Many of us have heard the fable of the boy who cried wolf.

This boy was in charge of watching sheep. He got bored and decided it would be fun to play a game where he would repeatedly say that there was a wolf, causing the townspeople to rush out to save the sheep, when in fact there was no wolf.

The people rapidly grew tired of the boy and his games. Their trust in him diminished.

One day a wolf did come and began to go after the sheep, but when the boy ran to the townspeople crying out that a wolf was after the sheep, no one believed him.

What we say and how we act is important.

God desires truth and integrity in speech. In Matthew, Jesus tells us to let our “yes” be “yes” and our “no” be “no.”

The few verses before this warn against making oaths. Instead of swearing, God desires that we would have the integrity of honoring our word. When we are consistent in keeping our word, we have no need to make an oath, because we have integrity and our word can be trusted.

As Christians, we are to let the character of Christ dwell in us. In word and deed, Christ was truthful, and we are to reflect this.