Day 111 (Year 3)

Believers Must Be Accurate in Speech

Jesus said, “But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.” (Matthew 5:37 NKJV)

The word “your” in the verse above refers to the words Jesus’ disciples speak. “Let your ‘Yes’ and ‘No'” means that when we face truth or reality, we must speak the facts without falsehood. “Yes” and “no” refer to “yes” and “no” as Jesus understands them. If we are not faithful to God’s truth or Jesus’ words, we can hardly be His disciples; instead, we can be used by Satan easily. As He once warned, “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:38 NASB) Thus, God’s faithful disciples must have the habit of speaking the truth, as Jesus mentioned above, including acknowledging Him and His words before anyone.

Today’s scripture states that anything beyond yes or no comes from the devil. This resembles Satan’s ambiguous words in the Garden of Eden, that eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil “shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4 KJV). Jesus calls us to reject all words that do not conform to truth or reality, breaking free from Satan’s control. When many of God’s truths fall into human hearts and are disobeyed, they get watered down into “not surely …,” ultimately leading to loss and even destruction for them. Jesus strongly opposes all words and deeds that distort the truth and diminish God’s words, pointing out that they all stem from Satan. Practically, we must be accurate in our speech; for instance, if something is mostly true, say “mostly true”; if slightly true, say “slightly true,” and so forth.

Finally, I want to discuss an extreme case: Would the Lord Jesus ever tell believers to lie so as to save lives? In Europe during World War II, many who assisted Jews to escape and preserve their lives lied to the Germans at the time. In such exceptional situations, the primary consideration is what words Jesus led them to speak. Using deception to rescue the innocent is exceptionally rare, yet it aligns with God’s truth. I do not think that rescuing innocent people in such an extreme manner places one under Satan’s power. Contrarily, if people had spoken the literal truth to the Germans back then, they would have indirectly caused the death of the innocent, which would have amounted to joining Satan’s camp. Behind different words, different spirits are often at work. And we need to understand all these.

Reflection questions:

1) Is your speech always accurate, matching godly reality or truth? If not, do you need to change your habits of speech from now on?

2) Do you sense that different spirits are at work behind different words? Why?