Because of His holy character, God has always had high regard for spoken agreements, so much so that even though centuries have passed, the Word He gave us remains valid, faithful and unchanging. He makes a point of fulfilling His Word.

Therefore, it is extremely important for God that we are people of our word. He demands it of us, for He would never accept that we don’t keep our word.

If we look back to the past, we will see that men used to keep their word. There was no need for a contract, a signature or a notary. Someone’s word was enough.

Many of us can see this virtue in our parents and grandparents, but unfortunately, this has been lost in recent times. Men have failed to keep their word. They became people of bad character, who can no longer be trusted.

We can see this in many marriages. People give their word on the altar saying that they will love each other; will be faithful to each other until death; will always be together. However, what we see is an increasing number of divorces. This shows how people’s words have lost their value.

But God remains the same, and He doesn’t accept for those who believe in Him not to keep their word. It doesn’t matter if we gave our word to an unbeliever or even to an enemy! If we made a promise, we have a duty to keep it.

In the following Bible verses, we can see how this is a requirement from God:

“Then the word of the Lord came to me: “Say to this rebellious people, ‘Do you not know what these things mean?’ Say to them: ‘The king of Babylon went to Jerusalem and carried off her king and her nobles, bringing them back with him to Babylon. Then he took a member of the royal family and made a treaty with him, putting him under oath. He also carried away the leading men of the land, so that the kingdom would be brought low, unable to rise again, surviving only by keeping his treaty. But the king rebelled against him by sending his envoys to Egypt to get horses and a large army. Will he succeed? Will he who does such things escape? Will he break the treaty and yet escape? “‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, he shall die in Babylon, in the land of the king who put him on the throne, whose oath he despised and whose treaty he broke. Pharaoh with his mighty army and great horde will be of no help to him in war, when ramps are built and siege works erected to destroy many lives. He despised the oath by breaking the covenant. Because he had given his hand in pledge and yet did all these things, he shall not escape. “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: As surely as I live, I will repay him for despising my oath and breaking my covenant. I will spread my net for him, and he will be caught in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon and execute judgment on him there because he was unfaithful to me.” (Ezekiel 17:11-20)

We can see God’s indignation towards those who lie, deceive and don’t keep their word.

By shaking the hand of the king of Babylon, who was his enemy, the king of Judah took an oath that he would not rebel against him. However, when the king of Babylon turned away, the king of Judah broke that covenant and this angered God. Although the king’s reasons could be fair, as he supposedly wanted to free Jerusalem, he gave his word and he could not go back on it.

If God did not accept this behaviour from the king of Judah, even though the king of Babylon was his enemy, he will not accept it when we pledge our word to Him. What does He expect from us when we promise Him faithfulness and obedience? What would be the consequences if we dishonour the word we gave before His altar?

Meditate on it. Analyse yourself.

If we want to walk with God, we must understand that God is the Word and He requires that each one of us be people of our word!