Central Christian Church
St. Petersburg, Fl
December 12 2002
Joe Bedy
The 9th commandment:
Exo 20:16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not give false testimony about a neighbor.
Well who is my neighbor any way? Is it the one on the left or the right or just the ones on my street?
The Hebrew word is òÇø… òÇéø… ray’-ah
and it means; an associate—brother, companion, fellow,
friend, husband, neighbor, opponent, adversary another person.
So our neighbor is anyone and everyone. We are not to bear false witness against anyone.
What the commandment means is tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Let me say it again- when we speak, we are to speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
You might put it this way, the 9th commandment may be an old law, but it represents our new life in Christ.
Honesty and truthfulness are crucial to the Christian’s life.
James tells the church in Jerusalem because he wants them to mature watch out for their tongues. Their tongues can defile the entire body. No one can tame the tongue-it is restless, evil and full of deadly poison. This should not be-from our mouth’s should come the truth.
Paul gives us a similar warning about truth telling us not to operate with malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth (1 Cor. 5:8).
Love delights in the truth (1Cor. 13:6).
2 Cor 4:2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
No matter what Paul was going through. He spoke the truth to bring glory to God.
He tells us by speaking the truth in love we will grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ (Eph. 4:15).
I think that means that sometimes we also have to do what Paul says and put off some joking, teasing or silly talk, that might not be the truth about another. Eph 5:4 Entirely out of place is obscene, silly, and vulgar talk; but instead, let there be thanksgiving.
Eph 4:25 Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH, EACH ONE of you, WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another.
Eph 4:29 Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.
Eph 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption.
Eph 4:31 Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice,
Eph 4:32 and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.
Eph 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children,
Eph 5:2 and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Eph 4:24 So we need to watch what comes out of our mouths and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Eph 5:8 For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light--
Eph 5:9 for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.
You see the Truth is a person and His name is Jesus, therefore as His brothers we are to be truthful people, because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever (2 John 1:2).
This commandment is a horizontal commandment, that means it deals with our relationships with one another.
Community depends on truthfulness. Justice is perverted simply because there is a lack of the truth. Either the one charged with the crime refuses to confess the crime giving all the details or accusers have a motive or agenda to distort the facts to gain some self serving result.
I saw one the other night on court TV. The witnesses had a grudge against their uncle so they testified that he was the hit man in a murder some 18 years earlier. He got off, but the husband of the murdered party went to prison. Didn’t make any sense, but because the whole truth was withheld justice was not done.
If a community is to live the way God designed we must have truthfulness in all things. Truthfulness builds confidence and trust, these lead to respect and honor.
Wednesday night a week ago, I asked Melissa to clean up the kitchen and put the clean dishes in the dishwasher away it was about 8pm. She said, “she would before she went to bed.” I said, well let your yes be yes and your no be no. Which meant I trust you will be honest and truthful and will do what you say. Before, I went to bed I said, ‘oh by the way if you don’t, you can do it when I wake up for my snack.” When I got up at 1:11 a.m. I was pleased to see the kitchen cleaned up. It built trust and respect for her, she did what she said she would do.
We must if the community is to live God’s way be truthful with our failings and deal with the consequences.
We must not blame others for our failings and shortcomings, as this is false witness. Personal responsibility for what we have done eliminates much false witness.
Remember Achan who took some of the stuff, the devoted things from Jericho and then when a small army went in to overtake Ai they were routed because of his sin. The consequences were that he and his entire family would have to be burned. I love what Joshua had to say to Achan.
"My son, give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and give him the praise. Tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me."
Now Achan and his entire family were stoned to death that day and their bodies burned and this pleased the Lord and appeased God’s anger-because Achan came clean and gave glory to God-it cost him his life on this earth-but I believe you will see him in paradise.
One preacher described the fall this way: One day as Adam and his son looked in at the garden of Eden, Adam shared with his son the fact that they used to live there. His son’s response was, “Why did you ever leave such a glorious and wonderful place for what we have now?” Adam’s response was, “Son, to be perfectly honest with you, your mother ate us out of house and home.” Adam to avoid responsibility for what he had done; bore false witness against his wife.
“It was that woman you gave me.”
I want to emphasize to you tonight that when you do come before almighty God, He will not want to hear what other people did to you as you try explain why you said what you said or acted the way you did. It will go a whole lot better for us if we just share the truth, the whole truth and take responsibility for our actions.
Try to walk in the light avoiding concealment of the material facts to cover up the truth. As you do you will be in the light as He is in the light, you will be in fellowship (right relationship) with other believers and the community and with God.
Therefore, I believe there is only one cure if you have lied or borne false witness against someone and that is go back and confess the lie and tell the truth, suffer the consequences of what you have done, but the truth will set you free and God will honor you.
I am reminded of the story of the lady who was very resentful and bitter toward the new young minister in her church, so she shared with a few women falsely that he was having an affair with one of the young married ladies in the congregation. Of course, like all gossip the false rumors spread throughout the church and the community.
Share a personal story if you have one
(Tell the story about the smashed CD at CIY)
Once confronted by the minister, the young lady and her husband about the lie she admitted her sin, repented and asked for forgiveness, which the 3 granted.
However, to make his point to the woman about the damage she had caused the 3 of them the minister said, “he had one condition she must fulfill.”
He said, “she would have to pluck a chicken from the bell tower on a windy March day and then go around the town and pick up every feather.”
Obviously she was unable to retrieve every feather and so he said, “the same is true when you speak falsely about another person.” Although, we may repent and be forgiven it does irreparable damage to a reputation it is character assassination and it violates God’s 9th commandment on how we should live.
This commandment should really make us think about God’s desire for His people to be truthful, honest, fair-minded and upright people. It gives us a true and real moral compass so that we may live responsibly in our communities. My Sicilian Mama paraphrased this commandment maybe the same way your parents did-with these words, “If you can’t say something nice about someone, then don’t say anything at all.”
