Living on Mission and Doing What We Say We’ll Do

Living on Mission and Doing What We Say We’ll Do

“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, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” (Matthew 5:33-37 ESV)

Jews in the time of Jesus really knew how to zoom in on the details of keeping rules. It seems like they were all about the tiniest details of everything from tithing their spices to determining exactly what has to be said in order to make what you say legally binding. That’s some crazy details!

It’s good to pay attention to the little things, but let’s zoom out for a minute. What about the big things? Do we do what we say we’ll do in the big things, too?

At some point, most of us said, “Yes, Jesus, I’ll follow you.” We said we would obey Him and He said, “You shall love the lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” and, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Have we followed Him? Have we loved Him? Have we loved others? According to the scriptures, He doesn’t want us to give offerings or to fast or to if try to follow all the rules if we aren’t giving Him our whole heart. “I don’t want your sacrifices—I want your love; I don’t want your offerings—I want you to know me.” (Hosea 6:6 TLB)

Jesus clearly calls us to be people who do what we say we’ll do. Let’s practice Living on Mission and do just that, in big things and in small things.

Pastor Angela