"There was a pious man who said he knew of a plot to overthrow the government. His conscience made him tell. The plotters he named belonged to a small minority, already unpopular, suspected of taking orders from a foreign power; so he met with ready belief.
"Each time he was questioned, new facts and new names came out. Government officials themselves were not above suspicion, it seemed. Public hysteria rose to an alarming level. It seemed you could not trust anyone. People you had known and respected for years were ferreted out by the infallible informer, and stripped of their livelihood and their freedom. A host of lesser lights sprang up to follow their master in making denunciations. Men began to eye their closest friends with suspicion and almost to look for revolution from under their beds! In the end no-one trusted their neighbour. The frenzy lasted several years - years in which hard won civil liberties were lost, rules of evidence trampled on and slanders accepted as proof.
"The man? No, not Senator McCarthy, though it might have been he. The man was Titus Oates, the year 1678, the conspiracy the so-called "Popish Plot" which for months had English Protestants believing that their innocent Catholic neighbours were about to murder them in their beds, or destroy the nation with fire and sword."
So Joy Davidman reminds us in her chapter on this commandment.
Malicious tittle tattle by one lone man started fires of hatred up and down the country that it took many waters to quench; some of the fires lit by his malicious tongue smoulder still, indeed, today.
When Titus Oates was finally exposed and convicted of his murderous perjuries he was whipped from one end of London to the other.
Quite right too. Liars - slanderers especially - are despicable, despite the avidity with which gossip columnists are read.
Deuteronomy 19:16, "If a malicious witness takes the stand to accuse a man of wrongdoing, then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days; the judges shall make a thorough investigation, and if the witness proves to be a false witness, giving false testimony against his brother, then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother; so you shall purge the evil from among you. The rest shall hear, and fear, and never again commit such evil among you. Your eye shall not pity; it shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot."
We may well be relieved that we do not live in an age as harsh as the second millennium BC ... or the 17th century AD.
"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour."
It follows the commandment prohibiting stealing; for a thing you can steal from your neighbour, without even having to touch his purse, his person or his possessions, is his good name. You do not have to lie to do it - just make insinuating remarks about him; and without a single thing said that anyone can pin down, he suddenly finds he is losing friends and isn't welcome where he used to be. No-one tells any lies. An innocent question is asked in a knowing tone of voice, a doubtful eyebrow is raised at a psychological moment, that is all ... and even church members in the same congregation begin to avoid each other.
"You notice the pastor shut the door when he took that woman into his vestry?" He knew she wanted to unburden herself of a trouble that was for nobody else's ears. But who cares about the woman?
"You know that woman who pleads poverty all the time? I saw her order a meal in one of the most expensive restaurants in town." How was the shrewd observer (who has never offered her a cent and frequents the restaurant) to know that that day a friend had given her $30 to go and do just that?
Bill says, "I saw John on the back verandah
take a knife to his wife."
Bob says, "I saw John on the back verandah with a knife in his hand,
yes."
Beth won't say anything at all.
All three saw John on the back verandah, and all three know that John
did not kill his wife.
One lies brazenly, one tells an evasive half truth, one keeps
cowardly silence. Is there anything to choose between
them?
Leviticus 5:1, "If a person sins in that he does not speak up to testify when he hears a public charge regarding something he has seen or knows about, he shall bear his iniquity" ... he shall bear his iniquity.
You do not have to lie to bear false witness.
Says Joy Davidman, "Throughout Christian
history, denunciations of lying have been loud and frequent. Who has
been so abhorred as Ananias and Sapphira?
"But we all know the meaning of the words "pious fraud." From the
beginning the devil has taken a delight in tempting the devout to lie
for the good of their cause - and thereby make it a bad one. One of
the first tasks of the early church was to separate the true Gospels
from the multitude of invented 'eyewitness accounts' in which the
faithful lied their heads off for the supposed good of the church
...
• fabulous miracles ascribed to the boy Jesus - more suitable to
an infant devil;
• romantic adventures of the Apostle Paul with a holy virgin,
Thecla;
• profound treatises on metaphysics attributed to Dionysus the
Areopagite who never wrote them but was sainted for them.
"The list is endless.
"Nor did it end in antiquity; modern churches are adept at forging
their own praises and other churches' dispraises."
And Christians of one doctrinal school habitually misrepresent the beliefs of the others.
Exodus 23:1, "You shall not utter a false report."
"Six things," said Solomon, " he LORD hates, seven are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run to evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a man who sows discord among brothers." (Proverbs 6:16)
The false witness, the wicked heart, the liar and the troublemaker turn out almost always to be the same man (or woman; sexist discrimination in this matter is as emphatically inappropriate as in any other - women are sinners too).
James the Lord's brother warned us, "The tongue is a little member, but it can boast tremendous effects. A whole forest can be set ablaze by a tiny spark, and the tongue is as dangerous as any fire, with vast potentialities for evil. It can poison the whole body; it can make the whole of life a blazing hell."
O yes; we all hate a liar. But it is curious: we all lie about each other. We lie and slander by talebearing. If you've never done it, stand up. (If any of you do I shall say, "I don't believe you - if you were that pious you'd be too humble to boast!") We tell half-truths with intent to deceive. "He served time for embezzlement, you know," and neglect to say that at a retrial he was acquitted. We manipulate facts about people. "He went through four jobs in two years, did you know?" Forget the fact that each time it was because the firm went bankrupt. The habit has to be widespread to generate a proverb like "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics." We quote people out of context. "I heard him say, 'I wish they'd cut Bible readings out of their services.'" neglecting to say that he added, "They read so badly." We act lies, as when the police 'plant' drugs on an innocent victim. We lie by silence ... by neglecting to fill in a line in our tax returns? We lie by making generalisations. "Aborigines can't leave the bottle alone." All of them? It is neither less true nor more to say the same of white Australians. We lie by slander, as some women do who accuse of rape a man they failed to seduce. We lie by flattery. A flatterer is someone who says things to your face he wouldn't say behind your back. We lie by exaggeration, even when it is another's sins we exaggerate (or our own) to make a 'testimony' more impressive. We slander under a pretence of pious concern. "He needs your prayers." What malice we can vent with an air of innocent regret.
"You shall not utter a false report." Exodus 23:1-2
The real problem for most of us, let's face it, is not the occasional fib, but the habitual false witness given unblushingly to put ourselves in a better light, or just to show that we are no worse than others, till lying becomes almost a way of life. Sins of that sort are hard to cure. For the only way to start getting rid of a sin is to admit it ... and how many of us are ready to go to a person and tell them we have lied about them?
And even then we are not out of the wood, for the first and worst of a man's lies are usually those he tells himself! It is dreadfully easy to lie to ourselves about our sins; that becomes a habit more readily almost than the other.
At what point does the making of excuses to ourselves ripen into self-deception?
Without honesty - there where it hurts - repentance and forgiveness are both impossible, for the sin isn't even faced. Self examination then becomes a non-productive exercise, for the eye by which we look within no longer sees true.
The reason we are so prone to lie was given a long time ago; and the One Who gave it paid for it with His life: "Light has come into the world, but men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil." John 3:19
If judgment in this matter were to begin at the House of God, where would we be, you and I, in one year's time?
Are we willing to be convicted of our sin?
The conviction of sin is widely misunderstood - we fancy it to mean that you are bowed down to the ground under a huge weight of self-condemnation, hounded by a nagging sense of guilt. But that is the effect of the devil's accusations, not of the Holy Spirit's conviction. The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins so that we might find release from them. In fact, as anyone who has experienced forgiveness knows, our sins become a burden we can lay down, so we do not go round with a nagging sense of guilt. The Christian can face his sins, admit them, repent of them and receive forgiveness for them. It is unhappy creatures who deny the existence of their sin who must carry it, and the burden of their lies about it, to their graves.
The way to freedom has been shown us long ago; it lies in honest confession and simple trust in God's forgiving love, opening our hearts to the Spirit of Truth, "Who will dwell with you and be in you."
"Today, if you hear His voice, harden not your hearts."
But it would be easy for me to 'do a Titus Oates' on you all, and make you squirm in your pews for sins you have not committed. We should keep things in perspective.
Errors are not lies if there was no intent to deceive. You can only be said to lie, whether by plain statement or by insinuation, when you mean the truth to be twisted.
An honest mistake is not a lie. If a news reader announces that 20 people died in a plane crash and the number turns out to be 19, his report may be erroneous, but he didn't lie if there was no intent to deceive.
A work of fiction is not a lie. Jesus told stories ... parables. They never actually happened. But He told them to illustrate truth, not to deceive.
The use if figurative language is not lying. When Jesus said He was 'the door,' it wasn't literal truth; He isn't wood, hinges and a door knob. He used a picture to convey a truth - that He is the way into the Kingdom.
Deceit, where the rules of the game call for it, is not lying. The dummy pass in a "State of Origin" match is not a punishable offence; the 'googly' is a proper part of a bowler's armoury.
Nor is concealment of truth necessarily a lie. When Samuel was commanded by God to anoint David to be king he said, "How can I go? If Saul hears it he will kill me." And the Lord said, "Take a heifer with you, and say, 'I have come to offer a sacrifice.'" Offer a sacrifice, of course, he did; he didn't lie. But such was Saul's warped frame of mind there were things it was better he should not know.
"He who goes about as a tale bearer uncovers secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing hidden." Proverbs 11:13,
Nor is a lie always an evil. No-one has ever yet devised a rule of conduct so perfect that you can make it stick in every conceivable circumstance without having to bring intelligence, imagination, sympathy and compassion to bear - and the rule against lying is no exception.
If a man comes to my door looking wild, waving a gun, and yelling that he'll shoot his wife the moment he lays eyes on her, then even though I have hidden the poor woman in the bathroom I shall certainly tell him that I haven't seen her in a week.
Did Rahab sin when she lied about the whereabouts of the Hebrew spies in Jericho? If she'd told the truth, would she have made herself thereby an accomplice to their murder? Was it not a case where the higher law, "Thou shalt not kill," annuls the lower law, "Thou shalt not bear false witness." Whatever view you may have of such a matter, hers was clearly not a lie in the same moral category as the lie Jacob told, "I am Esau," to steal his brother's blessing.
How then are we to come at a right understanding of the values this commandment is concerned to guarantee?
Any sort of tampering with truth distressed the Hebrews because to despise truth was to despise God, for truth is His very nature. To play fast and loose with truth is to play fast and loose with God. The yardstick by which you judge a statement to be good or bad is the revealed will of God. If the truth I tell, or the truth I conceal, will promote God's purpose for this person it is right; if not, it is wrong.
How many of the things we say about people would die on our lips if we were to ask, before we said them, "Will I serve God's interest in this person or this cause by saying it?"
This commandment confronts us again with the same challenge we have been discovering every one of the commandments confronts us with - namely, that it obliges you to reckon God in. Will the statement I am about to make further God's interest in this person or this cause, or will it not? Can I say something else instead that will in fact promote it?
• What is God's interest in truth? we need to ask.
Simply His concern that it be possible for us to trust. Where there is no truth there can be no trust. Let truth be compromised and confidence is lost. And when confidence is lost, chaos overtakes us.
It is one of the most vital public issues in our time. In politics, business and law, the manipulation of truth for party, company or personal advantage has become par for the course. And we wonder why our society is becoming confused and suspicious and mean-minded? Said Lord Hailsham, "Except upon a basis of mutual trust, free institutions dissolve into violence and chaos." If you do not believe him, read tomorrow's paper.
The best lie wins. And modern technology has made the power the mass media gives to the 'persuaders' to broadcast their lies immense. To call the process brainwashing is to exaggerate, and I wish people would stop saying it; brain washing is a drastic, clinical process which can properly be applied only to individuals. But brain-bending it is. And our brains are being vigorously bent every day, so we do not know who or what to believe any more. We do not know how to restore truth and integrity to public life. How do you do it?
Reformers are torn between two answers: either to ensure truth by imposing total state control on all sources of information, as totalitarian governments do ... which renders the one well of truth fatally easy to poison; or to allow total freedom of comment, as democracies do ... which makes it almost impossible to find the few apples of truth in the box - or keep them from going rotten.
If there is one reason above others to pray for a revival of religion in our land it is the peril we are in by reason of our inability to speak truth.
The commandment is concerned to guarantee the freedom of truth for two further reasons.
i. To preserve your neighbour's good
name
ii. To preserve God's good Name
Where truth is at stake the individual's very person is also at stake. God desires every man to have honour and a good name among his fellows, just as He desires Himself to be honoured and enjoy a good Name among His creatures. By the third commandment He would protect His own name from dishonour; by the ninth He would protect man's also.
Who steals my purse steals trash ...
But he who filches from me my good name robs me of that which not enriches him, and makes me poor indeed.
Who loses his good name loses what is vital, not merely to his well-being, but to his very being as a person. The Bible consistently recognises it as a basic human right. Proverbs 22:1, "A good name is more to be desired than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold." Curious that it does not figure in the Declaration of Human Rights promulgated by the United Nations.
Saul, even after he had been rejected by God from being king and had in fact lost the Kingdom, clung to Samuel in a last desperate effort to salvage a good name among his people: "I have sinned; yet honour me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me ..."
With better reason Paul defended his integrity in the face of slanders that were spread about him.
A large element in our Lord's suffering arose out of the complete loss of His Name, His reputation and His honour.
No society can be indifferent to the essential need all men and women have to be able to hold their head up among their fellows. To achieve it, truth must be espoused and the lie renounced.
One of the most appalling features of the trial of Jesus is that at the moment when He staked everything on His total commitment to truth, he was greeted with total cynicism by Pilate: "What is truth?" In such a climate of disdain for truth or despair of truth, the Light of the World was put out - obscured by darkness, the victim of false witness, made of no reputation by lies and slander, destroyed by whispering and innuendo.
If that does not render us conscience-stricken for our falsehoods, then God have mercy on our souls, for they are lost.
It is no accident that the Gospel of Christ is the first target at which a corrupt state aims its venom; for where the light shines brightest the powers of darkness are most threatened. More closely than with any other thing, the preservation of human liberty is bound up with the freedom given to the Gospel. Any attack on the free currency of truth is bound to be directed against Him Who is the Truth. That is why every dictatorship in the world is opposed to the Gospel. That is why Jesus is still the target of men's lies.
Which brings us to the second reason.
The challenge to speak the truth about our neighbour involves, in a way we rarely ever take into account, our witness to Christ. For not only has God put our neighbour's good name into our hands, He has Himself become our neighbour in Jesus Christ.
That is why He chose to have around Him twelve men into whose hands He committed His Name. His Name is now in our hands. "Ye shall be witnesses to Me."
How can we bear faithful witness to our neighbour Jesus Christ if we cannot bear faithful witness to our other neighbours? "He who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen." I John 4:20
In choosing the twelve to be His disciples one of our Lord's concerns was simply to choose a group of men who would not bear false witness. He was not concerned to have about Him men who were naturally clever, or who had some 'charisma,' but simply men who could be trusted not to distort, or exaggerate, or withhold what they had seen and heard. His truth needs no light but its own in which to shine; it is served best by men who simply bear honest witness to that light.
Jesus needs faithful witnesses. Are you one? Am I one? We shall not magically become true witnesses to Him if we are habitually false witnesses where others are concerned.
Has it ever occurred to you what a tragedy it was that to the authorities who required of Jesus that He tell them "of His disciples and His doctrine" He was obliged to say of the disciples, "Let these men go." That day, they could not be trusted. They lived to learn, thank God, that witnesses are required to testify, not win popularity contests.
Remember finally what Paul wrote in II Corinthians 13:8: "We cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth."
Falsehood is a parasite; it lives off truth, its host; but it cannot destroy it. Truth must, and does, ultimately prevail. Darkness cannot extinguish light. Even within the course of history, so strong is the power of truth to witness for itself, that even the lies told against it ultimately bear witness to it. The falsehood of a Caiaphas and a Pilate turn out only to further the truth. What is at stake when Christ is rejected is not His truth - that stands like a rock in the ocean; the waves beat on it in vain. What is at stake is the society or the person that attacks Him.
"Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles in the world... to live so well among the pagans, that though they slander you as wrongdoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God in the day of His visitation."
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