On a message board such as this it is good to be able to identify this sin and avoid it;
From ODT Thomas Watson;
From ODT Thomas Watson;
by Thomas Watson
The NINTH Commandment
"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." Exodus 20:16
The tongue which at first was made to be an organ of God's praise—has now become an instrument of unrighteousness. This commandment binds the tongue to its good behavior. God has set two natural fences to keep in the tongue—the teeth and lips; and this commandment is a third fence set about it, that it should not break forth into evil. It has a prohibitory and a mandatory part: the first is set down in plain words, the other is clearly implied.
I. The prohibitory part of the commandment, or, what it forbids in general. It forbids anything which may tend to the disparagement or harm of our neighbor. More particularly, two things are forbidden in this commandment.
[1] SLANDER. This is a sin against the ninth commandment. The scorpion carries his poison in his tail; the slanderer carries his poison in his tongue. Slandering "is to report things of others unjustly." "Malicious witnesses testify against me. They accuse me of things I don't even know about." Psalm 35:11. Many a Christian is beheaded of his good name. They raised for a slander of Paul, that he preached "Men might do evil that good might come of it." "We be slanderously reported; and some affirm that we say, "Let us do evil, that good may come"." Rom 3:8. Eminence is commonly blasted by slander. Holiness itself is no shield from slander. The lamb's innocence will not preserve it from the wolf. Christ, the most innocent upon earth, was reported to be "A glutton and a drunkard." Matthew 11:19. John the Baptist was a man of a holy and austere life, and yet they said of him, "He has a devil." Matt 11:18.
The Scripture calls slandering, smiting with the tongue. "Come, and let us smite him with the tongue." Jer 18:18. You may smite another—and never touch him. "The tongue inflicts greater wounds than the sword." Augustine. No physician can heal the wounds of the tongue! To pretend friendship to a man, and slander him, is most odious.
As it is a sin against this commandment to raise a false report of another, so it is to receive a false report before we have examined it. "Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts. Those who refuse to slander others or harm their neighbors or speak evil of their friends." Psalm 15:1-3. We must not only not raise a false report—but refuse to hear it. He who raises a slander—carries the devil in his tongue! He who receives a slander—carries the devil in his ear!
[2] LYING. Here three sins are condemned:
(1) Speaking that which is false.
(2) Witnessing to that which is false.
(3) Swearing to that which is false.
(1) That which is condemned in the commandment is, SPEAKING that which is false. "Lying lips are abomination to the Lord." Proverbs 12:22. To lie is to speak that which one knows to be an untruth. There is nothing more contrary to God—than a lie. The Holy Spirit is called the "Spirit of Truth." 1 John 4:6.
Lying is a sin which does not go alone; it ushers in other sins. Absalom told his father a lie, when he said that he was going to pay his vow at Hebron, and this was a preface to his treason. 2 Sam 15:7. Where there is a lie in the tongue, the devil is in the heart. "Why has Satan filled your heart to lie?" Acts 5:3. Lying is a sin which unfits men for civil society. How can you converse or bargain with a man, when you cannot trust a word he says? This sin highly provokes God. Ananias and Sapphire were struck dead for telling a lie. Acts 5:5. The furnace of hell is heated for liars. "Outside are sorcerers, and whoever loves and makes a lie." Rev 22:15. O abhor this sin! "Consider your every word an oath." Jerome. When you speak, let your word be as authentic as your oath. Imitate God, who is the pattern of truth. Pythagoras being asked what made men like God, answered, "when they speak the truth." The character of a man who shall go to heaven, is that "he speaks the truth in his heart." Psalm 15:2.
(2) That which is condemned in the commandment is, WITNESSING that which is false. "You shall not bear false witness." There is a twofold bearing false witness:
1. Bearing false witness for another; as when we give our testimony for a person who is criminal and guilty, and we justify him as if he were innocent. "Who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of justice." Isa 5:23. He who seeks to acquit a wicked man—makes himself unjust.
2. It is bearing false witness against another, when we accuse him in open court falsely. This is to imitate the devil, who is the "accuser of the brethren." Though the devil is no adulterer—yet he is a false witness. Solomon says, "Like a club or a sword or a sharp arrow—is the man who gives false testimony against his neighbor." Proverbs 25:18. In his face he is hardened like a club—he cannot blush, he cares not what lie he witnesses to. And he is a sword—his tongue is a sword to wound the person he witnesses against in his goods or life. "Then two scoundrels accused him before all the people of cursing God and the king. So he was dragged outside the city and stoned to death." 1 Kings 21:13. The queen of Persia being sick, the magicians accused two godly virgins of having by charms procured the queen's sickness; whereupon she caused those virgins to be sawn asunder.
A false witness perverts all justice. He corrupts the judge by making him pronounce a wrong sentence, and causes the innocent to suffer. Vengeance will find out the false witness. "A false witness shall not be unpunished." Proverbs 19:5. "The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against his brother—then do to him as he intended to do to his brother. You must purge the evil from among you." Deut 19:18, 19. If, for instance, he was trying to have the innocent person put to death—his own life shall be taken away.
(3) That which is condemned in the commandment is, SWEARING to what is false; as when men take a false oath, and by that take away the life of another. "Love no false oath." Zech 8:17. The Scythians made a law that when a man bound together a lie with an oath, he was to lose his head; because these sins took away all truth and faith from among men. The devil has taken great possession of those who dare swear to a lie.
