Chapter Eleven – The Ninth Commandment — “You Shall Not Bear False Witness…”

Next Part From the Book of Proverbs.

God gives the NINTH COMMANDMENT in Exodus 20:16: “YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST YOUR NEIGHBOR.”

This commandment condemns all manner of lying and deception—every form. This includes outright lying, false advertising, slander, shading the truth, even exaggerating, as well as false testimony in a court of law. Justice can only be based on truth. (Of course, truth extends far beyond judicial proceedings.)

Truth embodies the very character of God—all that He is and does. God’s character is so perfect—but also so powerful—that He literally cannot lie (Heb. 6:18). He wants all mankind to learn the value of truth in every aspect of life.

Judgement for False Witnesses

Exodus 23:1-2 reads, “You shall not raise a false report: put not your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. You shall not follow a multitude to do evil [i.e., riots]; neither shall you speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment [i.e., collusion or scheming].”

Notice Deuteronomy 19:15, which diminished the chance of false accusations: “One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.” Two or three witnesses were always required to establish a charge before a judge.

Next, the judges had to diligently examine the individual bringing the charges. Notice: “If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong; then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days; and the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother; then shall you do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shall you put the evil away from among you. and those which remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you” (Deut 19:16-20).

God’s judgments far exceed those of man. God looks at the long-term effects, while man only looks at the short term.

The Trend in Israel and Judah

When any or all of the tribes of Israel rebelled and rejected the words of God’s prophets, lying and falsehood reigned. Notice Isaiah 30:9: “That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD.” Liars would naturally avoid hearing this law because they are condemned by it.

Notice this strong indictment from Isaiah 59:4, 13: “None calls for justice, nor any pleads for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity…In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.”

Israel’s historic tendency to seek out and listen to false prophets is also condemned in Jeremiah 7:8
“Behold, you trust in lying words, that cannot profit.” In fact, almost everyone today is forced to trust (meaning, to believe) liars.

Now compare David’s attitude as he wrote the following Psalms. Some of them reveal man’s deceitfulness, while others exalt the truthfulness of God’s Way:

“I have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I trust in the LORD” (Psa 31:6).

“Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous” (Psa 31:18).

“For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak” (Psa 59:12).

“For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue” (Psa 109:2).

“Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me Your law graciously” (Psa 119:29).

“I hate and abhor lying: but Your law do I love” (Psa 119:163).

“Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue” (Psa 120:2).

The Truth in Perspective

Christians must follow God’s Spirit. “Howbeit when He [It], the Spirit of truth, is come, He [It] will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). In prayer to God, Christ stated, “Sanctify them [those whom God committed unto Christ] through your truth, YOUR WORD IS TRUTH” (John 17:17). In John 14:5, Thomas asked, “How can we know the way?” Jesus replied, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (vs. 6). God the Father and Christ personify truth.

In contrast to God, whose way is embodied in truth, notice the way of the devil. In John 8:44, Christ condemned the Pharisees, who refused to accept His word. Notice: “You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”

This scripture explains why false religion, engineered and orchestrated by Satan, is deeply embodied in deceit. Every entity that opposes God’s Way operates on the principles of treachery, deceit and falsehood—the antithesis of truth.

Jn 8:31-32 reveal a profound concept about truth: “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, If you continue in My word, then are you My disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” The Jews felt that they were already free. Christ explained that they were actually servants of sin—so is anyone who sins as a way of life.

One of the greatest assets that a Christian can have is the desire to seek the truth. As one speaks the truth and exerts effort to live by the truth, he will come to acknowledge the truth when he is corrected. When a person does this, in spite of weaknesses and imperfections, God can easily work with him, like clay in the hands of a potter. To grow and develop, one must become, and remain, anchored to the truth.

Paul taught that we must control the tendency to lie and exaggerate the truth. Consider his words: “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another” (Eph. 4:25). Also, “Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds” (Col. 3:9). In order to overcome the carnal inclination to lie, one must realize its futility and the danger of its consequences.

However, God’s Spirit and obeying God’s laws will help you to overcome this.

Revelation 21:8 reveals the ultimate fate of all who will not repent of lying: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”