"Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive." That’s what Sir Walter Scott said almost 200 years ago, and it’s just as true today as it was then. Yet that doesn’t stop most of us from lying, does it? The 1992 book The Day America Told the Truth found that 91% of us lie routinely about things we consider trivial. 86% of children regularly lie to their parents. 65% of married people lie to their spouses regularly. We lie about our weight, our income, our grade point average, our work experience, our age, even how many fish we caught during our last vacation. We hate it when people are dishonest to us, but most of us can’t resist being dishonest to other people.
We’ve been in a series through the 10 Commandments called LANDMARKS FOR A NEW MILLENNIUM. Today we’re going to look at the ninth commandment, God’s prohibition against lying. We’re going to try to answer three questions: What is truth? What is lying? And how can we uphold the ninth commandment in our daily lives.
But before we answer those questions, I want to remind us again that the 10 Commandments were given to people who’d already experienced God’s grace and forgiveness. Before God gave Israel the 10 Commandments he saved them from their slavery in Egypt. Only after God saved Israel did he give them his law. Until you experience God’s grace through Jesus Christ, God’s law will be no more than a source of guilt and condemnation in your life. God’s grace always has to come first.With that in mind, let’s look at the ninth commandment together.
1. What is Truth?
Originally the ninth commandment was dealing specifically with perjury. Look at it with me:
"You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor" (Deu 5:20 NIV).
Back in Old Testament Israel, virtually every legal decision was decided based on the truthfulness of the witnesses. They didn’t have DNA testing or expert witnesses back then, so a false witness could ruin a person’s reputation. However, even though this is originally just talking about perjury, by implication this commandment is talking about truth telling in all areas of life. Old Testament scholar Walt Kaiser says that though the vocabulary of this commandment reflects the legal process of Israel, "The ninth commandment is a call for the sanctity of truth in all areas of life" (95). The fact that this commandment is calling us to truth telling in all areas of life tells us something important about the nature of truth.
This is our first question: What is the nature of truth? When God gave us then ninth commandment, He assumed that OBJECTIVE TRUTH EXISTS.
Objective truth is truth that’s valid regardless of whether people believe it or not. It’s truth that exists in objective reality apart from our personal feelings, beliefs, and ideas. For generations our culture assumed that objective truth was real. The preamble to our Constitution begins by talking about certain truths that are self evident. In colleges and universities, every academic field of study was based on the assumption that objective truth existed and was available to the careful student. This assumption was applied equally to physics and psychology, history and religion, biology and business management.
Yet in our own generation this assumption has all but disappeared. Really the decline of belief in objective truth goes back to a philosopher named Immanuel Kant. Today most people believe that objective truth is only possible in science, but in history, ethics, and religion truth is relative not objective. In fact, back in 1989 Alan Bloom wrote his book The Closing of the American Mind, where he claimed that the only thing a college professor can be absolutely confident of among incoming college freshmen is that they almost all believe that truth is relative.
Truth has been demoted to the equivalent of values, opinions and preferences. For instance, you might like vanilla ice cream, so it’s true for you that vanilla is your favorite flavor. But of course that’s just your personal preference, because my favorite flavor might be chocolate or rocky road. So what’s true for you isn’t necessarily true for me or true for anyone else for that matter. When truth becomes a subjective preference instead of an objective reality, then everyone’s opinion is equally valid and it’s impossible to prove one opinion as right and another as wrong. And most people in our culture think this is what it means for something to be "true" in history, ethics, and religion As a result of this trend that’s a characteristic of what’s called postmodernism, many people believe that’s what’s true for you in religion isn’t necessarily true for other people.
Recently someone ran across a math test that reflected this change. A math test in the 1960s would read something like this:
"A logger cuts and sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is four-fifths of that amount. What is his profit?"
But then in the 1970s came new math, so the same test would read something like this: "A logger exchanges a set (L) of lumber for a set (M) of money. The cardinality of set (M) is 100. The set (C) of production costs contains 20 fewer points. What is the cardinality of set (P) of profits?"
Then when I was in high school during the 1980s we find the "dumbed down" version of the same test:
"A logger cuts and sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost is $80. His profit is $20. Find and circle the number 20."
Finally we find the 1990s version that’s rejected objective truth:"An unenlightened logger cuts down a beautiful strand of trees in order to make a $20 profit. Write an essay exploring how you feel about this as a way of making money. How did the forest birds and squirrels feel?"
The ninth commandment forever establishes that there’s such a thing as objective truth. The truth might be difficult to find sometimes, and we must always be humble enough about truth to be open to new evidence and new ways of looking at things, but if the ninth commandment is from God then objective truth exists. So the ninth commandment assumes that objective truth really exists.
2. What is a Lie?
This leads us to our second question: What constitutes a violation of the ninth commandment?
Even though the ninth commandment was originally concerned with perjury, the principle undergirding this commandment applies to far more than the courtroom.
So what is lying? We violate the ninth commandment WHENEVER WE DISTORT TRUTH.
You see most lies have just enough truth in them to make them difficult to identify as a lie. Whenever we shape and mold the truth for our own purposes, leaving out a bit here, adding a bit there, we’re guilty of breaking the ninth commandment.Now as we think about lying as distorting the truth, we find that there are three different faces a lie can take.
One face of deception is pride. Pride distorts the truth about ourselves.
"For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you" (Romans 12:3 NIV).
The apostle Paul reveals that it’s every Christian’s personal responsibility to view him or herself accurately. While our world talks about having a positive self esteem, the Bible tells us to have an accurate self concept. Instead of being intoxicated by pride, we’re told to have a sober, clear headed evaluation of who we are.
I recently heard how a police department in Canada commissioned a group of police officers to film a documentary about the drug addicts and alcoholics who lived on the streets. The documentary was designed to show in schools. So these officers got to know the street people in the slums, as they filmed these drug abusers and alcoholics while they were under the influence. But the officers found that when they later showed some of these people the film footage while they were clean and sober, some of the people were so horrified and shocked at their own behavior that it motivated them to get treatment. When we’re intoxicated by pride we can’t see ourselves accurately, our perception is drunk with pride.So we’re told to evaluate ourselves according to the measure of faith God has given us. This isn’t talking about our subjective faith, as if somehow the more faith we can muster up the higher a view of ourselves we’re allowed to have. This is talking about the Christian faith as being our standard, our criteria, the plumbline for evaluating who we are. Instead of basing our self estimate on how we feel or own opinions, we’re to see ourselves against the objective standard of the Christian faith. Only in this way can we avoid allowing pride to distort the truth about ourselves.Another face of deception is slander.
If pride distorts the truth about ourselves, Slander distorts the truth about other people.
"Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind" (1 Peter 2:1 NIV).
How many kinds of slander are there? Lots. There’s the kind of slander that’s whispered as gossip from one ear to another. There’s the kind of slander that uses put downs, like "you’re just good for nothing." There’s the kind of slander that passes brazen lies about people. Whenever we distort the truth about another person we’re slandering that person.We find here that God wants us to "rid ourselves" of such practices. The verb "rid" literally means to take off as a garment, like taking off a dirty shirt. You see, we wear slander like a shirt, and the more we do it the more that shirt stinks, so people stay away from us. We can’t establish loving, positive, healthy relationships until we take off that shirt. Whenever we distort the truth about another person we’re guilty of slander.
A third face of deception is heresy. Heresy distorts the truth about God.
"But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them-- bringing swift destruction on themselves" (2 Peter 2:1 NIV).
A false prophet is a person who claims to have the authority to speak for God, but when they speak they distort the truth about God. False prophets have always been a problem, whether it was Israel in the Old Testament or the church in the New Testament. One of the classic American examples of a false prophet is Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon church. Joseph claims that he prayed about which church to join: The Baptists, the Methodists, or the Presbyterians. Joseph Smith claims that God himself appeared and told him that every Christian church was wrong and that the doctrines we as orthodox Christians believe are an abomination to God (Pearl of Great Price, The Writings of Joseph Smith 2:18-19). When Joseph Smith claimed God told him all the Christian churches were wrong, Joseph Smith became a false prophet.
A false teacher is a little different, because a false teacher bases his or her false claims from the Bible. The false teacher doesn’t claim God appeared and told them something, but they misinterpret and twist the Bible to justify their ideas. For instance the Jehovah’s Witnesses appeal to the Bible to claim Jesus Christ didn’t really rise from the grave. Yet the Bible teaches that Jesus did rise from the grave, so they have to change and twist certain verses to justify their claim.
Peter warns us here that heresy is always destructive, whether it comes from a false prophet or a false teacher. A heresy is a teaching that separates a group of people from the orthodox Christian community. So a heretical group according to the Bible is a group that denies the fundamental truths of the Christian faith. The main characteristic of a heretical group is that their belief system claims to be Christian but doesn’t correspond to the truth God has revealed about himself in the Bible.
So these three faces of deception--pride, slander, and heresy--are different ways people are tempted to distort the truth.
3. How Can We Uphold the Truth?
That brings us to our final question: How can we uphold the ninth commandment? It’s not enough to merely avoid pride, slander, and heresy. If upholding the ninth commandment was just a matter of not doing certain things, then my son’s pet snake keeps the ninth commandment perfectly.
But according to Jesus Christ in his sermon on the mount there’s more to the ninth commandment than not lying: "Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ’Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your ’Yes’ be ’Yes,’ and your ’No,’ ’No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one" (Matthew 5:33-37 NIV).
The religious leaders of Jesus’ generation had come up with an elaborate system of rules about how to get out of an oath. For instance, if you took an oath in the name of God, it was considered binding, but if took an oath in the name of heaven it wasn’t considered binding. A promise sworn by Jerusalem wasn’t considered binding, but a promise sworn toward Jerusalem was considered binding (Carson 47). In fact all of the examples Jesus uses here were considered non-binding oaths. The religious leaders had turned oaths into a child’s game of swearing the truth with your lips with you fingers crossed behind your back.Jesus is saying that if we’re going to act like children when it comes to truth then it’s better not to take oaths at all. For the follower of Jesus Christ, an oath is unnecessary. So for followers of Jesus, when you say yes mean yes, and when you say no mean no.Now I don’t take Jesus here to mean it’s wrong to ever take an oath. When Jesus was put under oath during his trial he answered the questions asked of him. Often in Paul’s letters we find Paul taking an oath to emphasize something. For instance in Romans 1:9 Paul says, "God is my witness that I pray for you constantly." When some of the people in the city of Thessalonica questioned Paul’s motives, he wrote, "God is our witness that we never came to you with flattering words or as a pretext for greed" (1 Thess 2:5).
Jesus is simply telling us to be the kind of people who value the truth so much that an oath is an unnecessary addition.How can we uphold the ninth commandment? As followers of Jesus Christ we uphold the ninth commandment by directing our lives by truth.
Truth, not opinions or feelings, needs to be our compass in life as we strive to follow Jesus. Now as an evangelical church we believe the highest authority for truth is the Bible, God’s word. In the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments God has revealed everything we need to know in order to have a relationship with God, serve God and please God with our lives. The Bible’s not just inspirational literature, but it’s inspired scripture, uniquely given to us by God. Unfortunately not every church believes this, but as an evangelical church Life Bible Fellowship Church confesses that the Bible is our highest authority for truth.
But being a follower of Jesus means loving the truth wherever we can find it. When science reveals truth we should rejoice. When technology or medicine helps us understand our world better, the follower of Jesus has yet another reason to praise God. We can never love the truth too much, because relentlessly following the path of truth will inevitably lead us to the God of truth, and to God’s son Jesus Christ, who said, "I am the truth" (John 14:6).
Some of you are here today as seekers, people who aren’t yet convinced of the truthfulness of Jesus Christ or of the Bible, but you’re checking things out. If you’re here as a seeker, we welcome you, we applaud you for having the courage to ask the tough questions. We invite you to investigate the truth of the Christian faith at your own pace, because we’re confident that it’s God himself who’s put that desire for truth in your heart. We anticipate a time when you encounter truth in person by coming to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and we pray for the day that happens.So truth is our compass for life, and as followers of the one who called himself "the way, the truth, and the life" we follow Jesus by directing our lives by that compass.
Conclusion
The bottom line of the ninth commandment is this: Since truth exists we ought to seek the truth, tell the truth, live the truth, and share the truth with others. For us who are followers of Jesus Christ we often seek to avoid lying but sometimes we hesitate to share the truth with others. We forget that the most truthful truth in the world is the good news that God loves the world so much that he sent his Son Jesus Christ to die for us so we could find forgiveness and restoration with God. When was the last time you shared that truth with someone who didn’t know it?
Sources
Carson, D. A. 1978. The Sermon on the Mount: An Evangelical Exposition of Matthew 5-7. Grand Rapids: Baker Books.
Douma, J. 1996. The Ten Commandments: Manual For the Christian Life. Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing.
Hughes, R. Kent. 1993. Disciplines of Grace: God’s Ten Words for a Vital Spiritual Life. Wheaton: Crossway Books.
Kaiser, Jr., Walter C. 1983. Toward Old Testament Ethics. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing
Louw, J. P. and E. Nida (editors). 1989. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains. New York: United Bible Societies. CD-Rom edition.
Mehl, Ron. 1998. The Ten(der) Commandments. Portland: Multnomah.
Moriarty, Michael G. 1999. The Perfect 10: The Blessings of Following God’s Commandments in a Postmodern World. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
