Deuteronomy 5:20 “You shall
not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
Continuing this study of the
Ten Commandments, the lesson states that God certainly puts a high premium on
truth. If we are to be imitators of Him, we must prize the truth as well.
Scripture calls our Creator the “God of truth” because truthful speech and
actions are particularly characteristic of Him. Numbers 23:19 "God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or
has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
All men are liars, but “of a
truth God will not do wickedly”. 1 Samuel 15:29 "Also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He
is not a man that He should change His mind." Worship is unacceptable
to Him unless it is conducted “in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). Moreover, the
incarnate Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, refers to Himself as the truth.
Hebrews 6:18 “so that by
two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have
taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set
before us.
Due to the close association
of God and truth in Scripture, it is not surprising that we would find a law
that emphasizes the importance of truth in the Ten Commandments, which is an
extended summary of the Lord’s will for humanity. The ninth commandment is the
law of which we speak, and it is covered in question and answer 112 of the
Heidelberg Catechism.
Exodus 20:16 “You
shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
This statute is popularly
remembered as “thou shalt not lie,” and lying is forbidden in this commandment.
That is not all the statute addresses, however, and we see this as we consider
the actual phrasing of the law in its context. The immediate concern of the
ninth commandment is legal testimony. Because human beings are sinners and
inclined to tell falsehoods about others in order to advance their own
positions or standings, God’s law deals with false witnesses quite strongly. Deuteronomy
19:15–21 regulates witnesses in the setting of a formal hearing before
a judge in ancient Israel. Anyone found guilty of bringing false testimony
against a neighbor was to be inflicted with the same punishment that the false
witness hoped to inflict on his neighbor. Knowing that one might receive the
penalty he hoped to impose on another through false testimony was a powerful
motivation for a witness to be honest during legal proceedings.
This connection with causing
harm through legal testimony tells us that the ninth commandment bars us from
committing any act that might bring undeserved suffering on another person. The
focus is on our speech, but not exclusively. Words and deeds that unjustly
destroy others’ reputations, harm them in court, or otherwise promote evil and
falsehood are prohibited by the ninth commandment.
There are a number of
different ways in which we can break this law of God against false witness. If
we teach or proclaim wrong things about God’s character, we are bearing false
witness. If we gossip and backbite to destroy how a person is viewed in the
eyes of others, we are bearing false witness. Ultimately, if we do not prize
truth as highly as the Lord does, we will find it easy to break the ninth
commandment. Let us, therefore, aim for truth in all our speech.
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