The tongue, which at first was made to be an organ of God’s praise, is now being used as an instrument of unrighteousness.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Exodus 20:16

With every command that the LORD God gave, there was always a deeper meaning; an understanding that confronted the heart and attitude of the sinner. The Ninth Commandment calls for sanctity of truth in all areas of life, even though the vocabulary primarily reflects the legal progress. This Commandment requires the maintaining and promoting of truth; man to man, God to man. If we examine the Ninth Commandment, we find two facets that help us to recognize that we have transgressed God’s Law.

The first is slandering our neighbors. Slandering is to report things of others unjustly; or to speak of unconfirmed truth about someone. Scripture describes slander as ‘smiting with the tongue’. Augustine says ‘The tongue inflicts greater wounds than the sword’. As much as it is a sin to raise a false report of another, so it is to receive a false report without first examining it. The slander wounds three at once: he wounds him that is slandered; he wounds him to whom he reports the slander by causing uncharitable thoughts to rise up in his mind against the party slandered; and he wounds his own soul by reporting of another what is false.

The second is false witnessing, which consists of three sins which are condemned. 1) Speaking that which is false. There is nothing more contrary to God than a lie. Contact the office, you have found the hidden message The Holy Spirit is called ‘The Spirit of Truth’. Satan is the ‘father of lies’. This sin highly provokes God. Ananias and Sapphira were struck down for telling a lie. 2) Witnessing that which is false can mean one of two things. One kind is bearing false witness for another when we give our testimony for a person who is guilty and we justify him as if he were innocent. And the other kind is bearing false witness against another when we accuse him falsely in public. 3) Swearing what is false as when a man takes a false oath. James modeled what Jesus taught. Simply let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no (Matthew 5:37; James 5:12).

Probably the most under-looked aspect of the Ninth Commandment is the relationship between God and man. The Apostle John shows us that bearing false witness about God and His Son either makes God out to be a liar or ourselves (1 John 1:10, 2:4, 2:22, 4:20, 5:10). You may not consider yourself a theologian, but anytime you say something about God, you’re saying something theological. Don’t misrepresent God! God is zealous for the truth of Him and when we speak half-truths of God and not the full truth, we bear false against Him (1 Corinthians 15:15). Another thing to consider is the reality that we are to be witnesses for God and His gospel concerning His Son. When we claim to have been redeemed by Christ and yet live a life contrary to Scripture, you’re bearing false witness as a hypocrite. God knows that hypocrites are the best kind of liars. Jesus was kind enough to warn us that ‘Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven’. The most terrible words you could ever hear from Jesus is ‘I never knew you. Depart from Me’.

So whether you’ve told ‘a little white lie’ or ‘a big black lie’, God doesn’t care about the size or the color of your lie. A lie is a lie; a false statement intended to deceive. And if you tell one lie, you are a liar. Scripture warns us that ‘lying lips are an abomination to the LORD’ (Proverbs 12:22). We have God’s promise for all liars that ‘their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death’ (Revelation 21:8). So next time you’re witnessing to a non-believer, be encouraged that the law was made for liars (1 Timothy 1:8-10). Show them that by telling one lie they’re guilty for eternity in hell (James 2:10). Then when the sinner is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at God’s Word, take them to the cross where sin was dealt with and God’s justice was satisfied in Christ’s death and resurrection.

The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. Psalm 19:7