Matthew 23:16 – 22

16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’

17 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?

18 And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’

19 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?

20 Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it.

21 He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it.

22 And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.

Jesus is pointing out to the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees their inconsistencies. He is using their practice of swearing by different objects in promising to do some act.

They claim it is of no value to swear by the temple in making a vow because there is no value to the temple itself, but if you vow to do something by swearing on the gold in the temple then you must keep the vow because the temple gold was holy.

Jesus shows their inconsistency because the gold is sacred because the temple is what gives the gold its significance. Thus the temple must be as sacred as the gold or the holiness of the gold is worthless.

Jesus points out everything in the temple, the gold, the altar, the gift all have the same significance because they are God's home and if you swear by heaven then you are swearing by His throne and God who sits on the throne.

It was inconsistent to say that certain features of the temple were holy, while others were not because they were all part of God's home.

We must realize as Christians we are extolled not to swear by anything, we need to make our promises and answers as just “yes” or “no.”

(Matthew 5:33 - 37[“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’  But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne;  nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.  Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black.  But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.])