To many people, commitment is a scary word. To commit is to determine not just what we do now, but what we do in the future—and who knows what will happen? So, for many it is better to just not commit, but to leave things ambiguous. Most of us, however, recognize that commitments are a part of life. Without a commitment, then who can trust you to do anything? So we make commitments all the time. We promise this or that. We get married. We sign contracts. We rent places and begin utilities. We take on jobs, even employees. Commitment is part of a full life, even if life is uncertain.
But for most people, making a commitment is not the same as keeping it. We can chose to default on a commitment, and it isn’t that big of a deal. Sure, we can promise to be somewhere and then just not show up. We can divorce our spouse because it “didn’t work out.” We can default on a contract and pay whatever penalty is required. We can fail our employers, not pay those who work for us. It happens everyday. No big deal, right? Well, it is for God.
Jesus is speaking of God’s righteousness, and He is saying that faithfulness—fulfilling one’s commitments—is essential to God. God looks at our behavior and determines how loving we are to others. And one of the major measuring sticks God used to determine our love for others is to see if we have fulfilled our commitments.
Commitment in Marriage
You’ve heard the teaching, “Just don’t commit adultery.” But I say to you that if you even look at the opposite sex with desire to possess, then you have already intended to commit adultery, and so you will be judged by God.
Jesus is serious about the marriage commitment. Just because you remain married to someone, doesn’t mean that you have kept your commitment to them. The commitment in marriage means that one remains sexually loyal to one’s spouse. This loyalty is not just faithfulness in one’s sexual practice, but even in one’s sexual thinking. God will judge us for our faithless thinking, as well as our faithless actions. How will we be judged? God will look at even the smallest actions and words to see if we remain faithful to our words. If we do not remain faithful, then we will be judged by God.
This kind of faithfulness is important not only in marriage, but in every commitment we make. If we make a commitment, we shouldn’t undermine the commitment in small ways, or in our words. We must be faithful to our promises in every way, and so be loving to others.
Commitment to not destroy another
You’ve heard it taught, “If you want to divorce your wife, just give her a written notice of the fact.” But I command you that if you divorce your spouse you are causing them to be unfaithful to your marital covenant—unless they have already been unfaithful. This means that if you marry a divorcee, you are committing adultery.
A person can be faithful sexually to one’s spouse, but still be faithless to the marriage. Of course, the main way one can break one’s commitment in marriage is to have a divorce. As divorce was allowed in Moses, Jesus didn’t necessarily have a problem with the act of the written divorce. However, Jesus did have a couple problems with divorce. First of all, a marriage is made by God, so how can a man break it (Matthew 19:6). But in this context, Jesus is pointing out another fact of divorce—that the one writing the divorce is damaging others. Jesus points out that the one divorced (not of their own will, nor did they already break the commitment of marriage by sexual unfaithfulness) has few options but to get married again—and that would cause them to be judged by God.
The first thing is that if we prove faithless in our promise to another, we cause them to be faithless as well. A divorcee will get married again, thus causing the sexual commitment to be broken. A default on a contract means that the other person, who was not defaulted, will have to default some area in their lives to make up for the first person’s default. Broken promises snowball—one leads to another, until it is an avalanche of faithlessness.
The main point of what Jesus is saying here, is that to break one’s commitment is to harm another—possibly to destroy them. When we remain faithful in our commitments, we are doing good to them, even if it proves difficult to us. In everything we do, Jesus says, we want to do what is best for others. And faithlessness is never best.
Keeping promises
Again, you have heard it taught that Moses said, “Don’t break your oath.” They teach you, “As long as you invoke God, you need to keep your promise.” But I say to you, invoke nothing in your promises— not heaven nor earth nor Jerusalem. If you invoke any of them, you are ultimately invoking God— for heaven is God’s throne, the earth is God’s footstool and Jerusalem is God’s city. You might as well not invoke your head, either—it is God who determines what happens to your head. You don’t have the power to make a hair of it either white or black. Instead of invoking anything, just make a promise and keep it. Or say you can’t do it. But if you do anything else, you are an evil person, associated with Satan.
In Jesus’ day, there were many people who invoked God when they made a promise. It was supposed to be a guarantee that they would keep the promise, or else God would judge them with a curse. But there were many who didn’t actually use God’s name—but they would use something that sounded like God’s name. Perhaps it was Jerusalem, or their own head. But, they would say, since they didn’t use God’s name, the oath wasn’t binding. Thus, they escaped the requirement of keeping a commitment.
Jesus, however, busts that whole mentality. He says that the promise is made, no matter what phrase accompanies it or whether no phrase at all accompanies it. Anyone who is interested in keeping right with God will not use shady language to make it unclear what their promises are. God’s people, Jesus says, makes clear promises and keeps them. Or they say they won’t promise something. But they are clear and they have integrity and honesty in speech, at all times.
The results of breaking commitments
Of course, all of us have broken promises at one time or another—whether intentionally or not. However, if we are characterized by breaking our commitments, Jesus says that three things will happen to us. First of all, we become associated with Satan, and we are in his camp. Satan is the father of lies, and those who break their commitments are in his moral territory, and so belong to him. Those who break commitments are judged by God, and so will receive no blessings from God. And, worst of all, those who break commitments will go to hell, eternal punishment.
How can we keep our promises?
1. Don’t make a promise unless you are sure
Sometimes it is easy to say “yes” and hard to say “no,” even if we can’t really do it. We need to slow down before making promises to make sure we can do it. Perhaps we can check with someone else before we make a commitment, to make sure we can really do it. But we should take care that we really can do what we say before we agree to it.
2. If we cannot keep a promise, let the one we made the promise to know ASAP
Sometimes we are unable to keep a promise. We need to do all we can so that we reduce this possibility to a minimum, but we need to recognize that sometimes things happen that could not be foreseen. But if that is the case, we need to let people know as soon as possible that we can’t keep our promise. Remember, if we fail in our promise, we are keeping others from being faithful to their promises as well. The sooner we let them know, the sooner they can find a way to keep their promises.
3. Don’t be faithless in our words or little deeds
If you make a promise, then keep it fully. Don’t complain about fulfilling the promise, or make hints that you might not keep it. Keep the promise not just with your actions, but with your words. And also, if you promise to do something, don’t do a half-fulfillment. If you promise to paint someone’s room, don’t finish half-done. Do this in every area of commitments—fulfill your commitment to the fullest of your ability, whether that be bills or a marriage or a contract. Be complete in your faithfulness.
4. Ask the Spirit for strength to keep our commitments
We are human, and we are limited. We need God’s help to keep our promises and commitments. We need God to give us His faithfulness so we can be faithful to others. If we need God’s help, we need to ask for God’s help. So let’s do that as often as we need to.
Keep commitments, no matter how small
In the biggest way possible
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