By Craig Manners
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.” Exodus 20:16 Deuteronomy 5:20.
The crux of the ninth commandment is that we are to tell the truth, maintain and promote the truth, and protect our own and other’s reputations.
God’s design for wanting us to tell the truth is that He loves us and wants the best for us, in spite of our rebellion against Him, so He gives us guidelines for living. In the Ten Commandments as well as throughout rest of the Bible.
Our creator God made us, He knows us, He loves us, and He wants us to be reconciled to Him. That is why He gave His one and only Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross in our place, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
God is a God of truth. He operates through truth. If we want the best possible life we need to trust this and live our lives in light of this. Even seemingly bad things, from our limited perspective, will be worked out by God for our good if we love and trust Him.
“All things work together for those who love God.” (Romans 8:32).
So when we tell the truth to ourselves and to God, and live this out as a natural outworking, we are saying to God that we do love Him and we do trust Him. It doesn’t matter how bad it looks to others, or how disappointed we may be, or how ashamed we are. God knows the truth anyway. It is an act of faith in accepting this and living this out.
On a personal level, I had a bad thing happen to me in 2000, which I had great difficulty accepting for years. You can read about it here. I had to work through all sorts of unpleasant, debilitating issues until I finally came to realize that it didn’t matter how bad it looked to others, or that there were some elements of injustice by the government which I believe led to a miscarriage of justice, but am unable to pursue, or by how disappointed I was in myself for not being smarter, how much it changed what I then wanted to happen to my life. How it changed the trajectory of my life, how much I felt I had let down my family and friends, how much of a failure I believed I was.
That is not true though. It was God’s will not mine, and He meant it for my good. I just needed to accept the truth, about what happened and carry on. Leave the results to God. I can look back and see God at work throughout my life since then and see that I wouldn’t want it any other way. Only God knows what is going on. The big picture. I know He loves me, He has shown me that clearly since 1998, time and time again. Why would I struggle against that? What folly to even try! Am I in a better position than God?
We are forever trying to exert our will over our lives, and others’ lives and circumstances. In a way trying to compete with God. Yet God gives us a much better way, His will. We live better lives if we resign ourselves to His much better way.
Our world, in 2024, is awash with the consequences of widely spread and often forcefully imposed lies. Lies about human purpose, race, climate, gender, sexuality, marriage, history, economics, human and planetary origins, even truth itself.
This situation seems to have happened very quickly, possibly over the past 10-15 years especially, and probably correlating to the increased prevalence of the internet and mobile phones.
Things have led to mass confusion, chaos, political unrest, depression, mental and physical health epidemics.
"Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10)
“Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42).
When we pray, “Not my will, but your will be done,” and “Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven,” we recognize the inherent futility of assuming our will is superior to God's. It is not.
Thankfully, God's ways are not our ways. While we want the way of ease and what we think are good earthly outcomes from difficult situations, ultimately as Christians we want His will. Whatever that looks like, we trust that He knows what is best. So, when we pray like this, we are trusting God to answer in the best possible way, which is His way not ours.
No matter how much we worry, stress or rail against what is going on in our lives, we will ultimately and thankfully, "never prevail against the will of God, which is the only rest for our souls. Our own wills have undone us and are our disease, our prison, and our death, till they are brought over to the will of God." Should we therefore distrustfully strive against His will and prefer our own instead? (Richard Baxter, "Dying Thoughts," pg. 101)
We help ourselves as well as others around us by trying to live as truthfully as we can in our fallen state. Like everything in a post-Fall (Genesis 3) world, we cannot do this perfectly, but with God’s help we can at least try.
There are serious dangers of telling oneself lies, and encouraging lies to be spread and believed by those we supposedly love. We put ourselves and our loved ones in grave peril by not having minds prepared and able to discern the truth and then act swiftly and accordingly.
Telling yourself a lie, deceiving yourself, will only end up confusing your own mind, violating your own conscience, and prevent you from thinking clearly when you really need to, maybe at times needed to save your life or the lives of your family or friends.
You really do need to have a clear handle on the truth to know what to do.
When you deceive yourself, or allow others to deceive you, you end up unable to recognize what is true anymore. You become easily misled, will fall for bigger lies, and become easily enslaved by other people and ultimately by Totalitarian governments.
Thomas Watson, a well-known preacher in London in the 1600s, in his book titled, “The Ten Commandments,” begins his chapter on the ninth commandment by referring to the tongue, highlighting how it was first made to be an instrument of God’s praise but has now also become an instrument of un-righteousness. Like everything else, the tongue is now corrupted by sin and in need of the redeeming effects only available from the Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
The tongue gets many mentions throughout the Bible. Paul in Romans 3 uses the latter part of Psalm 5:9, “Their throat is an open grave; with their tongues they tell lies,” to help him make the point that no-one is righteous and therefore every single person is in need of Jesus.
In Romans 3:19-20 he says that because of this the whole world is held accountable to God, no one can be declared righteous by keeping the law, because there is absolutely no one who can observe the law fully, rather he says that it is “through the law,” that “we become conscious of sin.”
Just think about this one commandment out of the 10. We are told that to keep this command, we are to basically tell the truth all the time, to never lie about someone else, or ourselves, never dob someone in wrongly, never to spread false gossip among people, to always be truthful.
J.I. Packer tells us that lying, “is so universal an activity as to constitute compelling proof of our fallenness. Just as do the locks on all our home and car doors.”
If we are truthful with ourselves there is no one here, or anywhere, who can honestly say they have kept this commandment fully.
James 3, which we read earlier, talks about the tongue being a restless evil, full of deadly poison. We don’t often think of the human tongue as containing poison do we, but just as snakes, scorpions, bees and spiders have poison in their bites or stings, so the slanderer carries his poison in his tongue.
James (1:26) earlier gives each of us a firm rebuke and warning when he said, “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.” He goes on in Chapter 4:11 saying to us, “Brothers and sisters do not slander one another.”
There is destructive power within each one of us from the words we speak. Solomon counsels us that “he who holds his tongue is wise” (Prov. 10:19). We need to practice the art of holding our tongue when we find ourselves starting to open fire with our words. With God’s help we can learn new habits. Proverbs 21:23 encourages us that this change is possible, “Those who guard their mouths and their tongues keep themselves from calamity.”
If we don’t keep it under control, we experience the truth that an unrestrained tongue leads to other harmful consequences. Clement of Alexandria, a Christian theologian in the second century, helpfully said, "Filthy talk makes us feel comfortable with filthy action. But the one who knows how to control the tongue is prepared to resist the attacks of lust."
This ninth commandment helps us to keep a tight rein on our tongues. Watson tells us that, “God has set two natural fences to keep in the tongue—the teeth and the lips; and this commandment is a third fence, set around it to keep it under control.
So, we see in this ninth commandment a helpful reminder of our need, with God’s help, but with our own efforts too, to consciously and actively restrain our tongues. This should be a regular prayer request for all Christians.
Now, this commandment has both a prohibitory and a mandatory part: the first is made clear by plain words, the other is implied. 1: It prohibits slandering others or bearing false witness, and 2: Implies that truth telling is mandatory for the believer.
Two things are specifically forbidden in this commandment: slandering/bearing false witness, and lying. The ninth commandment condemns three things: (1) Speaking that which is false. (2) Witnessing to that which is false. (3) Swearing to that which is false.
[1] Slander/Bearing False Witness. We inter-use these terms slander and bearing false witness here to basically mean the same thing: “making a false spoken statement damaging to a person's reputation.” The word libel is used today to refer to a written slander, as in a journalist’s slanderous words in a newspaper article, and in many cases, slanders become libel in that they end up in print somewhere, like on the internet. So, where we talk here about slander I also include libel.
Jeremiah calls slandering, smiting, striking or hitting, with the tongue. "Come, and let us smite him with the tongue." (Jer 18:18). You can strike someone without even touching them, just with your words. "The tongue inflicts greater wounds than the sword," said Augustine. No doctor can heal the wounds of the tongue!
Some people slander others with such regularity, that their consciences are so seared they would have great difficulty in seeing the error of their ways. For some it is seen as a part of their job, or is seen as the easiest way to get ahead. By putting others down some feel they are elevating themselves in comparison. For many it is an expression of their critical spirit. For all of us it is a part of our fallen character.
Slander is a weapon which hurts people. The slanderer wounds three at once: he wounds him who is slandered; he wounds him to whom he reports the slander, by causing unkind thoughts to arise up against the party slandered; and he wounds his own soul, by reporting of another what is false. Watson said of this in his time, “This is a great sin; and sadly, I cannot say it is uncommon.” And of course, things are no better today, especially with the advent of the internet and social media, where slanderous comments float around in cyberspace for years.
You can kill a man in his name as well as in his person. You can steal from a man by stealing his good name, something which is not easily replaced and can be a costly loss for a man and his family for a long time.
Even people who don’t know God, by common sense can understand the seriousness of slandering and bearing false witness. Diogenes the Cynic, a Greek philosopher in the 4th century before Jesus Christ, used to say, "Of all wild beasts, a slanderer is the worst." Roman ruler Antonius knew how serious it was, he made a law, that, if a person could not prove the crime he reported another to be guilty of, he should be put to death.
Solomon says, "Like a club or a sword or a sharp arrow—is the man who gives false testimony against his neighbor." (Proverbs 25:18). Watson calls such people, “Monsters in nature, unfit to live in a civil society.”
While lying in general is prohibited here in this commandment, what is highlighted specifically is bearing false witness or testimony. Testimony is courtroom language isn’t it. When someone is accused of doing something wrong and is taken to court, witnesses are called to tell what they know about the situation, this is what we know as giving testimony.
There are two aspects to this bearing false witness:
1. Bearing false witness for another; lying for someone to help them escape justice.
2. Bearing false witness against another; as in accusing someone in court falsely.
Courts can only work properly when accusers have integrity with their charges or accusations, prosecutors genuinely aim for justice, and all the witnesses tell the whole truth. If the witnesses give false testimony or do not provide all the facts fully, the person on trial may be punished for something they did not do. But also, someone who is guilty may be set free without being punished and they may commit further crimes and cause others to suffer.
Unless a judge in a court of law is given all the evidence truthfully and fully they are unable to make a just judgement. Therefore, a false witness perverts the course of justice, causing the judge to pronounce a wrong sentence.
The prophet Zechariah (Zech. 8:16-17) reveals how God feels about this: “These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts; 17 do not plot evil against each other, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,” declares the Lord.”
Bearing false witness is lying but is worse than a straight out lie, as it is swearing on oath that your lie about someone is the truth, and most likely being fully aware that the stakes are high and that that person’s reputation, livelihood, liberty, life or assets are at stake because of their false testimony.
Such bold, thoughtful false testimony takes away all truth and faith from among people. If a person would dare swear to a lie what could be trusted in them? Nothing they said or did from then on could seriously be trusted or relied upon.
We are told in Proverbs 19:5 that, "A false witness will not go unpunished." Thankfully many judges are so experienced that they can tell when a witness is untruthful or whose testimony is not to be relied upon. Many a witness in a court of law, thinking they have been clever in weaving such a web of lies designed to trap someone, has been harshly rebuked by a wise judge who then publicly declares them to be an “unreliable witness!”
We are told in Deut. 19:15-20 about the importance of having two witnesses and that, “The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against a fellow Israelite, then the judge must do to the false witness as that witness intended to do to the other party. Such as happened to Daniel’s accusers.
A non-court room example could be when a person of high office, such as a politician or the prime minister is sworn into office, if they hold the Bible and they swear on oath before God and men as they are appointed to their position, they are generally perceived to be taking a serious oath.
It signals that the person will have integrity, be truthful, act justly, be honest in their dealings, do the right thing according to the truths in the Bible, make wise godly decisions, uphold godliness in their behaviour and that they will basically be a trustworthy person.
But what happens if the majority of those men and women who have held the Bible and publicly been sworn into their high office, then proceed to make decisions which go against God, His ways, against what the Bible says, and against good conscience and common sense? Have they in effect sworn falsely?
For example, what if having held that Bible and been sworn into parliament those politicians then proceeded in haste to remove prayer from the opening of Parliament or to corrupt or abolish God’s definition of marriage by amending a law which then teaches, promotes and defends what God clearly says is sexual immorality? Could those people be trusted again? Has their integrity been undermined?
If someone is willing to swear falsely and act falsely what is their oath, testimony or their word really worth?
Truth telling is important because it forms a foundation upon which people can trust. Remove that foundation and you remove integrity, faith, loyalty, honour and trust from society and the relationships which make a society work well.
[2] General Lying: Having looked briefly at bearing false witness lets discuss lying, in general.
"Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord." Proverbs 12:22. To lie is to speak that which one knows to be an untruth. There is nothing more contrary to God—than a lie. The Holy Spirit is called the "Spirit of Truth." 1 John 4:6.
Pythagoras, a 6th century mathematician, when asked what made men like God, answered, "When they speak the truth."
We are told in Psalm 15:2 that, the character of a man who shall go to heaven, is that "he speaks the truth in his heart."
“Lying is a sin which does not go alone; it ushers in other sins. Absalom told his father a lie, when he said that he was going to pay his vow at Hebron, and this was a preface to his treason. (2 Sam 15:7). Where there is a lie in the tongue, the devil is in the heart. ("Why has Satan filled your heart to lie?" Acts 5:3.)
How seriously does God take lying? We are given an answer in Acts 5:5 when we are told that Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead because of their lie.
Lying is a sin which makes men and women unfit for good society. How can you negotiate with someone, when you cannot trust a word they say? Lying undermines the foundations of business, politics, and all human relationships.
So we should, as Jerome, in the 4th century after Jesus, suggested, "Consider our every word an oath," as if everything we say is courtroom testimony. Jesus advises us not to swear at all, but to say simply, "Yes" or "No" (Matt. 5:37). If we are honest, we have no need to take an oath. If we need to in court we need to, but otherwise there should be no need for us to say “we swear this is the truth,” it should just be the truth. A Christian's word should be his or her bond. We should be so bound by the ninth commandment that nothing else is necessary.
So, don’t think that lying is okay just because you are not in a court room situation. No, the principle of holding truth sacred goes beyond the law court and touches all our living. Those seemingly minor exaggerations, the half-truths, and those very common but no less devious misleading silences can all in effect be lies.
Having covered these two aspects of the commandment, slandering/bearing false witness, and lying quite generally and briefly, I would like to draw out 10 points as follows:
And of course it does. Christians are quite often slandered just because they are a Christian. We see it often in the secular media, for instance, which tends to be quite negative about Christians, and will slander, mock and ridicule them as a matter of course.
We see it in public debates about moral issues, such as speaking up for unborn children, and defending marriage and family from deceptive assaults on these foundations of our society. As soon as you are identified as a Christian you will likely be set upon in ways which are far from civil.
The raging mob throughout history more often than not gets it wrong, and is swept up in error, just as a flock of sheep easily goes astray without a trustworthy shepherd. If the secular media is representative of the lost mob in our society today, it is refreshing for Christians who are slandered because they are followers of Jesus, as it affirms in some ways that they are on the right path.
Jesus actually talks about such situations where He says, in Matthew 5:11-12: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
The rewards are not always only in heaven either. We could think of Daniel and Joseph, both blessed in this life after they were falsely accused.
So, while as Christians, we are to absolutely do everything we possibly can to ensure that we do not slander others or bear false witness against others, and that we are truth tellers, we likewise need to be aware that we will quite probably have others slander us, bear false witness against us and tell lies about us.
As long as this is done because we are known as followers of Jesus, then we should rejoice when such things happen. “Let your rejoicing be the witness of your conscience.” Just as no flattery can heal a bad conscience, so no slander can hurt a good one. God will clear up the names of his people. "He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light." (Psalm 37:6).
Remember in the story of Daniel. The men who plotted against Daniel, we are told in Daniel 6:24, in effect falsely accused him and wanted King Darius to throw Daniel into the lion’s den. What happened to Daniel’s accusers? That’s right they themselves ended up being thrown into the lion’s den and being eaten (Daniel 6:24).
Interestingly we see that after all of this Daniel prospered under the reigns of both Darius and Cyrus. Similarly with Joseph, albeit sometime after Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him, we see that God elevated Joseph to high office in Egypt being only second in command to Pharaoh himself. I am not saying that every Christian who gets falsely accused will be materially blessed, but I am saying that we need to acknowledge that God is in control and we are to bear any sufferings as joyfully as we possibly can and leave the rest to Him.
If you are slandered or falsely accused, you should try to make good use of it. As with all times of difficulty or rebuke it is a good opportunity to examine ourselves. See if there is any truth to the accusation in any way. Examine if there is any unrepented sin we need to confess to God.
Remember 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
We could also benefit from thinking about the many times we have slandered others, falsely accused others, and listened to gossip and slander from others when we should have walked away or spoken up for the accused. Seek God’s forgiveness of these numerous times. Seek forgiveness from the one you wronged if possible, as well.
2.Motivations: People’s motives for lying, slandering or bearing false witness are many and varied. It may be due to bitter envy, mischievousness, pride, hatred, revenge, fraud, profit, selfish ambition, or done naively, thinking they are helping someone, or maybe out of a false sense of loyalty, maybe purposefully to hurt someone, or out of self-preservation motives, or to appease an accuser who threatens to charge them if they don’t cooperate, maybe out of a desire for the approval of others, or it could be done due to petty jealousies in relation to someone’s work or sad but true even in relation to Christian ministry and mission work. People who envy someone else’s success will often put them down wont they!
Whatever the reason slandering and bearing false witness is to imitate the devil, who is the "accuser, the father of lies."
3. Do not receive a false report: Just as it is here forbidden to slander or bear false witness, it is implied that we are not to receive slander or false reports before we have examined them. “He who raises a slander—carries the devil in his tongue! He who receives a slander—carries the devil in his ear!”
Our sinful nature would have us hear bad things about others and then pass them on to others. We are required by God to resist passing on slander. Let it end with you, do not spread it. Just think about playing a round of Chinese Whispers, how funny it is to see how different the original sentence turns out. Well how much more would slander and gossip grow and change for the worse?
Proverbs 18:17 says: “The first to present his case seems right, until another comes forward and questions him.” As the old saying goes, we should not believe everything we read in the newspapers, or on the internet or social media, as we may well be receiving a slander without examining it.
4. This Commandment is useful for reminding the church and Christian teachers that they must be very careful not to bear false witness to God. God has no need of our lie. God has provided us with His word the Bible so that we can know Him and teach to others the knowledge of God that He has revealed.
There is no room for adding to the Bible or taking away from it. Some have added human tradition, human interpretation by priests, human authority, extra revelation to man apart from the Bible. Some have neglected the more difficult parts of the Bible, or softened God’s view of sin for modern ears, or just plain made things up to win over followers. Both approaches are bearing false witness to God.
5. The Fear of God is needed. To help us keep this commandment we need something which makes the utmost difference in a person’s whole life, we need to get the fear of God. Why does David say, "The fear of the Lord is clean"? (Psalm 19:9). Because it cleanses the heart from malice, and the tongue from slander. “The fear of the Lord is to the soul as lightning to the air, which cleanses it.”
There is something very attractive about the character of a person who has the fear of God, and who values truth in their life, and who can perceive the power of truth. Such a person stands out and makes such a positive impression on people that doors open for them, they accomplish things, get promotions, attract good friends, are appointed to leadership positions at school, at work, in church, and in their communities.
For the young men listening, one of the most attractive things about you if you are to win a godly Christian wife will be that you fear God, that you are a man of integrity, truth and honesty. When you choose such a wife, these should be some of the key character traits that you look for in her too.
Likewise for the young women listening, a good and wise Christian husband will be more attracted to these character traits in you than your looks. And they should be more highly valued in choosing a husband than his looks or anything else.
Here is some valuable wisdom from Deut. 10:12-13: “What does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear Him, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe His commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?”
That last part is interesting, isn’t it? As with all the commandments of God, He gives them because He loves us, and they are for our good.
It is like a dad telling his young child to “stop” just as the child is about to step onto a busy road and the dad sees a truck speeding toward his child. He gives the command to “stop” because he loves his child, and it is for the child’s own good. Like us with God it is in the best interests of the child to simply trust and obey
6. Love. Jesus tells us that the two most important commands, which sum up all the commandments, are to love God and our fellow human beings. We can show love to God and our neighbour by not speaking falsely, by not slandering, and by cultivating a desire for truth and a desire for good for people rather than ill.
Our fallen nature however is such that we naturally tend to desire ill, so we need to actively change this, and seek God’s help to do so. Love leads to being loving, and it is difficult to speak ill of those whom we try to love and think well of. “Love is that which cements Christians together; it is the healer of division, and the hinderer of slander.” Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies. Praying is in itself an act of love toward someone, and it is difficult to think ill of someone you are asking God to bless.
7.There is a time for keeping discretions to protect someone’s reputation. Theologian A.W. Pink says we violate this commandment “even when we speak the truth, if we speak it unnecessarily and from improper motive.” There are times we need to protect our neighbour by not unnecessarily telling the truth about them. If someone has confessed to God and is dealing with it in repentance, and has confided in you for your help and prayer, you need to be discreet and protect that person by never speaking this truth to others.
8. This commandment also forbids flattery. If slander is saying false things negatively about your neighbour, flattery is saying false things positively, possibly in order to manipulate or win the good graces of your neighbour.
9. Knights of Truth: There is also an implied sense in the commandment that we should actively stand up for others when they are slandered or when we know them to be wrongly accused. A man may wrong another as well by silence as by slander—by not speaking on his behalf.
When the apostles were filled with the wine of the Spirit, and were charged with drunkenness, Peter openly defended them and maintained their innocence. "These are not drunken, as you suppose. It’s only 9 in the morning" (Acts 2:15). Jonathan knowing David to be a worthy man, and all those things Saul said of him to be slanders, vindicated him. "He's never done anything to harm you. He has always helped you in any way he could. Why should you murder an innocent man like David? There is no reason for it at all!" (1 Sam 19:4, 5).
This is to act the part both of a friend and of a Christian, to be an advocate for another, when they are wronged in their good name.
10. Let’s talk generally about truth. Truth is truth no matter what a liar may say. The value of everything communicated is in its truth. If the communications are false, they are worthless. American theologian from the 1800’s, Robert Dabney put it this way, “The usefulness of communicated knowledge to us, depends, wholly on our confidence in its truth. Every lie helps to destroy that confidence.”
Most of our society would not work without truth. Think about education or religion or commerce or government or relationships. How could any knowledge be communicated if truth was banished?
We could say that truth is the foundation necessary for our society to operate, the foundation even of all the other virtues. Truth is synonymous with righteousness, falsehood therefore is synonymous with wrong actions.
What happens to a church when they abandon truth, when they fall for the deception, often conveyed through their wolf in sheep’s clothing leader, that they should no longer trust God’s word the Bible but should now rather exalt their wolf-priest, and trust men calling themselves scientists and critical scholars, rather than God?
They become very lost don’t they! They have no foundations on which to offer anything. They drift into falsehood and hopelessness, blending in with philosophies and idols of the world, which, like a wooden statue, cannot answer our big questions of life, can’t answer prayers or help anyone, let alone save them.
God saves people using the truth and He sanctifies them by the truth (John 17:17), so we see in this the eternal value of truth. We are under high obligation to God. It is to God that we owe a duty of exactness. He expects the truth from us.
So we should have a high view of truth. What we say, generally, and about others specifically, is to be treated seriously. God requires us to speak carefully about people, knowing that our words can cause great pain and damage in people lives. Our neighbours, our fellow human beings, made in the image of God, should be treated with dignity and truth, not lies and deception.
In conclusion, we can see that all this talk about telling the truth signifies that there is such a thing as truth and falsehood, right and wrong, good and bad, justice and injustice.
The raging mob in the West might disagree though, as they storm the gates of our society under banners which boldly proclaim things like, “everything is relative”; “truth is whatever you want it to be”; “love is love”; “I did it my way”; “this generation is different”; “Who are you to say what is true.”
So anything goes, everything is relative, subjective, whatever feels right for someone is right for them, and they demand things which they think is freedom but which in reality makes them slaves.
There is much rebellion in our society against truth. And we see the dysfunctional results everywhere. The more we want to move away from following God’s ways, the more dysfunctional our world will be, because God operates in truth.
We know that God loves truth and hates lies. He works in and through truth, so God’s people are to always tell the truth, to represent the truth, knowing that God is in control of what happens next in their lives. Our part is to be obedient and truthful. If we indulge in falsehood, we can’t expect God to bless us, for things to work out well. That’s a bit like dropping a ceramic mug from a great height and hoping it won’t break. It goes against reality.
God loves truth, and so should His people. Jesus called Himself the “Way, the Truth and the Life,” if we call ourselves by His name we too should be known as lovers of truth and livers of truth. Al Mohler says Christians are called to be the people of the truth, even when the truth is not popular and even when the truth is denied by the culture around us.” Such as it is more and more today.
It is comforting to believers to know that God’s truth never changes, not with generations, not with man-centered movements, not with godless governments. The Bible does not change. The gospel, and our mission, does not change.
God works in our lives through truth. God’s law works through truth. It is truth that we are all fallen sinners. We need to be honest about this and not bear false witness about ourselves as far as our sinfulness goes and our need for Jesus.
Just from this one commandment we can see the truth of that. - The Bible says that “whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, is guilty of all.” (James 2:10).
Every single one of us has told lies, and being aware of this we find that the law has condemned us for it before God, therefore the law has done its rightful work. The law is used by God to point us to our desperate need of a Savior.
It is not just the law that does this either is it? Let’s not bear false witness to this fallen world we live in. We see the dysfunction all around us caused by our sinfulness. It is everywhere. The world is awash with problems, brokenness, false saviours, empty dreams, promises which offer much but deliver nothing, poverty, corruption, selfishness, regrets, bitterness, confusion, mistrust, fear, pain, suffering and death.
However in the midst of all this brokenness there is a bright Light, which breaks through, and overcomes the darkness. There is a strong hand reaching down to us through the darkness of all this hopelessness. The hand of a Saviour. Our only Saviour, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the only name given to mankind by which they may be saved. (Acts 4:12)
This offer of salvation from Jesus is there for all those who reach out to take His hand, who call on His name.
No perfection is required. No good deeds. No works. No dress code. No sacrifice from you. No offering. Nothing but an honest admission of your need, a repentant heart, a turning toward the one who made us and away from the wrong behavior of your past. Don't worry, God Himself will help you to do this too, as He knows you can't do it on your own.
If you haven’t already then cry out to Jesus today, look to Him, reach out and take a firm hold of His hand, surrender yourself to Him and He will then bless you beyond your wildest dreams both in this life and for the rest of eternity.
To the desperate soul, fully aware, with the help of the law, of all his or her sin and failure, there comes the joyful assurance: “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! … Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 7:25-8:1).
Now, that is truth. THE TRUTH. And it will set you free.
(Originally prepared as a sermon on Exodus 20:16 and preached at South Yarra Presbyterian Church on the 25th of October 2015 and updated August 2024. )
Craig Manners (www.CraigManners.com)
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.” Exodus 20:16 Deuteronomy 5:20.
The crux of the ninth commandment is that we are to tell the truth, maintain and promote the truth, and protect our own and other’s reputations.
God’s design for wanting us to tell the truth is that He loves us and wants the best for us, in spite of our rebellion against Him, so He gives us guidelines for living. In the Ten Commandments as well as throughout rest of the Bible.
Our creator God made us, He knows us, He loves us, and He wants us to be reconciled to Him. That is why He gave His one and only Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross in our place, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
God is a God of truth. He operates through truth. If we want the best possible life we need to trust this and live our lives in light of this. Even seemingly bad things, from our limited perspective, will be worked out by God for our good if we love and trust Him.
“All things work together for those who love God.” (Romans 8:32).
So when we tell the truth to ourselves and to God, and live this out as a natural outworking, we are saying to God that we do love Him and we do trust Him. It doesn’t matter how bad it looks to others, or how disappointed we may be, or how ashamed we are. God knows the truth anyway. It is an act of faith in accepting this and living this out.
On a personal level, I had a bad thing happen to me in 2000, which I had great difficulty accepting for years. You can read about it here. I had to work through all sorts of unpleasant, debilitating issues until I finally came to realize that it didn’t matter how bad it looked to others, or that there were some elements of injustice by the government which I believe led to a miscarriage of justice, but am unable to pursue, or by how disappointed I was in myself for not being smarter, how much it changed what I then wanted to happen to my life. How it changed the trajectory of my life, how much I felt I had let down my family and friends, how much of a failure I believed I was.
That is not true though. It was God’s will not mine, and He meant it for my good. I just needed to accept the truth, about what happened and carry on. Leave the results to God. I can look back and see God at work throughout my life since then and see that I wouldn’t want it any other way. Only God knows what is going on. The big picture. I know He loves me, He has shown me that clearly since 1998, time and time again. Why would I struggle against that? What folly to even try! Am I in a better position than God?
We are forever trying to exert our will over our lives, and others’ lives and circumstances. In a way trying to compete with God. Yet God gives us a much better way, His will. We live better lives if we resign ourselves to His much better way.
Our world, in 2024, is awash with the consequences of widely spread and often forcefully imposed lies. Lies about human purpose, race, climate, gender, sexuality, marriage, history, economics, human and planetary origins, even truth itself.
This situation seems to have happened very quickly, possibly over the past 10-15 years especially, and probably correlating to the increased prevalence of the internet and mobile phones.
Things have led to mass confusion, chaos, political unrest, depression, mental and physical health epidemics.
"Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10)
“Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42).
When we pray, “Not my will, but your will be done,” and “Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven,” we recognize the inherent futility of assuming our will is superior to God's. It is not.
Thankfully, God's ways are not our ways. While we want the way of ease and what we think are good earthly outcomes from difficult situations, ultimately as Christians we want His will. Whatever that looks like, we trust that He knows what is best. So, when we pray like this, we are trusting God to answer in the best possible way, which is His way not ours.
No matter how much we worry, stress or rail against what is going on in our lives, we will ultimately and thankfully, "never prevail against the will of God, which is the only rest for our souls. Our own wills have undone us and are our disease, our prison, and our death, till they are brought over to the will of God." Should we therefore distrustfully strive against His will and prefer our own instead? (Richard Baxter, "Dying Thoughts," pg. 101)
We help ourselves as well as others around us by trying to live as truthfully as we can in our fallen state. Like everything in a post-Fall (Genesis 3) world, we cannot do this perfectly, but with God’s help we can at least try.
There are serious dangers of telling oneself lies, and encouraging lies to be spread and believed by those we supposedly love. We put ourselves and our loved ones in grave peril by not having minds prepared and able to discern the truth and then act swiftly and accordingly.
Telling yourself a lie, deceiving yourself, will only end up confusing your own mind, violating your own conscience, and prevent you from thinking clearly when you really need to, maybe at times needed to save your life or the lives of your family or friends.
You really do need to have a clear handle on the truth to know what to do.
When you deceive yourself, or allow others to deceive you, you end up unable to recognize what is true anymore. You become easily misled, will fall for bigger lies, and become easily enslaved by other people and ultimately by Totalitarian governments.
Thomas Watson, a well-known preacher in London in the 1600s, in his book titled, “The Ten Commandments,” begins his chapter on the ninth commandment by referring to the tongue, highlighting how it was first made to be an instrument of God’s praise but has now also become an instrument of un-righteousness. Like everything else, the tongue is now corrupted by sin and in need of the redeeming effects only available from the Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
The tongue gets many mentions throughout the Bible. Paul in Romans 3 uses the latter part of Psalm 5:9, “Their throat is an open grave; with their tongues they tell lies,” to help him make the point that no-one is righteous and therefore every single person is in need of Jesus.
In Romans 3:19-20 he says that because of this the whole world is held accountable to God, no one can be declared righteous by keeping the law, because there is absolutely no one who can observe the law fully, rather he says that it is “through the law,” that “we become conscious of sin.”
Just think about this one commandment out of the 10. We are told that to keep this command, we are to basically tell the truth all the time, to never lie about someone else, or ourselves, never dob someone in wrongly, never to spread false gossip among people, to always be truthful.
J.I. Packer tells us that lying, “is so universal an activity as to constitute compelling proof of our fallenness. Just as do the locks on all our home and car doors.”
If we are truthful with ourselves there is no one here, or anywhere, who can honestly say they have kept this commandment fully.
James 3, which we read earlier, talks about the tongue being a restless evil, full of deadly poison. We don’t often think of the human tongue as containing poison do we, but just as snakes, scorpions, bees and spiders have poison in their bites or stings, so the slanderer carries his poison in his tongue.
James (1:26) earlier gives each of us a firm rebuke and warning when he said, “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.” He goes on in Chapter 4:11 saying to us, “Brothers and sisters do not slander one another.”
There is destructive power within each one of us from the words we speak. Solomon counsels us that “he who holds his tongue is wise” (Prov. 10:19). We need to practice the art of holding our tongue when we find ourselves starting to open fire with our words. With God’s help we can learn new habits. Proverbs 21:23 encourages us that this change is possible, “Those who guard their mouths and their tongues keep themselves from calamity.”
If we don’t keep it under control, we experience the truth that an unrestrained tongue leads to other harmful consequences. Clement of Alexandria, a Christian theologian in the second century, helpfully said, "Filthy talk makes us feel comfortable with filthy action. But the one who knows how to control the tongue is prepared to resist the attacks of lust."
This ninth commandment helps us to keep a tight rein on our tongues. Watson tells us that, “God has set two natural fences to keep in the tongue—the teeth and the lips; and this commandment is a third fence, set around it to keep it under control.
So, we see in this ninth commandment a helpful reminder of our need, with God’s help, but with our own efforts too, to consciously and actively restrain our tongues. This should be a regular prayer request for all Christians.
Now, this commandment has both a prohibitory and a mandatory part: the first is made clear by plain words, the other is implied. 1: It prohibits slandering others or bearing false witness, and 2: Implies that truth telling is mandatory for the believer.
Two things are specifically forbidden in this commandment: slandering/bearing false witness, and lying. The ninth commandment condemns three things: (1) Speaking that which is false. (2) Witnessing to that which is false. (3) Swearing to that which is false.
[1] Slander/Bearing False Witness. We inter-use these terms slander and bearing false witness here to basically mean the same thing: “making a false spoken statement damaging to a person's reputation.” The word libel is used today to refer to a written slander, as in a journalist’s slanderous words in a newspaper article, and in many cases, slanders become libel in that they end up in print somewhere, like on the internet. So, where we talk here about slander I also include libel.
Jeremiah calls slandering, smiting, striking or hitting, with the tongue. "Come, and let us smite him with the tongue." (Jer 18:18). You can strike someone without even touching them, just with your words. "The tongue inflicts greater wounds than the sword," said Augustine. No doctor can heal the wounds of the tongue!
Some people slander others with such regularity, that their consciences are so seared they would have great difficulty in seeing the error of their ways. For some it is seen as a part of their job, or is seen as the easiest way to get ahead. By putting others down some feel they are elevating themselves in comparison. For many it is an expression of their critical spirit. For all of us it is a part of our fallen character.
Slander is a weapon which hurts people. The slanderer wounds three at once: he wounds him who is slandered; he wounds him to whom he reports the slander, by causing unkind thoughts to arise up against the party slandered; and he wounds his own soul, by reporting of another what is false. Watson said of this in his time, “This is a great sin; and sadly, I cannot say it is uncommon.” And of course, things are no better today, especially with the advent of the internet and social media, where slanderous comments float around in cyberspace for years.
You can kill a man in his name as well as in his person. You can steal from a man by stealing his good name, something which is not easily replaced and can be a costly loss for a man and his family for a long time.
Even people who don’t know God, by common sense can understand the seriousness of slandering and bearing false witness. Diogenes the Cynic, a Greek philosopher in the 4th century before Jesus Christ, used to say, "Of all wild beasts, a slanderer is the worst." Roman ruler Antonius knew how serious it was, he made a law, that, if a person could not prove the crime he reported another to be guilty of, he should be put to death.
Solomon says, "Like a club or a sword or a sharp arrow—is the man who gives false testimony against his neighbor." (Proverbs 25:18). Watson calls such people, “Monsters in nature, unfit to live in a civil society.”
While lying in general is prohibited here in this commandment, what is highlighted specifically is bearing false witness or testimony. Testimony is courtroom language isn’t it. When someone is accused of doing something wrong and is taken to court, witnesses are called to tell what they know about the situation, this is what we know as giving testimony.
There are two aspects to this bearing false witness:
1. Bearing false witness for another; lying for someone to help them escape justice.
2. Bearing false witness against another; as in accusing someone in court falsely.
Courts can only work properly when accusers have integrity with their charges or accusations, prosecutors genuinely aim for justice, and all the witnesses tell the whole truth. If the witnesses give false testimony or do not provide all the facts fully, the person on trial may be punished for something they did not do. But also, someone who is guilty may be set free without being punished and they may commit further crimes and cause others to suffer.
Unless a judge in a court of law is given all the evidence truthfully and fully they are unable to make a just judgement. Therefore, a false witness perverts the course of justice, causing the judge to pronounce a wrong sentence.
The prophet Zechariah (Zech. 8:16-17) reveals how God feels about this: “These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts; 17 do not plot evil against each other, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,” declares the Lord.”
Bearing false witness is lying but is worse than a straight out lie, as it is swearing on oath that your lie about someone is the truth, and most likely being fully aware that the stakes are high and that that person’s reputation, livelihood, liberty, life or assets are at stake because of their false testimony.
Such bold, thoughtful false testimony takes away all truth and faith from among people. If a person would dare swear to a lie what could be trusted in them? Nothing they said or did from then on could seriously be trusted or relied upon.
We are told in Proverbs 19:5 that, "A false witness will not go unpunished." Thankfully many judges are so experienced that they can tell when a witness is untruthful or whose testimony is not to be relied upon. Many a witness in a court of law, thinking they have been clever in weaving such a web of lies designed to trap someone, has been harshly rebuked by a wise judge who then publicly declares them to be an “unreliable witness!”
We are told in Deut. 19:15-20 about the importance of having two witnesses and that, “The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against a fellow Israelite, then the judge must do to the false witness as that witness intended to do to the other party. Such as happened to Daniel’s accusers.
A non-court room example could be when a person of high office, such as a politician or the prime minister is sworn into office, if they hold the Bible and they swear on oath before God and men as they are appointed to their position, they are generally perceived to be taking a serious oath.
It signals that the person will have integrity, be truthful, act justly, be honest in their dealings, do the right thing according to the truths in the Bible, make wise godly decisions, uphold godliness in their behaviour and that they will basically be a trustworthy person.
But what happens if the majority of those men and women who have held the Bible and publicly been sworn into their high office, then proceed to make decisions which go against God, His ways, against what the Bible says, and against good conscience and common sense? Have they in effect sworn falsely?
For example, what if having held that Bible and been sworn into parliament those politicians then proceeded in haste to remove prayer from the opening of Parliament or to corrupt or abolish God’s definition of marriage by amending a law which then teaches, promotes and defends what God clearly says is sexual immorality? Could those people be trusted again? Has their integrity been undermined?
If someone is willing to swear falsely and act falsely what is their oath, testimony or their word really worth?
Truth telling is important because it forms a foundation upon which people can trust. Remove that foundation and you remove integrity, faith, loyalty, honour and trust from society and the relationships which make a society work well.
[2] General Lying: Having looked briefly at bearing false witness lets discuss lying, in general.
"Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord." Proverbs 12:22. To lie is to speak that which one knows to be an untruth. There is nothing more contrary to God—than a lie. The Holy Spirit is called the "Spirit of Truth." 1 John 4:6.
Pythagoras, a 6th century mathematician, when asked what made men like God, answered, "When they speak the truth."
We are told in Psalm 15:2 that, the character of a man who shall go to heaven, is that "he speaks the truth in his heart."
“Lying is a sin which does not go alone; it ushers in other sins. Absalom told his father a lie, when he said that he was going to pay his vow at Hebron, and this was a preface to his treason. (2 Sam 15:7). Where there is a lie in the tongue, the devil is in the heart. ("Why has Satan filled your heart to lie?" Acts 5:3.)
How seriously does God take lying? We are given an answer in Acts 5:5 when we are told that Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead because of their lie.
Lying is a sin which makes men and women unfit for good society. How can you negotiate with someone, when you cannot trust a word they say? Lying undermines the foundations of business, politics, and all human relationships.
So we should, as Jerome, in the 4th century after Jesus, suggested, "Consider our every word an oath," as if everything we say is courtroom testimony. Jesus advises us not to swear at all, but to say simply, "Yes" or "No" (Matt. 5:37). If we are honest, we have no need to take an oath. If we need to in court we need to, but otherwise there should be no need for us to say “we swear this is the truth,” it should just be the truth. A Christian's word should be his or her bond. We should be so bound by the ninth commandment that nothing else is necessary.
So, don’t think that lying is okay just because you are not in a court room situation. No, the principle of holding truth sacred goes beyond the law court and touches all our living. Those seemingly minor exaggerations, the half-truths, and those very common but no less devious misleading silences can all in effect be lies.
Having covered these two aspects of the commandment, slandering/bearing false witness, and lying quite generally and briefly, I would like to draw out 10 points as follows:
- We find, in the Bible and in life, that it is common for God’s people to be slandered and falsely accused.
And of course it does. Christians are quite often slandered just because they are a Christian. We see it often in the secular media, for instance, which tends to be quite negative about Christians, and will slander, mock and ridicule them as a matter of course.
We see it in public debates about moral issues, such as speaking up for unborn children, and defending marriage and family from deceptive assaults on these foundations of our society. As soon as you are identified as a Christian you will likely be set upon in ways which are far from civil.
The raging mob throughout history more often than not gets it wrong, and is swept up in error, just as a flock of sheep easily goes astray without a trustworthy shepherd. If the secular media is representative of the lost mob in our society today, it is refreshing for Christians who are slandered because they are followers of Jesus, as it affirms in some ways that they are on the right path.
Jesus actually talks about such situations where He says, in Matthew 5:11-12: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
The rewards are not always only in heaven either. We could think of Daniel and Joseph, both blessed in this life after they were falsely accused.
So, while as Christians, we are to absolutely do everything we possibly can to ensure that we do not slander others or bear false witness against others, and that we are truth tellers, we likewise need to be aware that we will quite probably have others slander us, bear false witness against us and tell lies about us.
As long as this is done because we are known as followers of Jesus, then we should rejoice when such things happen. “Let your rejoicing be the witness of your conscience.” Just as no flattery can heal a bad conscience, so no slander can hurt a good one. God will clear up the names of his people. "He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light." (Psalm 37:6).
Remember in the story of Daniel. The men who plotted against Daniel, we are told in Daniel 6:24, in effect falsely accused him and wanted King Darius to throw Daniel into the lion’s den. What happened to Daniel’s accusers? That’s right they themselves ended up being thrown into the lion’s den and being eaten (Daniel 6:24).
Interestingly we see that after all of this Daniel prospered under the reigns of both Darius and Cyrus. Similarly with Joseph, albeit sometime after Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him, we see that God elevated Joseph to high office in Egypt being only second in command to Pharaoh himself. I am not saying that every Christian who gets falsely accused will be materially blessed, but I am saying that we need to acknowledge that God is in control and we are to bear any sufferings as joyfully as we possibly can and leave the rest to Him.
If you are slandered or falsely accused, you should try to make good use of it. As with all times of difficulty or rebuke it is a good opportunity to examine ourselves. See if there is any truth to the accusation in any way. Examine if there is any unrepented sin we need to confess to God.
Remember 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
We could also benefit from thinking about the many times we have slandered others, falsely accused others, and listened to gossip and slander from others when we should have walked away or spoken up for the accused. Seek God’s forgiveness of these numerous times. Seek forgiveness from the one you wronged if possible, as well.
2.Motivations: People’s motives for lying, slandering or bearing false witness are many and varied. It may be due to bitter envy, mischievousness, pride, hatred, revenge, fraud, profit, selfish ambition, or done naively, thinking they are helping someone, or maybe out of a false sense of loyalty, maybe purposefully to hurt someone, or out of self-preservation motives, or to appease an accuser who threatens to charge them if they don’t cooperate, maybe out of a desire for the approval of others, or it could be done due to petty jealousies in relation to someone’s work or sad but true even in relation to Christian ministry and mission work. People who envy someone else’s success will often put them down wont they!
Whatever the reason slandering and bearing false witness is to imitate the devil, who is the "accuser, the father of lies."
3. Do not receive a false report: Just as it is here forbidden to slander or bear false witness, it is implied that we are not to receive slander or false reports before we have examined them. “He who raises a slander—carries the devil in his tongue! He who receives a slander—carries the devil in his ear!”
Our sinful nature would have us hear bad things about others and then pass them on to others. We are required by God to resist passing on slander. Let it end with you, do not spread it. Just think about playing a round of Chinese Whispers, how funny it is to see how different the original sentence turns out. Well how much more would slander and gossip grow and change for the worse?
Proverbs 18:17 says: “The first to present his case seems right, until another comes forward and questions him.” As the old saying goes, we should not believe everything we read in the newspapers, or on the internet or social media, as we may well be receiving a slander without examining it.
4. This Commandment is useful for reminding the church and Christian teachers that they must be very careful not to bear false witness to God. God has no need of our lie. God has provided us with His word the Bible so that we can know Him and teach to others the knowledge of God that He has revealed.
There is no room for adding to the Bible or taking away from it. Some have added human tradition, human interpretation by priests, human authority, extra revelation to man apart from the Bible. Some have neglected the more difficult parts of the Bible, or softened God’s view of sin for modern ears, or just plain made things up to win over followers. Both approaches are bearing false witness to God.
5. The Fear of God is needed. To help us keep this commandment we need something which makes the utmost difference in a person’s whole life, we need to get the fear of God. Why does David say, "The fear of the Lord is clean"? (Psalm 19:9). Because it cleanses the heart from malice, and the tongue from slander. “The fear of the Lord is to the soul as lightning to the air, which cleanses it.”
There is something very attractive about the character of a person who has the fear of God, and who values truth in their life, and who can perceive the power of truth. Such a person stands out and makes such a positive impression on people that doors open for them, they accomplish things, get promotions, attract good friends, are appointed to leadership positions at school, at work, in church, and in their communities.
For the young men listening, one of the most attractive things about you if you are to win a godly Christian wife will be that you fear God, that you are a man of integrity, truth and honesty. When you choose such a wife, these should be some of the key character traits that you look for in her too.
Likewise for the young women listening, a good and wise Christian husband will be more attracted to these character traits in you than your looks. And they should be more highly valued in choosing a husband than his looks or anything else.
Here is some valuable wisdom from Deut. 10:12-13: “What does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear Him, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe His commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?”
That last part is interesting, isn’t it? As with all the commandments of God, He gives them because He loves us, and they are for our good.
It is like a dad telling his young child to “stop” just as the child is about to step onto a busy road and the dad sees a truck speeding toward his child. He gives the command to “stop” because he loves his child, and it is for the child’s own good. Like us with God it is in the best interests of the child to simply trust and obey
6. Love. Jesus tells us that the two most important commands, which sum up all the commandments, are to love God and our fellow human beings. We can show love to God and our neighbour by not speaking falsely, by not slandering, and by cultivating a desire for truth and a desire for good for people rather than ill.
Our fallen nature however is such that we naturally tend to desire ill, so we need to actively change this, and seek God’s help to do so. Love leads to being loving, and it is difficult to speak ill of those whom we try to love and think well of. “Love is that which cements Christians together; it is the healer of division, and the hinderer of slander.” Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies. Praying is in itself an act of love toward someone, and it is difficult to think ill of someone you are asking God to bless.
7.There is a time for keeping discretions to protect someone’s reputation. Theologian A.W. Pink says we violate this commandment “even when we speak the truth, if we speak it unnecessarily and from improper motive.” There are times we need to protect our neighbour by not unnecessarily telling the truth about them. If someone has confessed to God and is dealing with it in repentance, and has confided in you for your help and prayer, you need to be discreet and protect that person by never speaking this truth to others.
8. This commandment also forbids flattery. If slander is saying false things negatively about your neighbour, flattery is saying false things positively, possibly in order to manipulate or win the good graces of your neighbour.
9. Knights of Truth: There is also an implied sense in the commandment that we should actively stand up for others when they are slandered or when we know them to be wrongly accused. A man may wrong another as well by silence as by slander—by not speaking on his behalf.
When the apostles were filled with the wine of the Spirit, and were charged with drunkenness, Peter openly defended them and maintained their innocence. "These are not drunken, as you suppose. It’s only 9 in the morning" (Acts 2:15). Jonathan knowing David to be a worthy man, and all those things Saul said of him to be slanders, vindicated him. "He's never done anything to harm you. He has always helped you in any way he could. Why should you murder an innocent man like David? There is no reason for it at all!" (1 Sam 19:4, 5).
This is to act the part both of a friend and of a Christian, to be an advocate for another, when they are wronged in their good name.
10. Let’s talk generally about truth. Truth is truth no matter what a liar may say. The value of everything communicated is in its truth. If the communications are false, they are worthless. American theologian from the 1800’s, Robert Dabney put it this way, “The usefulness of communicated knowledge to us, depends, wholly on our confidence in its truth. Every lie helps to destroy that confidence.”
Most of our society would not work without truth. Think about education or religion or commerce or government or relationships. How could any knowledge be communicated if truth was banished?
We could say that truth is the foundation necessary for our society to operate, the foundation even of all the other virtues. Truth is synonymous with righteousness, falsehood therefore is synonymous with wrong actions.
What happens to a church when they abandon truth, when they fall for the deception, often conveyed through their wolf in sheep’s clothing leader, that they should no longer trust God’s word the Bible but should now rather exalt their wolf-priest, and trust men calling themselves scientists and critical scholars, rather than God?
They become very lost don’t they! They have no foundations on which to offer anything. They drift into falsehood and hopelessness, blending in with philosophies and idols of the world, which, like a wooden statue, cannot answer our big questions of life, can’t answer prayers or help anyone, let alone save them.
God saves people using the truth and He sanctifies them by the truth (John 17:17), so we see in this the eternal value of truth. We are under high obligation to God. It is to God that we owe a duty of exactness. He expects the truth from us.
So we should have a high view of truth. What we say, generally, and about others specifically, is to be treated seriously. God requires us to speak carefully about people, knowing that our words can cause great pain and damage in people lives. Our neighbours, our fellow human beings, made in the image of God, should be treated with dignity and truth, not lies and deception.
In conclusion, we can see that all this talk about telling the truth signifies that there is such a thing as truth and falsehood, right and wrong, good and bad, justice and injustice.
The raging mob in the West might disagree though, as they storm the gates of our society under banners which boldly proclaim things like, “everything is relative”; “truth is whatever you want it to be”; “love is love”; “I did it my way”; “this generation is different”; “Who are you to say what is true.”
So anything goes, everything is relative, subjective, whatever feels right for someone is right for them, and they demand things which they think is freedom but which in reality makes them slaves.
There is much rebellion in our society against truth. And we see the dysfunctional results everywhere. The more we want to move away from following God’s ways, the more dysfunctional our world will be, because God operates in truth.
We know that God loves truth and hates lies. He works in and through truth, so God’s people are to always tell the truth, to represent the truth, knowing that God is in control of what happens next in their lives. Our part is to be obedient and truthful. If we indulge in falsehood, we can’t expect God to bless us, for things to work out well. That’s a bit like dropping a ceramic mug from a great height and hoping it won’t break. It goes against reality.
God loves truth, and so should His people. Jesus called Himself the “Way, the Truth and the Life,” if we call ourselves by His name we too should be known as lovers of truth and livers of truth. Al Mohler says Christians are called to be the people of the truth, even when the truth is not popular and even when the truth is denied by the culture around us.” Such as it is more and more today.
It is comforting to believers to know that God’s truth never changes, not with generations, not with man-centered movements, not with godless governments. The Bible does not change. The gospel, and our mission, does not change.
God works in our lives through truth. God’s law works through truth. It is truth that we are all fallen sinners. We need to be honest about this and not bear false witness about ourselves as far as our sinfulness goes and our need for Jesus.
Just from this one commandment we can see the truth of that. - The Bible says that “whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, is guilty of all.” (James 2:10).
Every single one of us has told lies, and being aware of this we find that the law has condemned us for it before God, therefore the law has done its rightful work. The law is used by God to point us to our desperate need of a Savior.
It is not just the law that does this either is it? Let’s not bear false witness to this fallen world we live in. We see the dysfunction all around us caused by our sinfulness. It is everywhere. The world is awash with problems, brokenness, false saviours, empty dreams, promises which offer much but deliver nothing, poverty, corruption, selfishness, regrets, bitterness, confusion, mistrust, fear, pain, suffering and death.
However in the midst of all this brokenness there is a bright Light, which breaks through, and overcomes the darkness. There is a strong hand reaching down to us through the darkness of all this hopelessness. The hand of a Saviour. Our only Saviour, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the only name given to mankind by which they may be saved. (Acts 4:12)
This offer of salvation from Jesus is there for all those who reach out to take His hand, who call on His name.
No perfection is required. No good deeds. No works. No dress code. No sacrifice from you. No offering. Nothing but an honest admission of your need, a repentant heart, a turning toward the one who made us and away from the wrong behavior of your past. Don't worry, God Himself will help you to do this too, as He knows you can't do it on your own.
If you haven’t already then cry out to Jesus today, look to Him, reach out and take a firm hold of His hand, surrender yourself to Him and He will then bless you beyond your wildest dreams both in this life and for the rest of eternity.
To the desperate soul, fully aware, with the help of the law, of all his or her sin and failure, there comes the joyful assurance: “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! … Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 7:25-8:1).
Now, that is truth. THE TRUTH. And it will set you free.
(Originally prepared as a sermon on Exodus 20:16 and preached at South Yarra Presbyterian Church on the 25th of October 2015 and updated August 2024. )
Craig Manners (www.CraigManners.com)