"I swear to you"

[CrossofChrist]

Does that phrase count as an oath? If it’s not, would using that phrase ever constitute grave matter under normal circumstances (assuming you aren’t lying about something super important, etc).

On a related note, actors in movies who say “oaths” don’t actually say them, correct? (Just read that…might not make much sense…lol )

 

[WillyAL]

Does that phrase count as an oath? If it’s not, would using that phrase ever constitute grave matter under normal circumstances (assuming you aren’t lying about something super important, etc).

On a related note, actors in movies who say “oaths” don’t actually say them, correct? (Just read that…might not make much sense…lol )

In it’s most common usage it’s simply a figure of speech.

Regarding your related note: Right. Doesn’t make much sense. (But you already knew that, didn’t you?)

 

[KendraDZ1902]

Actors in movies are just acting. They are pretending. lol.

“I swear” is typically just a figure of speech. It usually means that you aren’t lying. Like:

Pete: I went fishin’ and I caught me a 15 lb. bass.
Joe: Naw, ain’t no way you caught one that big!
Pete: I swear!

 

[Ignatius]

Does that phrase count as an oath? If it’s not, would using that phrase ever constitute grave matter under normal circumstances (assuming you aren’t lying about something super important, etc).

I wouldn’t be using that expression in a casual way. (That is exactly what “take the Name of God in vein” means.)

 

[spedteacherita]

I wouldn’t be using that expression in a casual way. (That is exactly what “take the Name of God in vain” means.)

I agree - just because it’s a common phrase doesn’t make it less “an oath.” We’ve become too casual in our use of different phrases and it diminishes the meaning significantly but I believe that it still constitutes what we are told not to do. I have a friend who says “Jesus Jenny” all the time - to her it’s a casual phrase but to me it’s using Jesus’ name in vain…that’s a more blatant example but I think we could come up with a lot of phrases that today’s society has made more acceptable in their use…

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

LOL I don’t know about oaths, but I know enough to know if I hear those words, I am being lied to…

 

[hazcompat]

Teaching about Oaths.

Matthew 5:33 “Again you have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow.’ 34 But I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. 37 Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.

St. Augustine would excuse actors to a point.

Peace

 

[DaveBj]

LOL I don’t know about oaths, but I know enough to know if I hear those words, I am being lied to…

^^^This Especially of accompanied by words like “on a stack of Bibles” or “on my mother’s grave.”