Commandment #8: Just Say Yes or No.
Mt. 5:37
Commandment 8
“But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.” Mt. 5:37
Sometimes the simplest advice is the hardest to follow. The tongue causes more trouble for mankind than any other part of the human body, yet it is the one most of us find hardest to tame. Nations sometimes go to war for nothing more than loose tongues out of control. Marriages can be shipwrecked and family relationships severed over words spoken in a moment of haste. Nothing is more prone to trouble than this little organ we call the tongue.
James says the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: it defiles the whole body; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. (Jas 3:5-8) As the brother of Christ and a prominent elder of the early Church in Jerusalem, James was aware of the power of the tongue. He had likely heard the poisonous words of the Pharisees who spoke so harshly against Jesus to condemn him. As James the Elder, he would moderate disputes between those seeking to Judaize the new Church, and those who brought news of conversions among the Gentile populations. No doubt there were heated discussions as the infant Church began to find its bearings against the backdrop of the hostile Jewish religious leaders and the Roman Rulers.
Today we live in a world of contracts. The time when simple agreements could be finalized with a handshake have now yielded to a world of legal documents fraught with lengthy explanations created by lawyers in a language foreign to most of us. And for what purpose? To protect ourselves from each other in an age when truth is considered to be relative, or even irrelevant.
Less than three centuries ago, our entire U.S. Constitution was composed containing just over 4,500 words. Today, a personal insurance contract has more, and a typical government bill presented to Congress far exceeds that number. We are drowning in a sea of words.
In the Church, there is no need for such things. We are called to love and honor one another as Christ has loved us. In such an environment, there is no place for deception. Yet still, we remain a people often untrusting of our brothers and unable to be trusted in matters of this world.
Yet life is not always simple. Today’s world is complex in many ways. Negotiation is the word that best describes the way things are done in the modern world. It’s a game of win or lose and often the tongue that wags the longest wins by default. The art of give and take is a topic that fills numerous shelves in today’s bookstores and learning how to outmaneuver the other guy is almost expected of anyone who enters the marketplace.
As Christians, we are told to be fair in our dealings and just in our transactions. We are not always looking to get the best of someone else. We desire for both parties to come away from an enterprise or transaction with a satisfactory result. This is often difficult to realize in the competitive society in which we live, but it can be done. The key to such things is the simplicity of yes and no.
Today the wheeler-dealer is the one who is often the most admired. An honest man can be easily taken in by someone who has no such scruples, but it does not have to be so. A fair transaction can be satisfying for all and should be.
Commerce and trade are not the only functions where simplicity of language is to be honored. In our dealings with each other, we should have working in our hearts the rule of love: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
It almost sounds utopian in nature, but the Lord gave this mindset the highest priority, only second to our love for and fear of God. How simple life could be if our hearts were so set on this way that our mouths could only speak words of love and edification to our fellow man. If praise flowed from our hearts and filled the air with the sweet songs of heaven, how different the world would be.
There is no figuring that needs to be done in such a way of life. Every issue can be settled without controversy or challenge with yes and no answers in the presence of honest witnesses. Putting brotherhood before advantage can eliminate a lot of the problems that often cause strife between men.
A simple yes or no in our daily conversations and dealings with others can bring a great reward of clarity of mind and fidelity in relationships. This is much more satisfactory in the long run than any supposed benefit that comes from having to measure every word for fear of manipulation or loss. And when we desire the same things for our fellow man that we would like for ourselves, we do our best to present the truth as we know it and expect the same in return.