Most people are probably familiar with the Ten Commandments, and many of us can recite them from memory. At one time they were the bedrock of our society, and in the past the figure of the two stone tablets that God had written the commandments on, were often proudly displayed in courtrooms across the U.S. Now, however, these days the Ten Commandments are for the most part ignored, or even outright disagreed with. People don’t strive to live their lives by the Ten Commandments. Many today feel everything is situational, and are moral relativists. To them nothing is black or white, right or wrong. Everything is various shades of gray.
As we scan down the ten different commandments, we can ask ourselves whether each one is being observed by the majority of people in any given country or community. As I look through them, I have to say that with the exception of the 6th commandment, “You shall not murder”, the others are not generally observed. People take the Lord’s Name in vain all of the time (3rd commandment). Some people may go to church on Sundays, but do they in any other way sanctify one day out of the week for the Lord? (4th commandment). Take one look at the shows on TV and we can see how little parents are honored by their children (5th commandment). The last four commandments are a hit or miss by most people. Adultery is excused with “my husband treats me mean, and this other man treats me special” or something along that line. People steal from their offices all the time, and think nothing of it. And everyone looks at what their neighbor has and desires it. It’s a sad world when these basic laws of God have been so casually tossed aside.
For lack of time and space, I want to focus on just one commandment, one that has been broken by probably everyone, often without even really thinking about it, and that is the ninth commandment (vs. 16). That commandment reads “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor”. In other words, we are not to tell lies, especially when it will harm someone else. Bearing false witness brings to mind a courtroom setting where someone is called in to give a witness. Perhaps we don’t like that person. Maybe he’s the loud-mouthed blockhead in the neighborhood, and we are loath to help him out, so we tell a lie when asked to witness, and he gets sentenced to a prison term falsely because of what we say. Unfortunately that wouldn’t bother many people. Good riddance they might feel. The neighborhood is better off without him. However, we have perjured ourselves, and God takes notice. We’ve broken the 9th commandment.
False witness isn’t the only type of lie people can tell. We should be honest in all of our private dealings, as well as our public statements. False testimony or lying also includes leaving something out of a story, telling a half-truth, twisting the facts, as well as inventing a falsehood. We often flatter others to their face, and then tear them up behind their back (Proverbs 26:28). Our little tongue can inflict a lot of damage (James 3:3-6).
This 9th commandment relates to the sanctity of the truth. To despise the truth is to despise God, whose very being is truth (John 14:6). A genuine believer should speak the truth and honor the truth, as Jesus said that He is the Truth. God does not lie, and neither should His children (Numbers 23:19; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18).
Lies destroy families, marriages, careers, friends, and reputations. A lie is a lie. Dishonesty is dishonesty. God detests lying (Proverbs 12:22). He has given His judgment against deception. We need to avoid words that seek to do harm. It is better to keep quiet than to fall into sin. We can do this by setting a watch over our mouth to guard against lying (Psalm 141:3).
All of the Ten Commandments teach us how to live God-honoring lives. We need to make Him our priority in our life, and by the power and strength of His Holy Spirit, strive to follow each of these commandments in our life.
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