Taking Vows

Have you ever considered the difference between oaths and vows?

What Is An Oath?

An oath is a pledge to uphold a standard or goal. Candidates for public office may take an oath to uphold and defend the laws of the community. A person declares an oath to bind one’s self to upholding the truth or faith. Oaths are offered to promote the veracity of something being said or claimed. A person lives “up to” an oath.

What Are Vows?

Vows are promises. When a couple marries, we do not say they take an oath to each other. Rather, we say they make vows to one another. Why? A vow is a promise we live toward something. A person inhabits a vow. We associate vows with lifetime commitments. Recently I read that Pope Francis, who lived into his Jesuit vow of poverty, died with less than $100 to his name. A vow differs from an oath. It is a lived reality of the person who takes it. We could say people who take vows inhabit them. The partners live into the marriage. Clergy and religious live into their vows. Religious people, like monks or nuns, are clothed in their habits. The clothes reflect the vow to live in prayer, simplicity, and celibacy.

Snares To The Soul

Why does Jesus warn against the taking of oaths? The reader of the Sermon on the Mount asks why the original idea is not good enough. “Again, you heard that it was said to people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.” (Matthew 6:33) The NIV translates the word standing for “do not swear falsely” as “do not break your oath” while translating the root word of the first as “vows” to help the readability of the translation. Other English translations do something similar. Oaths mean nothing to people without a conscience. Jesus, however, looks at oaths in a spiritual way. They are detrimental to spiritual health.

Why? If we are honest we cannot swear against anything we have no control over. We cannot swear by either heaven or earth. Neither may we swear by our own heads because we cannot control making a hair gray or dark no matter what we might do to color it. Dishonesty is involved when an oath is taken. Matthew 23:16-22 describes the hypocrisy and outright lies involved in considering what is a binding oath and what has loopholes. Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount keeping integrity in our words is more important than any oath. “Let your yes be yes, and your no mean no.” He concludes by saying, “anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:37)

What About Vows?

The New Testament uses the word vow (euche) three times (Acts 18:18, 21:23, and James 5:15). James uses the word to signify “the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well.” Both times in Acts involve a person who is consecrated, such as a Nazarite whose head is being shaved at the end of the duration of the vow. Vows are for the sake of the community. Oaths are binding on a person. They may also be binding one person to another in a subordinate way. Soldiers swear oaths to the King or the Government. This is very much like a servant to a master. Jesus opposes such subordination.

Vows are about giving to the community or God. A Roman Catholic priest explained his vow of celibacy is a gift to the church. Until then, I only thought of it as a gift from the Holy Spirit to the person. His explanation opened my eyes a little more.

Vows and oaths may both be violated. The violating act is infidelity to something, someone, or some people. I see a difference, though. Each demonstrates a lack of integrity. Vows, though, can be restored in grace. Oaths must be retaken after some punishment is involved.