We're in week four of "You've Heard It Said" — a series on the Sermon on the Mount antitheses, where Jesus repeatedly says: you've heard it said one thing, but I'm telling you something deeper.

Today's passage is Matthew 5:33–37. The ancient world had a formalized tier system for oaths — a way of signaling which promises were binding and which were flexible. Jesus doesn't improve the system. He removes the need for it entirely.