The Integrity of Our Word
“When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?” -Ecclesiastes 5:4-6
Throughout the Bible, we see a recurring pattern that has been lost in today’s culture. The principle that God upholds so firmly, and which we know very little of today, is the honor and respect attached to a person’s promise.
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We ought to always uphold the integrity of our word.
When we say that we’ll do something, we had better be ready to back up that promise. God looks and observes every word that a man speaks, and listens to every promise or vow that a man makes: and He holds him to his words.
As seen in the verses above, it would be better not to vow or promise anything at all, then to make a promise, and break your word. This is a very important and crucial principle shown all throughout Scripture. We ought to have respect and integrity to back up our words, or we ought not to speak them at all.
Yet in our culture today, we lie to get ahead. We bend the truth to make things seem more to our advantage. We stretch the truth in a number of ways, and in essence, what we are doing is lying.
Yet Jesus said that it would be better for us to not promise a single thing–seeing as how we really have so little under our control–and not bring a punishment upon ourselves because of our broken words.
“But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’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.” -Matthew 5:34-36
God honors integrity
If we do happen to speak an oath or a vow unto God, He fully expects us to live up to our words. He blesses those that are faithful in their words.
In the psalms, we see a distinct blessing on those that, though they perhaps spoke a promise that would even cause some detriment to them, they still follow through with their words. To answer the question put forth in Psalm 15:1, “LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?” we see a clear answer later in the psalm:
“He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.” -Psalm 15:4
That is, God honors those that make a promise to their own inconvenience, and then stick to it and refuse to back down from it.
An example of integrity
One such example of this swearing was with Joshua and his agreement with the Gibeonites. Basically, Joshua was deceived and tricked into making a peace agreement with people that were supposed to be his enemies. He swore to them that he wouldn’t destroy them, and when the Gibeonites fell into some trouble, and it was Joshua’s responsibility to protect his newest “ally,” many people thought it would be foolish to come to their aid.
The Israelites wanted to let the people die–after all, they were in fact their enemies–yet Joshua was bound by the force of his words, and he came to their rescue. The Bible says that Joshua knew that it was his obligation to protect these people, and he also knew that he would incur God’s anger if he didn’t.
“But all the princes said unto all the congregation, We have sworn unto them by the LORD God of Israel: now therefore we may not touch them. This we will do to them; we will even let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we sware unto them.” -Joshua 9:19-20
In taking a lesson from Joshua in the Old Testament, and also a lesson from Jesus in the New Testament, we ought to avoid speaking and puffing up our pride by making hasty promises. Yet if we do in fact make a vow, we ought to uphold the integrity of our words, and give a good account to God of all that we have spoken.
“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.” -Matthew 12:36-37
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