Do Not Bear False Witness
The ninth commandment says, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” The first application is in the courtroom, where truthful witnesses are essential to the cause of justice. But the second application is in the culture, in our everyday lives. What are some ways we break this commandment and therefore do not love our neighbors as we love ourselves?
The first is slander. Avoiding it is a minimum requirement for those who want to walk in close fellowship with the Lord, as David wrote in Psalm 15: “(he) does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend.” Alan Redpath wrote, “Slander… is a lie invented and spread with intent to do harm. That is the worst form of injury a person can do to another. Compared to one who does this, a gangster is a gentleman, and a murderer is kind, because he ends life in a moment with a stroke and with little pain. But the man guilty of slander ruins a reputation, which may never be regained, and causes lifelong suffering.” Strong words that do not commend becoming a gangster, of course, but you get the point. Who loves slander more than anyone? Satan loves slander, and teaches all who will learn from him how they can master it as he has. He will teach you how to imagine the worst in people, how to see their flaws or make some up, and then how to make sure others see it, too. But loving our neighbor means we believe the best and speak the best.
The second is gossip. Some have said gossip is “confessing someone else’s sins.” But it is a deadly pastime. Solomon wrote, “…a whisperer separates close friends.” Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy, and he loves to teach people how to perfect this sin and feed others lies they will eat up like candy. “The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body. Alan Redpath wrote, “How many people, especially Christian people, revel in this, and delight in working havoc by telling tales about others.” Maybe there’s a time for us to say, “Hold on, I think we are entering into gossip, now. I am not trying to be a judge or anything, but can we change the subject?”
The third is flattery. “A lying tongue hates its victims, and a flattering mouth works ruin,” Solomon wrote. And he said that a man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet. Flattery is false speech that is used to manipulate or control someone, not to bless them or build them up! Again, Satan is a master of this and used it to manipulate Adam and Eve, telling Eve that if she ate the fruit God told her not to, she would be like God and her eyes would be opened. We would do well to avoid flattery and simply speak truth to one another about the good things we see God working in and through them. Being able and adept at praising others, but not ourselves, is a mark of Christian maturity. Jon Bloom wrote, “Flattery is a lie, masquerading as encouragement, from a selfish motive to manipulate the hearer in order to achieve the flatterer’s covert purpose. Love never flatters others, and wisdom never desires to be flattered.”
The fourth is deceit. The Heidelberg Catechism says this: What is the aim of the ninth commandment? Rather, in court and everywhere else, I should avoid lying and deceit of every kind; these are the very devices the devil uses, and they would call down on me God’s intense wrath. I should love the truth, speak it candidly, and openly acknowledge it. And I should do what I can to guard and advance my neighbor’s good name. One characteristic that makes God God and not human is this: God never lies. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. But Satan is a liar and the Father of lies. That is his nature, and we do not want to help him in his work. Not even a little bit.
The fifth is silence. If someone is attacking the character of your friend, speaking lies about him or her, should you remain silent? If so, aren’t you also bearing false witness? Sometimes we don’t speak up to defend the truth because of fear of man. But in that situation, fear of God must triumph.
If someone is misrepresenting God in a conversation, and you are in the gathering, should you remain silent? If you are a student in a classroom and the teacher or the professor says, “There is no absolute truth,” should you keep quiet? If someone misrepresents the Word of God, should you not speak up? Peter wrote that some twist the Scriptures to their own destruction. How can we stand by and watch in silence? Yes, there are times we should refrain from speaking, and we have to pick our battles. But James said, “whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” We cannot assuage our conscience by telling ourselves we are being wise or we are biding our time when actually we are just afraid. If we tell the truth-speakers to keep quiet and we keep quiet ourselves, we are helping the Father of lies in his goal to distort the truth and keep it hidden at all costs.
Love your neighbor and speak the truth in love.