{"id":18278,"date":"2021-12-02T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/urc\/urc-daily-devotion-2-december-2021"},"modified":"2021-12-02T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T06:00:00","slug":"urc-daily-devotion-2-december-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/urc-daily-devotion-2-december-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"URC Daily Devotion 2 December 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday December 2, 2021 <\/span><\/strong>
 <\/p>\n

James 5: 12 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Above all, my beloved,  do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your \u2018Yes\u2019 be yes and your \u2018No\u2019 be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reflection<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

There are many echoes in this letter of teachings that Jesus gave. This verse is one of them.  Its substance matches pretty well the material in Matthew 5:33-37. Yet the wording here is not the same as in Matthew. So perhaps James got to know Jesus\u2019 teaching early, long before anyone gathered it into written Gospels.  The wording in his letter comes from memory and regular use, rather than from Matthew\u2019s written version.  That would fit, of course, with the tradition that the James of this letter was the Lord\u2019s brother.<\/span><\/p>\n

At first glance this verse stands alone in James\u2019 letter, without close links to the verses before and after.  However, there is some continuity to be found, at least with verses 7-11.  Those verses speak of patience and resilience in difficult days.  Mutual support is part of that: \u2018do not grumble against one another\u2019 (5:9). <\/span><\/p>\n

Mutual support requires trust too, and honesty \u2013 telling the truth as a matter of habit. Christians should not need to use oaths, to emphasise that some of our speech is especially truthful. We should be the kind of people whose word others can depend on, whose speech is consistently honest and fair.  Trying to underline our truthfulness \u2013 in God\u2019s name, or with any other oath \u2013 ought not to be necessary.<\/span><\/p>\n

What, then, about court cases?  Would we take an oath there, with our hand on the Bible?  I have done so, and I think I would do so again.  This seems to help others in the room to take our testimony seriously.  But if we need this kind of solemn warning for ourselves \u2013 if we cannot trust ourselves to be honest without it \u2013 perhaps we need to search our hearts and change our habits.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prayer<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus, you are the truth of God. May your life shape our living. Keep us from deceiving others and from deceiving ourselves. May there be truth in our words and our deeds. May your presence be known in and through us, in our speech, our relationships and our character.  Amen.<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday December 2, 2021   James 5: 12  Above all, my beloved,  do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your \u2018Yes\u2019 be yes and your \u2018No\u2019 be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation. Reflection There are many echoes in this letter of teachings … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “URC Daily Devotion 2 December 2021”<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}