Thou Shalt Not Bare False Witness

Title: “Thou shalt not bare false witness against thy neighbor.”

Scriptures: Exodus 20:16, Deuteronomy 5:20

“Thou shalt not bear false witness.” The three preceding Commandments (murder, adultery, stealing) concern wrongs inflicted upon our neighbor by actual deeds. This commandment is concerned with wrongs inflicted by word of mouth.

“Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Many misquote that commandant and say, “Thou shalt not lie.” There is a significant difference between false witness and lies. A truth told with vicious intent is a false witness.

I will illustrate with a story told by Ronald Reagan. A man was riding his horse-drawn wagon to town for a load of grain when he had a head-on collision with an automobile. He was seriously injured, in much pain, and going to have permanent disabilities. Later, he followed legal procedures and filed a claim with an insurance company. When he was on the stand, the insurance company lawyer said to him, “After the accident, while you were lying there at the accident’s scene, didn’t someone come up to you and ask you how you were feeling, and didn’t you answer, “I never felt better?” The farmer responded, “Only a few minutes after the accident, a car pulled up. A deputy got out and saw my horse lying there in horrible pain with two broken legs. He put a gun in the horse’s ear, pulled the trigger, and put him out of his misery. He then saw my dog lying there crying with a broken back and did the same to him—shot him. Then he asked me, “How do you feel?”

It sounded like that lawyer was trying to pull a fast one. Truthfulness must be moral. God will not have us use truth to ruin another person or put one to shame. Bearing false witness is far more comprehensive than thou shalt not lie. Words cease to be truthful when used as a tool of trickery, revenge, or malice. Today, we will look at false witness and its consequences.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor: This prohibition embraces all forms of slander, defamation, and misrepresentation, whether against an individual, a group, a people, a race, or a faith. This is not only in court but also in everyday dealings. This commandment prohibits any words that increase misinformation. This commandment includes any words that enable a person to take advantage of another. When one bears false witness to another, that person misleads the other person thus attacking the ability of the person to make an informed decision.

None in America has suffered so much from slander, defamation, and misrepresentation as Black people. None in the world has suffered so much from slander, defamation, and misrepresentation as the Jewish people. Name-calling is a sin for when someone calls another attention to a characteristic of another human being in a disparaging way it is a false witness. It is a sin when someone says something that damages a person’s reputation. It is a sin when someone misrepresents another person's appearance, a person's character, or a person's walk in life.

Many politicians often bear false witness. I sometimes believe that the only time a politician is telling the truth is when he calls another politician a liar. The latest fad among politicians is gaslighting. Gas lighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which a person sows seeds of doubt in us making us question our memory, our judgment, or sanity. The politician does this by denying facts, events, or feelings. It often includes distortion and fabrication of information to cause confusion and undermine our confidence in facts. Any time a politician says, “I did not say that.” and you know the politician did, you are being gas-lighted. Any time a politician says, “That never happened.” and you know that it did, you are being gas-lighted. One of the favorite ones is, “My opponent will take away your Social Security.” and you know that is not the truth, you are being gas-lighted. Gas lighting is injurious gossip designed to insult a person destroying that person's reputation.

Another trick that politicians enjoy is spin. Spin is the subject matter of hours of television many nights in America. No matter how absurd a statement a politician makes, before the sunset that evening’s talk shows will have several guests lined up who supposedly represent various sides of an issue. The nightly talk shows would have you believe they are discovering the facts. The truth is that unscrupulous politicians know the nightly talk shows will immediately pick up a politician's lie and, by discussing it, give it plausibility. That is spin. Gas lighting and spin are false witnesses.

Character assassination is attacking a person’s integrity. Character assassination endangers us all. In my career as a professional manager, many times I have heard someone convincingly accuse another person of wrong only to find out upon further investigation that the accuser was wrong or had an ulterior motive. I learned to handle such information carefully until I could investigate thoroughly for some people use lies to hurt others in particularly evil ways.