Hey all! I pray that all is well and all will be well in your lives.
Well, we’re almost done with the ten commandments. While we’re almost done talking about them here in the blog, I hope they stay in your hearts.
For this week, we’ll go over the ninth commandment which says:
(9) — “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” (NIV)
Of the ten commandments, I think this one gets summarized and downsized the most. People narrow it down to simply mean “don’t lie”, but that’s not what this commandment is about. We need to pay attention to the choice of words used and not used. Notice how in the previous commandments they were short and very direct. God could have said “You shall not lie”, but he didn’t.
Now don’t think for a second, that just because lying isn’t directly one of the ten commandments, that it’s small on God’s radar: God hates a liar, and I mean he REALLY hates a liar!
There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him:
haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
a false witness who pours out lies
and a person who stirs up conflict in the community. — Proverbs 6:16-19 (NIV)
This ninth commandment was given to protect people’s reputation. Because of that, lying is a subset to this commandment. However, one doesn’t have to lie to ruin another person’s reputation. In fact, you can say things that are true on the surface and ruin a person’s reputation. It’s about the narrative: the context, situation and omittance of information that makes something a falsehood. Gossiping is the primary mean of breaking this commandment. “Well, I don’t want to gossip, but…” That sentence already starts out with a falsehood/lie.
Did you know that when the scripture refers to the devil as “the accuser of the brethren” it’s saying he’s a gossiper? He’s such a liar, that he even tries to poison the minds of God and the angels.
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you!” — Zechariah 3:1-2 (NIV)
But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” — Jude 1:9 (NIV)
And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. — Revelation 12:10 (NIV)
He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” — Mark 8:31-33 (NIV)
A false narrative can easily poison the minds of the most forgiving and open-minded people. This is why you do not converse or entertain those narratives and gossipers, but shut them down immediately: “the lord rebuke you”. In the last scripture here, while it says Peter began to rebuke him, it was really Jesus who did the rebuking. His rebuke was against the narrative that Peter was trying to enforce, which is why he said Satan and not Peter.
Narratives come in all forms, from gossip, to fear, to prejudices and even the news we watch. A person’s life can be ruined by what would seemingly be an innocent comment in passing, by a small inside joke that leaks and goes viral, or when things are taken out of context. And, people will always find a reason to take something out of context.
This commandment was written for us not to do. I’m writing to say not only, do not do it, but go beyond that and fulfill the purpose and reason for the commandment. Remember, the redeemed do these commandments now because they are in our hearts. We fulfill the purpose by protecting your brother’s and sister’s reputation when another doesn’t. A person’s reputation/name is everything, and as we live in a digital and online age, it’s even more important than ever: once something goes out there, it’s permanent.
I’ll leave you with a story I once heard.
A new and very young preacher was placed at a church to preach to a congregation where he preached exceptionally well. Everyone loved him, and were eager and open to receive the message from him each week.
One lady would always say how wonderful his sermons were, but she would end with the comment “but he’s so young”. After weeks, that sentiment (poison): “but he’s so young”, propagated throughout the congregation. All of a sudden, people could no longer receive the message, because as he was preaching, in the back of their minds the thought “he’s so young was dancing around”. He lost the respect of the congregation because of the few words that poisoned their minds. Notice how it started out as a compliment and was true on the surface?
Knowing this, he knew the situation was a lost case, so he decided to leave. When the lady responsible for the comments heard about the reason for his desire to leave, she went to apologize and begged him to stay. She asked what could she do to fix the wrong that she had done? So, the preacher picked up a down pillow, cut it open and spread all the feathers throughout the room, then asked her to find every single feather and put them back into the pillow. She said that’s impossible they are everywhere. He then explained, that’s the same with the gossip that has spread throughout the congregation and it cannot be undone.
May God bless and keep all who read this.
May God bless and keep all brothers and sisters, new and old, in the faith in his name.
With his love and mine,
Chrom