3-Day Bible Reading Plan: Keeping Your Word
We are so focused on our needs in a particular moment that we use our words to get the other person to do what we want them to do without really thinking through what we are promising. Jesus encourages us to avoid this behavior. Don’t do it, He says, because this is not how followers of Christ are meant to treat one another. We aren’t supposed to be playing a game where we are jockeying for advantage against one another. - Pastor Daniel Johnson, 3/2/25
Day 1
Featured Verse: Matthew 5:33-37 - “But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all.”
What does it mean practically to let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no in a world where exaggeration and manipulation of truth are common?
Why might Jesus connect swearing falsely to the influence of ‘the evil one,’ and what does this suggest about the spiritual stakes of truthful speech?
How does this teaching on oaths relate to the broader Sermon on the Mount’s emphasis on inner righteousness over external legalism?
“Jesus cuts through the clutter of swearing by this or that—He says your word should stand alone, plain and true, because a man’s heart ought to be right with God.” - DL Moody
Day 2
Featured Verse: Matthew 23:13-22 - “Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?”
How does Jesus’ condemnation of the Pharisees for shutting the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces reflect on the responsibilities of religious leaders today?
How does Jesus’ emphasis on the sanctity of the temple and God’s throne challenge our understanding of what makes something holy or authoritative in spiritual life?
What can we learn about God’s desire for authentic faith from Jesus’ frustration with the Pharisees’ proselytizing and their convoluted oath-making?
“Woe to the man who bars the gate to heaven with his traditions, who gilds the gold of the temple but forgets the God who dwells within! Christ’s wrath burns against such blindness that leads the blind astray.” - Charles Spurgeon
“The Lord unveils the folly of those who weigh the gift above the altar, the temple’s gold above its sanctity—what blindness to exalt the creature over the Creator who hallows all!” - Alexander Maclaren
Day 3
Featured Verse: James 5:12 - “Let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no.”
In what ways does this verse challenge modern believers to rethink how they establish trust or credibility in their words and actions?
How does James 5:12 echo Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:33-37, and what does this suggest about the continuity of ethical expectations across the New Testament?
What does this emphasis on plain, honest speech reveal about the character of God and the kind of relationship He desires with His people?
“Let your word be as gold, unalloyed by the dross of oaths; for the Christian’s ‘yea’ ought to shine with the purity of truth, needing no prop of heaven or earth to uphold it.” - Charles Spurgeon
