Commandment Nine: Live by Truth

Key Point: Because God is the faithful God and the God of truth, we must imitate him as his children by telling the truth and not speaking evil of one another.

What Does the Commandment Mean?

Addresses the sanctity of truth.

This commandment focuses on bearing truth in a context where another’s well-being is at stake.

The focus of this commandment is on perjury or malicious lying. . . that is jeopardizing the truth with the intent of selfish benefit or injury to others.

To understand what bearing false witness means to the Israelites, we need to look at and understand the legal system in Israel’s time.

They were not innocent until proven guilty but rather guilty until proven innocent.

There was no “forensic evidence” back then, so the decision weighed heavily on eyewitness testimony.

Most offenses in the time of the Israelites were capital offenses, and courts would sometimes make a decision based on only one witness. Therefore, bearing a false report against someone would often prove fatal.

However, God put specific laws in place for his people to protect the innocent being falsely accused.

Someone could only be put to death on account of two or three witnesses (Deut. 19:15).

The one who makes the accusation must cast the first stone (Deut. 17:7), and if they lied about the person, they would be stoned.

The word neighbor refers not to the proximity where you live but any person you would interact and do business with.

Jesus also taught that everyone is our neighbor (Luke 10:25-37).

Even though the command applies specifically in bearing true witness in court, any word that is a character assassination would be a violation of the ninth commandment.

The command is a generality and covers the “worst form,” but still applies to the minute details.

For example. . . Hosea condemns Israel for “lying” (kachash) instead of using the word for false testimony (shaqar) in Hosea 4:2.

To despise truth is to despise God whose very being and nature are truth

Psalm 119:160 ESV

The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

It is impossible for God to lie (Num. 23:19; Heb. 6:18)

Satan is the father of lies (cf. John 8:44).

God hates lies, but delights in truth (cf. Prov. 6:17; 12:22).

Don’t lie to one another (cf. Lev. 19:11; Col. 3:9).

Truth must be spoken in love (cf. Eph. 4:15).

The tongue is vile (cf. Rom. 3:13; Jas. 1:26; 3:1–12).

Even though it is implied that lying is wrong. . . The commandment does not say, “never tell a lie,” or “always tell the truth.”

So then. . . is it ever ok to lie (speak untruthfully)?

The Bible seems to teach that there are instances when it is done to protect others with a focus on glorifying and pleasing God.

The Hebrew midwives’ lie concerning the birth of male babies (cf. Ex. 1:15–20).

Rahab’s lie concerning the location of the spies (cf. Josh. 2:1–14; 6:25; Heb. 11:31; Jas. 2:25).

But this does not mean it is always ok to lie. In the examples below, these people lied to protect or profit themselves.

Satan’s lie to Eve about eating the forbidden fruit (cf. Gen. 3:4-5).

Cain’s lie concerning Abel’s death (cf. Gen.4:9).

Peter’s lie concerning his knowledge of Jesus (cf. Matt. 26:72).

Ananias’ and Sapphira’s lie concerning their money (cf. Acts 5:1–10).

“What is forbidden is false witness against your neighbor—that is, as we said, prideful lying designed to do him down and exalt yourself at his expense. The positive command implicit in this negative is that we should seek our neighbor’s good and speak truth to him and about him to this end. When the love that seeks his good prompts us to withhold truth, that if spoken, would bring him harm . . . the ninth commandment is being observed.” - J. I. Packer, Keeping the Ten Commandments

What Does This Commandment Mean to Us?

We bear false witness against our neighbor when we. . .

Exaggerate our accomplishments so we can be seen in the best light.

Padding our resume.

Embellishing stories about ourselves to get more attention and make people like us.

Exaggerate other people’s failings and make them sound worse than they actually are (to make ourselves look better).

We misquote other’s words, mislead others, misinterpret others, for our own selfish gain.

These are examples of slander, which the New Testament forbids (Eph. 4:31).

Gossip.

Gossip ruins someone’s reputation because you speak about another person behind their back without giving them an opportunity to defend themselves.

Proverbs 22:1 says that someone’s reputation is more desirable than great riches and better than silver and gold.

When we gossip we seek to steal this treasure from our neighbor.

Gossip does not just apply to speaking falsely about others when they are not present but even speaking truthfully when it is done maliciously to slander the other person.

“Perhaps the one spreading gossip is not lying, but he or she is being untruthful: saying things that are true, but in the context of slander, is deceitful. The neighbor’s mistakes, faults, and shortcomings are discussed in minute detail. People realize this kind of chatter gets them an attentive audience. For it is a universal phenomenon that we would rather hear something bad about our neighbor than something good. And something dirty always sticks long after the conversation has died. As Martin Luther put it in his Large Catechism, reputation is something quickly stolen, but not quickly returned.” -Jochem Douma

Questions to ask before you speak (From Philip Ryken):

“Is what I am about to say true?”

“If so, does it really need to be said to this person in this conversation?”

“Would I put it this way if the person I’m talking about were here to listen?”

Just as speaking gossip breaks the ninth commandment, listening to gossip breaks the ninth commandment as well.

“Slander kills three: the one who speaks it, the one who listens to it, and the one to whom it is spoken.” -Old Rabbinic Saying

“He that raises a slander, carries the devil in his tongue; and he that receives it, carries the devil in his ear.” -Thomas Watson

How do we stop listening to gossip?

Kindly interrupt the person and stop and pray for the person and situation.

Ask if the person telling you the information has spoken to this person directly.

Or say, “You know, this is starting to sound like gossip; we need to talk about something else.”

When it comes to the ninth commandment, we must understand how dangerous our tongues are.

Our tongues are untamable and often murderous swords that destroy others like a forest fire (James 3:6-10).

Psalms 34:13 tells us we must keep our tongues from evil and our lips from speaking deceit.

Instead of using our tongues to tear people down, we must use our words to build people up.

This means that we should think and say the best about others.

Instead of being so quick to speak, we should be slow to speak, for many words normally leads to sin.

To obey this commandment, we must not only not speak falsely but we must tell the truth.

If God is the God of truth, and we are his children, we must imitate our Father and speak truthfully and honestly.

Ps. 119:60 and Prov. 30:5 says All of God’s words are true:

John 14:6 says Jesus is the truth and John 1:14 says he is full of truth.

1 John 4:6 says The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth.

“Our interpersonal communication must be grounded in the character of God.” -Ryken

Also, we should not speak falsely to one another because we are brothers and sisters in Christ and are members of the family of God.

Ephesians 4:25 ESV

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

Colossians 3:9–10 ESV

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

If God always keeps his word and fulfills his promises, then we must also keep our word and fulfill our promises and commitments.

“Your word is your bond.”

I think my generation and your generation do not know what commitment is anymore. We say we are going to do something or even sign a document committing to something, but do not fulfill it and it means nothing.

As Christians, we are representing Christ with our words. . . if we do not keep our promises and commitments, what does that tell the onlooking world about our God?

Why would people trust and follow Jesus when his followers are not true to their word and renege on their commitments?

Who Will Dwell on God’s Holy Hill?

He who speaks the truth from his heart and there is no slander on his tongue (Psalm 15:2-3).

Everyone who practices falsehood will be shut out of the eternal city of heaven. (Rev. 22:15).

The biggest lie that we tell to ourselves is that we are righteous and “not that bad off” when we really are.

“To act like we have it spiritually together is a lie. But even more it is a denial of the grace of God, which alone has the power to save us.” -Ryken

“What’s the truth about you? What lies have you been telling? What are the lies you tell yourself? What are the lies you try to sell to others? The biggest lie is the one we live with every day, the lie we work so hard to maintain. It is the lie that we are on the inside what we pretend to be on the outside. But Jesus said, “Woe to you, … you hypocrites!… on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness” (Matt. 23:27, 28).” -Philip Ryken

To obey this command, there are three things we must do:

We must first realize the truth about ourselves.

Then we must speak truthfully to God in repentance and confession of our sin.

Jesus completely fulfilled the law for us, there was never any deceit found in his mouth (1 Peter 2:22).

When we acknowledge the truth that we have sinned against a holy God, and we embrace the one who is the truth (Jesus) and died for our falsehood, we will be forgiven of our sin and set free.

Finally, through faith in Christ, we will have the transforming grace we need to be able to love others and speak the truth to them.