Jesus' Teachings: which have you been most devoted to trying to follow?

[RFayette 🇻🇦]

Temporarily changing thread title to underline that I'm also asking if I missed any.

Not sure if it's missed per se, but I think it's pretty easy for the uninitiated to confuse the standard definition's of murder and adultery with Jesus Christ's definition.

This.  The true responses should be 0 for every single one of these teachings, in the sense that no one fulfills them to God's standard.

[RFayette 🇻🇦]

Temporarily changing thread title to underline that I'm also asking if I missed any.

Not sure if it's missed per se, but I think it's pretty easy for the uninitiated to confuse the standard definition's of murder and adultery with Jesus Christ's definition.

This.  The true responses should be 0 for every single one of these teachings, in the sense that no one fulfills them to God's standard.

I'm not asking if people fulfill them to God's standard. I said in the beginning that no one does.

The point is that "well enough" is meeting God's standard.  If anything less were acceptable, then Jesus wouldn't have had to die on a cross for our sins.

[RFayette 🇻🇦]

"67.   Do not swear an oath "

That's a weird one. So what about ending the oath of office with "So Help Me God?" Is that explicitly forbidden by Jesus?

I think this explains the teaching pretty well.

https://www.gotquestions.org/vows-God.html

It doesn't refer to all oaths, IMO.

[RFayette 🇻🇦]

"67.   Do not swear an oath "

That's a weird one. So what about ending the oath of office with "So Help Me God?" Is that explicitly forbidden by Jesus?

I think this explains the teaching pretty well.

https://www.gotquestions.org/vows-God.html

It doesn't refer to all oaths, IMO.

That resource explains that apparently, the only vows allowed are for legal contracts or wedding vows. It even explicitly says that the kind of vows Jesus frowned upon included "I swear on a stack of Bibles…" So literally the oath of office lol. Am I taking it too literally, or should all Christian Presidents "affirm" instead of swear from now on?

I think the context here is verbal affirmation - more importantly, the idea that you would say something to make it sound like you are being truly honest at this point in time rather than simply always being direct and forthright.  The Bible speaks of oaths in other instances, so I think in instances where it is a bit of a grey area in scripture.  John Piper, a pastor whom I greatly respect, would argue this scripture does condemn swearing on the Bible.  However, upon research, it appears that a lot of the early church fathers interpreted the teaching as simply saying you should be so honest that you wouldn't need to make any additional statement, and that oaths would be allowed.  I genuinely see this as a grey area, though I think the one thing we can say for sure is that Christians shouldn't casually make statements like "I swear on my mother's life" or the like and instead simply be honest continuously; I think this is a bit ambiguous, especially given Jesus's fondness for hyperbole.

https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/should-christians-swear-on-the-bible
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11176a.htm