<p>23:17&nbsp;<em>You blind fools For which is greater, the gold, or the temple</em>- The idea was that men swore by the greatest thing they could, which means that if they are going to swear at all, they should swear by God (Heb. 6:13,16). However, Jews didn&rsquo;t like to swear by God, and so they had a whole range of things by which they swore- despite the fact that Dt. 6:13 clearly stated &ldquo;You shall fear Yahweh&hellip; and shall swear by His Name&rdquo;. An oath by the temple was &ldquo;nothing&rdquo;, but by the gold of the temple was even more. They were thereby effectively introducing a whole range of possible levels of honesty. Which the Lord had cut right through by insisting that our yes must be yes, without any oaths (5:34-36). James alludes to this by saying that &ldquo;Above all&nbsp;things&hellip; swear not&rdquo; (James 5:12). The importance of absolute truthfulness and not grading the honesty of our words is so important that James urges us to this &ldquo;above all things&rdquo;. Truthfulness with God, with others and within ourselves, is paramount. It is a reflection of our experience of God&rsquo;s total and genuine forgiveness of us. In the forgiveness context, this spirit of truthfulness is what allows us to genuinely, from the heart forgive others not in word only but in feeling and reality.</p><p><em>That has made the gold sacred?</em>- By so saying, the Lord reduced &lsquo;gold&rsquo; to a mere metal of no intrinsic holiness outside the context of God&rsquo;s service. The Pharisees, as many believers today, had isolated aspects of their religion and glorified them in themselves, forgetting the wider context. Thus it may be that a sister focuses on one particular aspect of service until it is out of all context, a brother may obsess about a specific Bible teaching out of all perspective with the rest of God&rsquo;s revelation and intentions. But it&rsquo;s doubtful that the temple of itself sanctified the gold within it- that isn&rsquo;t a Biblical idea. See on :19&nbsp;<em>The altar that sanctifies the gift</em>.</p>