People often use an explicative to punctuate the sincerity of what they are propounding. Christians avoid using such language but are not above saying, “I swear thus and so is true,” or “To be honest…” or “I promise you what I am telling you is the truth.” Why do we feel it is necessary to emphasize the truth of what we are saying? Do we not always tell the truth?
When we add to our speech things to impress others with the truthfulness of what we are telling them, we are guilty of manipulation. Why not allow the person to come to his or her own conclusion about the truthfulness of what we are telling them? Does she not have the ability to understand the evidence or to reason out the truthfulness of our statement on her own? Is he not capable of weighing what we have to say and coming to a reasonable conclusion?
Jesus said if we attempt to persuade by adding swearing or promises we are headed for trouble. He advised us to stick with the simple rule, “let your yes mean yes and your no mean no.” In other words, “I say what I mean and I mean what I say.” Anything more comes from Satan (Mathew 5:33-37).
