United Church of God

The Ninth Commandment: Do Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor

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The Ninth Commandment

Do Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor

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The Ninth Commandment: Do Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor

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The 9th commandment itself does not contain everything there is to be said on truthfulness but as mentioned previously its purpose is to establish the overarching principle of truth as a way of life. How that plays out in the life of the individual and ideally in society at large will be expanded upon in the books of the law, the Psalms, the Proverbs really everywhere in Scripture.

Sermon Notes

In last week’s sermon we looked at the place of Law in the KOG… why it would it even be necessary, who would administer that law… then we spent some time looking at how biblical law is structured… with the royal law at the top of the pyramid, then the commandments, then the statures and judgments.

With the Royal Law establishing the overall motive: Love… followed by the “10 words” or “10 statements” of God setting for the guiding principles of society and personal conduct… finally ending with the 610 judgments, statutes, case studies, example applications and decrees from God on specific circumstances… all of these designed to give us guidance on how to apply the law of God in our lives and society.

Today we are going to zoom in and take a look at the 9th commandment.

The 9th Commandment is “do not give false testimony against others” which carries with it a sense of appearing in a court of law before a judge.  For practical purposes, the command is often taught as “do not lie” which seems a lot more applicable to our everyday lives… a simple principle we can begin teaching  to even the youngest children.  And we do find the short and sweet admonition “do not lie” elsewhere in scripture –  Col 3:9 and Lev 19:11 for example. 

The commandment itself does not contain everything there is to be said on truthfulness but as mentioned previously its purpose is to establish the overarching principle of TRUTH as a way of life. How that  plays out in the life of the individual and ideally in society at large will be expanded upon in the books of the law, the psalms, the proverbs… really everywhere in scripture.

Truth is a core value of the Kingdom of God… it will be the bedrock of society during the 1000 year rule of Christ on earth… and is fundamental to the personal character of those who are born into the universe ruling family of God.

Rev 21:27 liars are excluded from the KOG / Rev 21:8 liars are permanently destroyed in lake of fire

The basic evil of  deception is that its against (or the opposite of) the character of God… the bible throughout teaches that God does not lie, all His actions are just and faithful to His promises, His word is truth and furthermore…  its is a truth that endures throughout eternity… God does not waver like a human… what is true today is true tomorrow and was true yesterday.

By contrast Satan is not only a  liar… he is the one who began the practice of deception and continues to this day to the point where he has deceived the whole world… all suffering, trial and turmoil began with a lie.

So how big a deal is lying compared to other sins?

I believe many in our world consider lying to be a relatively minor sin compared with murder or stealing for example… I mean no one really gets hurt, lying is just words after all… I have even talked with people unfamiliar with the Bible who were surprised it’s one of the commandments.

Lying and deceit is a destroyer like no other sin… lying and lies breakdown our connection with reality… lying and lies breakdown our relationships with one another. Referring back the beginning humanity’s relationship with God is damaged because they were told and followed a lie… and as long as a person is willing to listen to and believe a lie how is repentance and restoration possible? But that’s too philosophical…  what about:

The effect lying & deception has on human relationships?

Good human relationships are built on mutual confidence. Imagine someone finds out you have lied to them… will they ever completely trust you ever again? No matter how many times you tell the truth they will always wonder if what you say is true. Your relationship will always be tainted with doubt. Even if you only lie infrequently… tell a hundred truths for every lie… who will know which is which?

What is lying?

To lie is to recognize the truth, intellectually conceive of an alternate reality, and to attempt to convincingly sell that alternative reality to someone else... to consciously purpose to deceive. And there are many ways to deceive, to avoid truth and to undermine truth.

Slanderous gossip, breaking contract, swearing falsely in God’s name…

You can lie without words: to stand among a group who are slandering another person and act as if you agree or let others think you agree is to participate in the slander itself

You can lie with true words: quoting another person out of context to trick others as to the original meaning… or perhaps you are able to craft your words in such a way as to make yourself appear to be in agreement with them when in fact you are not.

To exaggerate is to lie… hypocrisy is a lying as a way of life… to say one thing and do another… to not follow through on your promises.

We lie to avoid pain and punishment, to increase our status and feed our vanity, and to get things we want but haven’t earned or don’t deserve… which for some probably seems like an excellent list of reasons why selective lying is ok…  Lying is OK when I do it because… well… I have my reasons… but I expect you to be honest with me… but if everyone thought like that, then everyone will lie… and the only way to get anything done in this world will be by brute force… social chaos.

Zechariah 8:1-17

Truthfulness is a core value of the Kingdom of God… honesty and a clear vision of reality will be the bedrock of society during the 1000 year rule of Christ on earth… and is a fundamental character trait of those who will with Christ as a king and priest under Him. Without truthfulness there would not be justice nor righteousness in millennial rule of Christ… the human heart longs for justice but finds the way there blocked or confused by the deceitfulness of our own hearts.

Which brings us back to the commandment “do not give false testimony against others”… where personal honesty is addressed in the public context of a court of justice… the law of God is very concerned about justice… and justice is built on the foundation of personal integrity… but when personal integrity fails or is absent… then truth must be upheld by others who have that personal integrity and the authority to back it up… which leads us back to the court, the judge… and as we shall see the church.

The statutes and examples related to the 9th commandment express the principle of truthfulness in terms of personal character (lying slander etc) but also in terms of judgment… how we judge matters in public or in private… are we honest in our judgments? Are we fair? Are we judging based on how we wish things were rather than how they truly are… do we speak the truth.

Are we preparing ourselves through our own personal conduct the smallest of matters to be righteous judges in the very largest of matters in the Kingdom of God?

Exodus 23:1-9 Case Studies in Truthfulness & False Testimony

Verse 1 Forwarding gossip… you hear something bad about a person, then you repeat it to someone else (perhaps to appear in the know)… but you don’t really know if the matter is true or not… it could be true but you don’t know… aren’t you in effect judging that person? Don’t help someone who may be slandering another by passing it along.

Verse 2 builds on the previous point… if enough people pass it along it becomes assumed to be true because “everyone is saying it”. Agreeing to a matter because of the sheer number of others who are saying it does not make a matter true. You’re in a larger group… everyone is saying nasty things about Peggy-Sue… some might be true some might be false… you say nothing and thereby appear to agree to the groupthink going on all around you… are you not passing judgment on Peggy-Sue?

Verse 3 & 6 to favor or disfavor a person because of their class or status is to let personal feelings come before truth… prejudice means to pre-judge… to have a judgment in mind even before you consider the facts of the matter at hand…

What about the donkey? Verse 4-5

  • An example of personal honesty related to property – use the example of a lost wallet you find
  • A situation or example included to illustrate the concept of even-handed treatment of people… do what is right even to people that you hate (don’t like).

Verse 7-8 a bribe is merely prejudice for hire… can your testimony be bought? – use the example of a purchasing agent… can people buy more favorable treatment from you through the use of appropriate gifts (use example of  teacher)

To live an honest life is part of holiness

Lev 19:11-16 in context of holiness, loving your neighbor as yourself verse 18

Deut 19:15-19 there are always people willing to break the rules to get ahead even to lie about a matter before others. To pre-empt a false testimony more than one witness is required:

  • it would be just that much harder to get two people willing to both give false testimony
  • It would be just that much harder for two liars to keep their stories straight and not be found out

Matt 18:16 – principle of two witnesses in church

I Corinthians 6:1-9 – judgment within the church is expected.

You are training right now to be a judge

You and I are not rulers and judges in this world. We have no authority and no power to condemn or declare innocent. But we do have the small acts of judgment in our personal life… are we truthful in how we treat others… do we pass judgment on others without bothering to get to the truth of the matter? Do we let our prejudices cloud our judgment… do we allow gifts and special treatment sway our decisions?

We also have the opportunity for judgment and a very limited degree of enforcement within the church. We are expected to judge certain matters and to judge them rightly.

And all of this is part of our training to be a righteous judge in the Kingdom of God.