I think every kid goes through the "tell the truth" phase. It seems like understanding the difference between truth and lies is part of that early childhood learning phase. Sadly, we don't grow out of it all the way. It seems to be something that many of us feel the temptation for or either live in our entire lives. Jesus takes a moment to get into the gnarly bits of it during His teaching we call "The Sermon on the Mount". What he digs into is this Jewish fascination with oaths and vows, something we don't really live in, but it helps us have a conversation about what we do live in.

"You have also heard that our ancestors were told, 'You must not break your vows; you must carry out the vows you make to the Lord.' But I say, do not make any vows! Do not say, 'By heaven!' because heaven is God's throne. And do not say, 'By the earth!' because the earth is his footstool. And do not say, 'By Jerusalem!' for Jerusalem is the city of the great King. Do not even say, 'By my head!' for you can't turn one hair white or black. Just say a simple, 'Yes, I will,' or 'No, I won't.' Anything beyond this is from the evil one. Matthew 5:33-37

The issue Jesus has with this practice of oaths and vows (and they are different, but we won't go into that here) is that is presupposes a world where the truth is NOT told. How can we call ourselves followers of the Living God if we aren't telling the truth?

What's so revolutionary about telling the truth?

If this is such a big deal to Jesus, making it into the Sermon on the Mount, it must be something big. So what if we begin to realize how Jesus wants to heal all of the reasons we feel the need to not be truthful? Think about how many times you've been tempted to disguise the truth, or just reflect on how our world now is focused on what is fake or true?

So let's jump into a conversation about the truth, and how the truth has the ability to change things in our lives.