Word for the Week

Sugar-coating the merits

Week beginning: 24th September, 2017 | By Tom Cordrey | London

"Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but fulfil to the Lord the vows you have made.' But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool […] All you need to say is simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one."

Matthew 5:33-37 (NIV)

The blessed simplicity of Jesus' teaching! The Jewish leaders had developed elaborate ways of deceiving people whilst retaining a clear conscience: one example was that if they swore by the temple altar they considered themselves not to be bound by i