Good morning. It’s Tuesday, January 2tth, aka National Plan for Vacation Day.

🥳 Congratulations on starting today with God, and thank you for letting us be a part of it.

📖 Verse Of The Day

— Matthew 5:37

🧠 Devotional

I want to share with you an interesting verse, Matthew 5:37, which says, “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”

Now who said this?

Jesus said this during the Sermon on the Mount. It’s recorded by Matthew, the author of the Gospel of Matthew.

What did Jesus mean when He said this?

Jesus is saying that your word should be your word, a yes should mean yes, and a no should mean no.

He’s saying your words shouldn’t come with conditions, hidden meanings, or escape hatches. When you speak, people shouldn’t have to wonder what you really meant or wait to see if you’ll change your mind later.

Your simple yes or no should carry the same weight as someone else saying, “I swear,” or making a pinky promise.

Once you start needing to upgrade your word with those things, extra terms, or explanations, it drifts closer and closer to what Jesus calls evil.

To highlight how important this is, James 5:12 takes the same quote even further: “But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.”

It says the same thing, and even explains it further.

Now let’s look at the verses before and after for context.

Matthew 5:36 “And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.”

Jesus is basically saying, you don’t have as much control as you think you do. You can’t even control your own hair, so swearing on yourself or your future doesn’t make your words stronger. It just shows how shaky those promises really are.

Matthew 5:38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’”

Jesus isn’t changing topics here. He’s widening the point. People were using rules and technicalities to justify themselves instead of living with integrity. The issue isn’t just words, it’s hearts that look for loopholes.

If your words need fine print, something’s off. Jesus is calling us to live in a way where a yes stands on its own and a no doesn’t come with excuses.