“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16) The 9th Commandment is vital to any community life. The positive statement of this command is “always tell the truth.” The ‘little white lie” is just as deadly as the “big, black lie”. It should be a natural for us Christians to be totally committed to the truth. Yet, churches are plagued by gossipers who start their conversations with “have you heard?” Across the years I have stopped these conversations before they started by saying, “wait just a minute, I want this person here to hear what you are about to tell.” Second-hand retelling of stories almost always has an admixture of personal opinions and not known facts.
So many lives have been ruined by lying. Reputations have been tarnished never to recover from a repeated half-truth. We are called to build-up one another and repeating a unverified story does not have that guarantee.
Often lies divides families and close friends. It may not be a believable story but doubt is sown in the heart of the hearer and trust is hard to reestablish again. Just as Satan divided Adam and Eve against one another by lying, so he continues to be the great divider. Only the truth can heal.
The greatest evil that lying reveals is the lack of love. When Jesus told us to “love one another” He had in mind surely that we would not lie about another person. 1 Corinthians 13:6 says, “Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.” Here is insurance for preserving the marriage and family. Here is cement to strengthen the fellowship of the church. Here is the steel that gives backbone to every assertion of a local congregation that she is a New Testament Church. As Ephesians 4:15 challenges us, “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”
“O Lord, make us to be lovers of the truth and obedient to the New Testament
instruction to always speak the truth in love. Amen”
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