Bible Strands
Matthew 5:37
Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ Anything more comes from the evil one.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jesus addresses his disciples and the crowd in the Sermon on the Mount, closing the section on oaths (5:34–37) just before turning to retaliation (5:38).
The words — ναὶ (nai), "Yes," and οὐ (ou), "No," are the two words that carry the verse; they are the simplest affirmation and negation in Greek, stripped of any oath-formula.
The thread — James 5:12 repeats the command nearly verbatim. Colossians 3:9 and 4:6 frame the same ethic: do not lie, and let your speech be gracious.
Why it lands — It collapses the distinction between a sworn statement and an ordinary one, so that a person's bare word is already binding. The reader is asked to make their "yes" and "no" trustworthy without escalation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
Cross-references
- James 5:12 Above all, my brothers, do not swear, not by heaven or earth or by any other oath. Simply let your “Yes” be yes, and your “No,” no, so that you will not fall under judgment.
- Colossians 4:6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
- Colossians 3:9 Do not lie to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices,
- 2 Corinthians 1:17 When I planned this, did I do it carelessly? Or do I make my plans by human standards, so as to say “Yes, yes” and also “No, no”?
- John 8:44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
- Ephesians 4:25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one another.
- 2 Thessalonians 3:3 But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.
- Matthew 13:19 When anyone hears the message of the kingdom but does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.
- Matthew 6:13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’
- Matthew 13:38 The field is the world, and the good seed represents the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,