When a Commitment Becomes a Curse
I am your host, Chris Emerson, and I'm here to encourage you with tips and strategies to help you deepen your faith, build stronger relationships, and do the most with your life in Christ. It was a specific instance in the life of the…
Begin with what is true
I am your host, Chris Emerson, and I'm here to encourage you with tips and strategies to help you deepen your faith, build stronger relationships, and do the most with your life in Christ. It was a specific instance in the life of the Apostle Paul where he had been detained in Jerusalem, and a group of Jews had made it their purpose in life to kill him.
And we're going to talk about the oath that those men took in that chapter and see if we can determine the difference between an oath and a curse.
See God more clearly
They put themselves in a terrible position where they could keep their oath poorly made, ungodly in nature, and suffer for it, or they could break the curse and reverse their words. No news on what they did, but if I had to hazard a guess, the mob mentality men of weakness probably disbanded and went home and ate.
So listen, a few days ago I was just reading this story and I circled the reference to the oath in verse fourteen, the solemn one, and I circled the word curse in verse twenty one, and in my margin I wrote oath or curse, question mark.
Let faith shape the response
Maybe it's a vow we take, maybe a promise we make, maybe just some firm resolve we give to God. And no matter to whom it is given, I would argue this today if the commitment you have made is of God and serves God and honors God, it is truly a solemn oath, and you should make whatever sacrifices necessary to keep your word.
But if instead the truth has revealed the foolishness of the commitment, you try to be a person of honor and stick with what you said, but it's just a curse and it hurts you and others, and you're sacrificing things that matter in the name of it, it's time to break it.
Live it today
And listen, your commitments in life need to meet that qualification because it can get tough. Parenting or living at home with your parents, or being committed to Christ, or being patient in a local church, or serving under an eldership that you committed yourself to, or standing by your faith in this sinful world, and don't leave this episode thinking, well, if that gets really hard and I don't want to do it anymore, I'll just call it a curse and let it go.
A curse is a commitment you make that dishonors God, that is not pleasing to God, and the longer you stick with it, the more damage you do to yourself and others.
Take the idea with you.
- 01Where does the central idea of “When a Commitment Becomes a Curse” show up most clearly in my life right now?
- 02What does this episode call me to believe, stop, start, or handle differently?
- 03What is one specific action I can take today instead of merely agreeing with the idea?
Listen to the original episode
This article was adapted from Oath or Curse?. Continue with the podcast for the original teaching in Kris’s voice.
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