Opus Imperfectum in Matthaeum, Homily 12, Excerpt on Mt. 5:33-37

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Written late fourth/early fifth century.

Source: Oden, Thomas C., ed. 2010. Incomplete Commentary on Matthew (Opus Imperfectum), p. 104-106. Translated by James A. Kellerman. Ancient Christian Texts. Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Academic.

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“Again you have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not swear at all.”

Behold a fourth commandment, which the greedy think to be a very little one, who do not think that to swear honestly is a sin, without which the commandment of the Law cannot stand.  For unless an oath is forbidden, perjury cannot be curtailed. For it is from an oath that perjury is born. For there is nobody who swears frequently and yet does not sometimes commit perjury. For this reason, Solomon admonishes, "Do not accustom your mouth to oaths, for there are many ways to stumble by it.” For just as those who make it their custom to speak many things must also speak importune things sometimes, and whoever makes it his custom to strike with his hand must also sometimes strike unjustly, so those who make it their custom to swear in private matters often also must commit perjury, even against their will, in trivial matters, since their custom induces them to do so. For we do our habit in all matters whenever we wish, but we do not reject it whenever we wish. And Solomon teaches what the sentiment of God is against those who take oaths: "a man who swears many oaths will be filled with iniquity, and the scourge will not leave his house." Thus, if the scourge does not depart from those who swear, how will it ever depart from those who commit perjury?

Tell me, friend, how does it help you to swear? If your opponent believed that you would swear honestly, he would never have forced you to take an oath, but because he thinks you would commit perjury he forces you to swear. And when you swear, he does not keep silent because he is pleased with the truthfulness of your oath, but he leaves as if he had been vindicated by the condemnation of your perjury. For an oath never has a good outcome. Some will think that you have sworn because of greed, and others will think that you have committed perjury. Those who want to think well of you, even if they do not believe that you have committed perjury, nonetheless cannot affirm that you have sworn in truth. Nobody can defend you on the score that you have also acted piously. Consequently, when you swear, you come into opprobrium with your enemies but under suspicion among your friends.

But perhaps you say, "What will I do? He does not believe me or wish to believe me unless I take an oath." Rather lose your money than your salvation. Let your soul seem more valuable to you than your property. If you lose a portion of your property, you can still live, but if you lose God, how will you live? Or do you not know that for whatever you lose unwillingly because you fear God you will have a greater reward than if you had given alms? We are more worthily crowned for whatever we do with a greater struggle.

Behold, friend, I admonish you not to ever compel someone to take an oath. If you think that he is sworn honestly, withdraw from him, or if you think that he has sworn dishonestly, withdraw all the more from him, because even if he has sworn honestly, you have become a reason for his perjury as far as your conscience is concerned because you forced him to take an oath with the intention of having him not swear, but commit perjury. But if you thought that he would swear honestly, you would not have compelled him even to take an oath.

You fool, who forces another to swear, you do not know what you are doing! Even if he commits perjury, he may well commit perjury to his profit, but you are found to be a participant in his perjury without any profit. Whoever does not hesitate to lie also does not hesitate to commit perjury, for whoever lies transgresses the truth in his heart; but whoever commits perjury violates God in his words. What difference is there between violating God and transgressing the truth, since God is truth itself? This alone is the difference: we violate the truth when we lie in our heart, but we violate God with words when we commit perjury, for we satisfy people with a word but God with our conscience. God, who forbade us to commit perjury, also commanded us later not even to swear. Therefore whoever does not fear to neglect the commandment of God in taking an oath will also not fear it in committing perjury. But what do you want? He fears God or he does not fear God. If he fears him, he does not lie, even without an oath. But if he does not fear him, neither can he say the truth with an oath.

Listen, you clergy, who offer the holy Gospels to those taking oaths, how are you able to give no heed to that oath, when you are planting the seed of perjury? He who carries the fire from which a conflagration is set ablaze is not exempt from responsibility for that conflagration, is he? Or is not he who offers a sword by which a homicide is committed an ally of that murder? So also those who offer an opportunity of perjury are a colleague of that perjury. If it were right to swear honestly, you would rightly say, “We give them the gospel so that they can swear, not so that they can commit perjury," but now because you know that it is a sin even to swear honestly, how can you be free when you give an opportunity when sin is committed against God? Let the fire cease, and the conflagration does not come into existence. Take away the sword, and no homicide is committed. So take away the oath, and there is no perjury.

These things are spoken about those who swear by God. The iniquity of those who swear by the elements is all the more damnable. God created heaven and earth and everything else for himself, not for something for people to swear by. Note that in the law it is commanded not to swear by anyone except by God. Therefore whoever swears by heaven or earth, or whatever it is by which he swears, turns it into a god. For that reason, everyone who swears by God through some other object turns himself into an idolater, even if it were right to have taken an oath, because he did not give his oaths to the Lord his God but to the elements, and so he doubly sinned: first, because he swore; second, because he deified that through which he swore.

And see how he explains element by element, why someone ought not to swear by the elements.

"Do not swear either by heaven, throne of God,”

that is, it is not God,

“or by the earth, for it is his footstool,"

that is, not a goddess,

"or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King,"

that is, not the great King himself.

“And do not swear by your bead, for you cannot make one hair white or black."

And of what importance are you that you swear by yourself? You do not have the power even to make one black hair white or a white one black, do you Therefore, whether some-one swears by his own children or by himself or by anyone else, he makes that individual greater than God, at least in his own eyes.