Ten Commandments for Today
09/15/2002 - Tell the Truth
This morning we want to talk about the value of truth telling and not bearing false witness. We're going to look at the ninth commandment in Exodus 20:16, You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
This week I heard about a young pastor on the West Coast who had a church that contained a couple of millionaires. They were twin brothers who came to his church off and on, but for the most part they lived a wild, party lifestyle. They were real rascals, womanizers, heavy drinkers, gamblers indulging in everything their money could buy. They didn't have the best reputation in the community. Then suddenly, one of the brothers died in an accident.
And so the other brother came to the pastor and said, "I know you have building program and you're looking to buy a piece of property down the street and now you're going to do my brother's funeral. I'll tell you what. I'll make a deal with you. If you tell everyone at the funeral that my brother was a saint I'll buy that piece of property for you and I'll even finance your building. In fact, here's the check." And he slid a seven-figure check across the desk. And that was a real temptation for this young pastor to bear false witness, to say something that wasn't true.
He looked at the check and looked at the brother and thought about sliding it back across his desk, but he didn't. He took it. It just seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up.
So when the day of the funeral came and it was time for the eulogy the pastor got up and stood in front of the whole church and said, "This man before you, lying here in this coffin, was a real rascal. He was a womanizer. He was an alcoholic. He was a gambler. He was a liar. He was no good. You couldn't trust him as far as you could throw him. But compared to his brother, he was a saint!"
Now that's a smart pastor! He honored the request. Told the truth. And took the money! We're always looking for loopholes in the way that we use our language and in the things that we say. Yet, God comes along in the ninth commandment and says I want you to tell the truth about one another and to one another.
God knows how powerful our words can be. This is the third commandment out of ten that deals with our tongue. The third commandment says, Don't misuse the name of the Lord you God. No profanity. Don't empty God's name of it's meaning. Take God seriously. Treat him with reverence and respect.
The sixth commandment says, You shall not murder. That includes killing people with our words. That's what Jesus said in Matthew 5:21-22, You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, "Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment." But I tell you ... anyone who says to a brother or sister, "Raca," is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, "You fool!" will be in danger of the fire of hell. We can murder people with our words. We can destroy them. Which is why King Solomon says in Proverbs 18:21, The tongue has the power of life and death.
And now in the ninth commandment God turns to the tongue again and says, Don't give false testimony against your neighbor. Originally this commandment applied to testimony that was given in a court of law. It's the source behind the oath that every witness takes, even today, when they put their hand on the Bible and swear to promise to the tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help me God.
Our whole legal system is based on truth telling. Without the telling of truth before a judge or a jury there can be no justice. In a very real sense a witness in a court of law has the power of life and death over the accused. Which is why God adds further stipulations to the ninth commandment to insure truth telling.
Turn to Deuteronomy 17:6. In this passage God says, On the testimony of two or three witnesses a person shall be put to death, but no one shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness. In Israel, certain crimes demanded capital punishment. But capital punishment could not be administered on the basis of your word against mine. It was too serious of a situation. So for an individual to be executed for a crime there needed to be corroboration between at least two witnesses. That was the first safeguard to truth telling.
God adds another safeguard in verse 7 when he says, The hands of the witnesses must be the first in putting that person to death, and then the hands of all the people. You must purge the evil from among you. It was the responsibility of the witness to be the first to carry out the execution. That would make you think twice about lying under oath.
In that culture, executions were done by stoning. The guilty person was led to the edge of pit, usually ten or twelve feet deep. And the witnesses, those who knew first hand of the person's guilt, those on whom the others depended on for testimony, pushed the person into the pit and then were the first to throw huge stones on top of him or her. It was not pleasant.
But before that was ever done there were two stipulations. The truth had to be confirmed by two or three witnesses and the witnesses had to be willing to cast the first stone. That was a safeguard in the judicial system of Israel. In our culture, it would be like having the witness to a murder pull the switch to administer the juice shooting through the electric chair or pushing the plunger on a lethal injection.
But there was a third safeguard that was meant to insure justice. And that's found in Deuternomy 19:16-21, If a malicious witness takes the stand to accuse someone of a crime, the two involved in the dispute must stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and the judges who are in office at the time. The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against another, then do to the false witness as that witness intended to do to the other. You must purge the evil from among you. The rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid, and never again will such an evil thing be done among you. Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
If it were found out that the witness was lying, then that false witness would have to suffer the same penalty that he or she was trying to impose on the accused. If it were execution, they would be executed. If it were some other penalty, they would have to suffer that. There was to be no pity on a false witness. These three stipulations were meant to put a stop to perjury in the courtroom. And they worked. They helped people tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Truth is important to God. God values truth. God is into truth telling for at least three reasons. First, because God is truth. Jesus said in John 17:3, Now this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
There is nothing fake or phony or insincere about God. The very person and nature of God defines what truth is. Truth is not something God announces or decides or makes up. Truth is who God is. He can't be anything but truth. Truth is what's real and God is the ultimate reality. Which is why we can trust him.
Jesus said in John 14:6, I am the way and the truth and the life. Truth is not so much a philosophy or a set of rules or ideas as it is a person. Jesus said, "I am the truth." When he said in John 8:32, You will know the truth and the truth will set you free, he was talking about himself. You will know me and I will set you free, free from the bondage of sin. God is into truth because that's who he is. And that's why we can trust him.
God is into truth because God can't lie. Hebrews 6:18 says, It is impossible for God to lie. God cannot tell a lie. Not even a little white one. That's why we can trust the Bible. That's why I can stand up here Sunday after Sunday and teach you this book with confidence, because the Bible is God's Word. And God's Word is always true. It conforms to reality. It tells us the way life really is. These Ten Commandments are true because they describe how life works. And God in his tenderness wants us to know that. So he tells us the truth because he wants us to get the most out of life.
Third, lying is the language of the devil. Jesus makes a chilling statement in John 8:44 while talking to a group that was hostile to his teaching. You belong to your father, the devil ... He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
There is no truth in the devil. You can't trust him at all. He cannot speak anything that is true. Just like English is our native language, lying is his native language. And he's not bi-lingual. He only knows how to lie.
It was a big fat lie that Satan used to ruin God's perfect creation and got us into this mess in the first place. It was the lie that the snake told Adam and Eve that they could become like God by eating the forbidden fruit. And we're still paying the price for that one lie told and believed.
In our home, I've said this before, no act of disobedience among our kids upsets us as much as lying. Nothing gets disciplined more severely in our home. Why? Because lying aligns us with the evil one. It lends our tongue to the devil. And it's the first step to a total trust meltdown. That's why truth telling is such a big deal to God.
Of course, there are lots of other ways that we can break this commandment outside the courtroom. The ninth commandment was given to govern our ordinary, everyday conversations with one another.
It applies to gossip and spreading rumors that tear down the reputation of others. This is another one of those behaviors, like stealing, that's driven by pride and ego. Somehow we think that if we tear somebody else down it builds us up. The Bible calls that slander and says in Leviticus 19:16, Do not go about spreading slander among your people. Exodus 23:1 says, Do not spread false reports. Do not help the wicked by being a malicious witness.
Yet we all do it, some of us more often than others. Sometimes we're driven by anger. We've been hurt by somebody and instead of going to them and making it right, we hurt them back by bringing down their reputation in the eyes of others. Sometimes we're driven by envy. We're jealous that people are drawn to someone else more than their drawn to us and so we want to lower their reputation. Sometimes we're driven by a sense of "I know something you don't know." And that feels good and makes us feel powerful. We don't even have to say anything about the person sometimes, just plant a seed of doubt like, "Did you hear what happened to Phil?" "No?" "Oh, never mind. Forget I said that!" "What?" "Well, now that you asked ..."
Sometimes we attribute motives to someone's actions without knowing them to be true. Someone will tell us what a wonderful job Linda's doing leading the PTO at our school. She's so organized and confident and just seems to have it altogether. And we say, "Well, that may be true. But I think she's the kind of person that always has to be up front. She's always got to be the center of attention. And she's always so busy. It makes me wonder what she's running from. I wonder what her marriage is like? I wonder what kind of pain is driving her behavior?" And when we do that we want others to see that we have some kind of penetrating insight into people's motives.
Sometimes its just carelessness that gets us into trouble with our tongue. I can remember having dinner with someone while I was a seminary student. And this man started telling me all about his life and opened up and shared stuff with me that he said he never told anyone else. I mean he really took a risk sharing highly classified, top-secret type stuff with me.
A few days later I was with a mutual friend and he asked me how the dinner went. He wasn't probing for dirt or anything like that, but in careless moment I shared with him some of the things that had been told to me in confidence.
About a week or two later there was a knock on my dorm room door and a student said I had a phone call on the hall phone. And I picked it up and it was this man that I had had dinner with. And somehow he heard what I had shared with our mutual friend and for fifteen minutes he just laid into me. I can remember the phone shaking in my hand. I had violated his confidence and added to his pain. I had nothing to say to defend myself. I was guilty and I knew it. I didn't mean to be malicious. I was just careless and it brought me to tears. I did all I could to apologize and make it right. But we never had dinner again or even saw each other again. And I learned a hard lesson. I had violated his confidence and that hurt both of us.
I can remember being on the other end of the stick in seminary. I told a friend something in confidence. I can't even remember exactly what it was. But while we were eating dinner that night in the cafeteria a few hours later he shared what I had told him with the others at the table. And I can remember being so angry. And after dinner with my heart pounding I went to his room and said, "We've got to talk. You hurt me deeply to night and you need to know that." And you know what happened. We talked it through, shed some tears and prayed together and our relationship survived. And we're still dear friends to this day. But I'll never forget what it felt like to have my confidence violated.
You know why I can say, "We all do these kinds of things?" Not just because I do them. But because of what James says in the New Testament. In James 3:2,7-8 we read, We all stumble in many ways. Those who are never at fault in what they say are perfect, able to keep their whole body in check ... All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by people, but no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
James says, "No one can tame the tongue. If you can, you're perfect?" Anybody here perfect? Do you realize that the tongue is the only member of our body that comes in it's own cage. If we could only learn to keep the cage shut.
What are some ways we can control our tongues and keep the ninth commandment? In closing, let me give you three. First, recognize you have a problem. We all do to one degree or another. Be honest with yourself. No one's perfect, especially in this area. And bring that problem to the Lord and ask him for his help in controlling your tongue. And you what he'll say? He'll say, "Great! Let's work on your heart, because your tongue only reveals what's in your heart."
Second, talk less and listen more. Researchers tell us that the average American opens his or her mouth 700 times a day, says 12,000 sentences, containing 100,000 words which equals one book every single day. We publish a book a day with our speech. That's how much we talk. Anybody want to read yours? Yet God gave us two ears and one mouth so that we'd listen twice as much as we talk. James says in James 1:19, Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to get angry. David wrote in Psalm 141:3, Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord. Keep watch over the door of my lips. Talk less, listen more, which is why I almost done!
And third, when we do open our mouth, make sure it's for the benefit of others. Talk to benefit others. Right after his commandment not to steal any longer, the apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 4:29, Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs. What can we say to help another person, to encourage another person, to lift another person's burden? That's when our words give life. Maybe we need to confess and ask forgiveness like I needed to do. Benefiting others means speaking the truth in love.
The story's told of a peasant who slandered a friend. And when he discovered that what he said wasn't true he felt horrible and went to the village monk for help. And the monk told him to take a bag of feathers and put a feather on the doorstep of every house in his neighborhood. So the man took the time to do all that. And after he did he came back to the monk and announced that he had done his penance and completed the punishment for his sin. And the monk said, "Oh no. Now I want you to go back and pick up every one of those feathers." And the man said, "That's impossible! I can't do that. The wind has blown all of them away." And the monk said, "So it is with our words, once they're spoken, once they're dropped, they cannot be recovered."
Our words are powerful. They hold the power of life and death. Let's be careful what we say. Let's ask God for help. Let's listen more than we talk. And when we do talk, let's say that which builds others up.