurred in the eighties. Lozanne and I were alone in the car and parking in front of restaurant. As Lozanne opened her door on the passenger side of the vehicle, a car pulled very quickly into the parking spot beside us and hit the open door. As you can imagine the considerable damage to the door was far less important than the fact that she hadn’t yet started to exit the car as well as the fact that her right hand or arm was not hit in this very strange accident. The driver of the other car was beside himself with guilt and remorse. He too was most thankful that he had only hit an inanimate car door and not a person. He immediately accepted the blame for the incident and agreed to pay for the repair or replacement of the door. We exchanged phone numbers and names pending an estimate of the damage.

During the next afternoon, I received a phone call from this man. He stated that he had spoken to his lawyer and indeed he had been hasty in offering to pay for the damage. He now had no intention of accepting blame, nor did he have any inclination to pay for the damage done to our car. Evidently in this case his “Yes” was not a “Yes” but was indeed a “No”. Sadly, this kind of flip flop is something that I as well have been guilty of in the past. I suspect most of us have had trouble at times keeping our word after reconsideration of the consequences. This concept of speaking the truth and sticking to it is actually only part of the whole verse in James 5: 12

12 ¶ But above all, my brethren, 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.

As Christians we are expected to not have to swear by anything in order to emphasize the truthfulness or the importance of our testimony. Most especially, we should not be using the name of God or His Son in order to swear an oath or make an exclamation. Lately I have begun to cringe at the number of times the expression, “Oh my God”, is used on television makeover shows. What the person is really saying is, “this is terrific, fantastic even”. James’s caution also extends to expressions like, “gee, golly, jeez and gosh which are simply slang for God or Jesus. We are expected to simply tell the unembellished truth without the emphasis of an oath, swearing or taking the name of the Lord in vain. Our “Yes” should mean “Yes” and our “No” should mean “No”.

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