Commentary: "The language of Jesus was in absolute terms. As we apply the rule of allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture, it appears that this unequivocal terminology was not intended to be pressed in a literal sense.

Oaths were specifically commanded by Moses: “ Thou shalt fear Jehovah thy God, and him shalt thou serve, and shalt swear by his name.” Again Leviticus 19:12 reads, “And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am Jehovah.”

These commands are explanatory of the Third Commandment. We are not to swear falsely, which is a vain usage of God’s Name. When we do take oaths, we are to use the Name of God in all reverence and seriousness.

In the New Testament, we find Jesus taking an oath while on trial:
And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou art the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Henceforth ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.

Until the high priest placed Jesus under oath, he had held his peace. Once he was put under oath, he affirmed what was asked of him. In addition to this, we find the apostles taking oaths. Paul, for example in Romans 1:9 said, “For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers.” Again in 2 Cor 1:23 he said, “Moreover I Call God for a witness upon my soul, that to spare you I forbear to come to Corinth.” In Galatians 1:20, he affirmed, “Now touching the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.”

If then there are clear commands to take oaths in the name of God, and there are examples of Jesus and the Apostles doing the same, how is it that we find the absolute language of Matthew 5:34 and James 5:12 forbidding the use of oaths. These statements were made in refutation of the Jewish idea that a man could use oaths so long as he was not lying. Also, the Jews taught that one could swear by anything else but God. Jesus indicates that one does not avoid the implication of taking God’s Name when he swears by heaven, or by the temple. All of these are related to God, and thus an oath is taken in the name of God when these are substituted for the word God.

We should realize that what Jesus says about the Jewish substitutes also applies to the so–called “minced oaths” of our day. The substitution of nonsensical terms such as “gosh” or “golly” are thinly veiled substitutes for the name of God. Even the expression “dog gone” is a substitution for an epithet using the name of God. To assume that we have avoided breaking the commandment not to take the Name of God in vain when we substitute such terms is to go directly contrary to what Jesus himself taught in this area. He concluded his teaching with the instruction that we let our yes be yes and our no be no. If one is a man of honor, then his speech will be honest, and he does not need to accentuate it with any call upon higher authority." - Morton Smith