<p>5:12- see on Mt. 23:28.</p><p><i>But above all things, my brothers, do not make oaths. Neither by the heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath; but let your yes, mean yes, and your no, mean no, so that you will not fall under judgment</i>- This may well be referring to Job again, in his over-dogmatism brought about by the intensity of his sufferings; e.g. his cursing of the day he was born, and his swearing that he will never confess to being a sinner or admit that his sufferings were justified because of his sinfulness (see Job 27:5 and context). This was the type of statement which he repented of at the end. Similarly, James wants the brethren not to let the emotionally charged nature of their situation lead them to make any other response apart from a humble response governed by the word. Hence v.13 and 14 go on to say that the response to affliction, sickness or falling away should always be expressed in the form of prayer, rather than in self-generated oaths. The stress of &quot;above all things&quot; is hard to understand until the passage in the sermon on the mount which this verse is based on is properly appreciated.</p><p>Mt. 5:33 quotes Lev. 19:12 concerning swearing, which warns that oaths by the Lord's name should not be made lightly but had to be fulfilled, otherwise the name of the Lord would be blasphemed. Therefore the Lord quotes this as saying &quot;You shall not forswear thyself (i.e. swear falsely), but shall perform (His emphasis being on that word) unto the Lord your oaths&quot; (i.e. oaths made in His name). But because Christ so appreciated the extreme proneness to failure which we have by nature, He correctly declared that whatever men claimed they would do 'by the Lord's name' was likely to be &quot;of the evil one&quot;, i.e. the devil of their own heart (Mt. 5:37), and therefore plans to do the Lord's work should be expressed in straightforward, unassuming language. Even with the best intention in the world, the Lord knew that oaths could so easily go unperformed. Christ concluded His advice with His reason for it: &quot;For whatsoever is more than these cometh of the evil one&quot; (AVmg.). The phrasing of James 5:12 is similar, and matches this with &quot;Lest you fall into condemnation&quot;- which connects with the theme of the whole letter, that &quot;above all things&quot; the believer must not give way to his innate evil desires because doing so will lead to rejection at the judgment. And again, he singles out the expression of those desires through the tongue (&quot;swear not&quot;) as being the most likely form of failure.</p><p>The Greek word used for 'falling' here does not carry the idea of falling headlong, as in &quot;Fall from your own steadfastness&quot; in 2 Pet. 3:17, but rather of a more gradual stepping down from their high spiritual position- as if to say that whether they dramatically fell by renouncing their faith or apparently just stepped down a little by responding to the trials given by these false brethren, the result was the same- condemnation at the judgment which James believed was so imminent. &quot;Condemnation&quot; is also translated &quot;hypocrisy&quot;- i.e. they could step down into a semi-spirituality, which was tantamount to being condemned.</p><p>Those who speak strong words with Divine oaths will 'fall under judgment' for those words (James 5:12 RV); if they don't use them, they won't have to have them considered at the judgment. And thus &quot;He that keeps his mouth keepeth his life; but he that opens wide his lips in this life shall have destruction&quot; at judgment day (Prov. 13:3). The children of Edom will have their words against Zion remembered against them at judgment: &quot;Remember, O Lord, against the children of Edom The day of Jerusalem; Who said, Rase it, rase it&quot; (Ps. 137:7 RV). The link between the final verdict and the words we use today is that clear.</p>