Hey All,
I hope everyone had a great Easter and got the opportunity to tell someone that Christ has risen for you and for me. This week we are going to dig back into the Eighth (8) Commandment. Back in the old testament times, testifying as to whether an individual was guilty or innocent was used far more than it is today resolve matters. The Jewish culture I believe required two testimonies to corroborate on the facts of a case to make it acceptable evidence. As you can see many would drag individuals in to share their stories to create a case against another human being. God says that there is nothing inherently wrong with this type of testimony in a court of law as long as it is factual and truthful but we are forbidden from lying about our neighbor. It says in James 4:11 Do not speak against one another brethren. So let’s dig deeper into this commandment to see what God wants from us outside a court of law.
The eighth Commandment
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
What Does this mean: We should fear and love God that we may not deceitfully belie, betray, slander, nor defame our neighbor, but defend him, speak well of him and put the best construction on everything.
What does God Want or NOT want us to do?
Once again in this commandment, we see God wants us to build up our neighbor and not tear them down with our words. Have you ever been at a place where a group of people would get together and just tear down their bosses or coworkers? So what did you do? Did you chime in and help with what was wrong with “old Johnny” or “miss Susan” or did you just not participate in the conversation? If we did anything short of stopping the conversation and redirecting it to a more constructive conversation, then we did nothing to defend our neighbor. God warns us in Proverbs 19:5 A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who tells lies will not escape. Paul says in Ephesians 4:25 Therefore laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. We are called to defend our neighbor not to gossip, speak bad about them or make someone feel uncomfortable for whatever reason.
So to wrap up
God wants us to continually love one another and build each other up! Peter said it in 1 Peter 4:8 Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.
Father as we interact with our co-workers, friends, neighbors and anyone we come in contact with, help us to find the good in every individual. It’s so easy to pick at someone’s faults but in doing so we are not be obedient to your will in this commandment. Finally Lord if we cannot find anything positive then just help us to walk away before we say something that will not honor you. We ask this all in Jesus’ name. Amen? AMEN!
image sourced from google images
This is especially hard when the person that is being talked about has done something obviously wrong. It’s easy to feel superior and even justified in talking about how the person has messed up, but that’s judging them as though we were perfect. I think following this commandment is tied to humbly acknowledging that we’re all equally imperfect before God.