The Ninth Commandment

This sermon was preached on 10/2/2011

You Shall Not Bear False Witness (Exod. 20:16)

We are used to thinking of bearing witness as an activity of court cases in which witnesses to an aspect of such cases say what they know. Of course, the commandment extends beyond those situations and refers to every word that we say (or in some situations, the words that we do not say). In fact, words are a focus of several of the commandments: obviously we use words when worshipping God (1-4), children use words when honouring their parents (5), angry words are one way of breaking the sixth commandment, immoral words are a method of breaking the seventh commandment, and persons can use words to enable them to steal. The ninth commandment is also concerned about words, but its focus is on false words.

Clearly, the Lord wanted Israel to be a truthful society. Yet in order for a society to be truthful in its actions, its members must also be truthful in character. Telling the truth is more than giving an accurate description. An habitual liar, for example, could go to court and tell the truth, but that one occasion would not make him into a truthful person. The Lord desires truth in the inner man, in his thoughts as well as in his words.

Where did false witness come from?

Who was the first creature in the Bible to bear false witness? It was the devil in the Garden of Eden when he suggested to Adam and Eve that God was preventing them from discovering the real knowledge of good and evil. Who was the second creature to bear false witness? It was Eve, and she did so by adding to the stipulations that God had required. Who was the third creature to bear false witness? It was Adam, and he blamed God for the problem, then his wife (it is amazing how quickly affection was followed by accusation), but not himself. Right at the beginning of time, failure to speak truthfully resulted in bringing the human race into a state of sin. But we can see why the devil is called the father of lies. He was the first to state an untruth.

What are some reasons for bearing false witness?

Fear of man is an obvious cause, with individuals facing threats of harm or facing isolation if they don’t conform. Personal ambition is another cause – we can imagine all kinds of situations where false witness can take place. A person may exaggerate his abilities during a job interview or another person may denigrate the abilities of a rival for a position. Love of gossip is probably the most common method of bearing false witness (how many people take time to check that the information is true before they repeat it). Gossip is often what we would say behind a person’s back and its twin is flattery which is what we would say to the person’s face. The common feature of all such reasons is that they are failures to love one’s neighbour.

What are some ways of breaking this commandment?

Thomas Boston, in his sermon on this commandments, mentions several ways by which our neighbour may be injured by sinful speaking: (1) by unnecessary discovering of the faults and infirmities of others; (2) by aggravating their lesser faults; (3) by reviving the memory of sins that the persons repented over; (4) by betraying secrets committed to us; (5) by endeavouring to damage the deserved credit of our neighbour; (6) by evil reports to the prejudicing of our neighbour unjustly; (7) by slandering; (8) by backbiting; (9) by tale-bearing; (10) by refusing to listen to the just defence of the wronged parties; (12) by scornful contempt, and scoffing, and mocking of others; (13) by reviling and giving others reproachful and opprobrious names; (14) by scolding.

What are some consequences of bearing false witness

Failure to keep this commandment has consequences at different levels. Clearly it causes distrust (how many of us believe what salespersons say to us), and can lead to cynicism (we never believe what they say to us). In another way, false witness results in slander, with the destruction of a person’s reputation. Someone has said that we would have few friends if we knew what our friends say about us.

This commandment is connected to our words, to how we use our tongues. In connection to our words, Jesus said in Matthew 12:35-37: ‘The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.’ That warning should make us careful about what we say because we will hear our words repeated at the Day of Judgement.

Our speech is the evidence of our characters, says James, in his letter: ‘And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body’ (Jas. 3:2). I can tell the kind of man I am by what I say, why I say it, when I say it, and how I say it. So if you want to know the real me, listen to what I say because eventually it will come out.

How can believers can break this commandment?

One way is by unwarranted assessments. In the Bible, there is the wrong example of Job’s friends, and their assessment was not a hasty one because they spent a week with him before they spoke. They took a right principle – God punishes the wicked – and applied it to the wrong person. They assumed that because Job was in trouble he must be receiving punishment from God for his sins. Their rash assumption led them to say all kinds of inappropriate words to Job. In another context, their speeches would have received good marks in a theology exam, but when applied to Job they received zero grades from the Marker.

Not all unwarranted assessments are made after prolonged consideration. Eli, the priest in Israel at the time of Samuel’s birth, rashly concluded that Hannah was drunk when she prayed silently to the Lord about her childless state. He may have been disturbed by her silence because it was customary at that time for individuals to pray audibly. Whatever the reason for his conclusion, he was wrong in his evaluation and it resulted in him breaking the ninth commandment.

Another biblical example of a believer bearing false witness is that of Peter on the evening of the arrest of Jesus. Peter did not merely deny Jesus, he also used oaths and self-curses in order to strengthen his denial. Why did he deny Jesus? There may have been an element of cowardice, but we have to remember that shortly before then Peter was waving a sword bravely when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. A deeper reason was his determination to trust in his own resources rather than in Jesus for specific strength. After all, Jesus had warned Peter that his fall was imminent.

A fourth way by which believers can break this commandment is when they deliberately promote false doctrine. This particular way of doing so was rampant in the early church, whether it was through legalism (saying something was God’s commandment when it was not), or through taking on board wrong notions about the person of Christ (in Colosse), or glorying in practices which God forbade (as in Corinth). All these deviations involved sinning with the tongue.

How to avoid breaking this commandment?

The best way to prevent falling into this sin is to become Christlike, to grow in conformity to him. Therefore we should think about Jesus and imitate Jesus. One of his titles is the faithful and true witness. This description means that he speaks truthfully about God and his kingdom to us (as our prophet) and he speaks truthfully about us to God (as our priest). As our prophet, he informs us of God’s plans, promises and desires as well as his warnings; as our priest, he testifies continually to the fact that we are imperfect but forgiven sinners, that we belong to his family, and that we are purchased by his blood. Of course, these roles he performs as the faithful and true witness overlap. But it is an interesting question to ask: do I speak about another Christian in a way similar to how Jesus speaks about him?

Secondly, we should develop a healthy heart. In a physical sense, the government has made this a chief aim for the country’s inhabitants. The government of the kingdom of God has a similar purpose for its members. Fortunately, the kingdom of God has the best Physician and he specialises in curing spiritual defects in our souls. Therefore we have to ask him to enable us to change our attitudes and thoughts.

This means that we have to be ruthless with wrong attitudes. Ruthlessness does not mean saying to oneself, ‘I wish I was different.’ It includes that, but it involves a lot more. It includes earnest prayer to the Physician and then following his requirements. Paul informs us how to do so in Ephesians 4:29: ‘Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.’ In that section of Ephesians, he has applied the commandments to his readers and indeed seems to bracket it with references to the ninth commandment. In verse 25, he tells them to speak the truth to one another because they belong to the same body (and the reference to truth concerns the ninth commandment); in verse 24 he refers to the sixth commandment when he tells them not to be angry; in verse 28 he refers to the eighth commandment when he tells them not to steal; and in verse 29 he returns to the ninth with his exhortation to build one another up.

It is interesting that Paul expects the words of Christians to function as conveyors of grace. This reality reminds us that the Spirit can use our words to benefit another person, whether by rebuke, by counsel, by comfort, by forgiveness etc. Paul also follows up his exhortations by reminding his readers of the possibility of grieving the Spirit if we do not do so.

Thirdly, we can ask ourselves some important questions. Here are a few: Is what I am about to say true, or am I sure that it is true? Is what I am about to say of spiritual benefit? Is what I am about to say necessary? Would Jesus have said what I am about to say? Would I say it if Jesus was standing at my shoulder? Would I repeat what I am about to say on the Day of Judgement?

Summary: ‘In whatever situations we find ourselves, we should tell the truth freely (it should not be forced from us), fully (we should not hold anything back that is necessary), clearly (without causing any doubts) and devotionally (aware that we are speaking on behalf of God and accountable to him).