Note 95 — XII Perseverance and Prayer
Reading edition
The use of the present imperative in prohibition rather than the aorist subjunctive implies that the thing was being done. That is probably true, for church members have been known to be guilty of this sin. However, it is possible for this tense to prohibit the habit rather than the single act. “Keep on not swearing.” See Robertson, Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, op. cit., pp. 851-54.