<\/p>\n
\nExodus 20:16<\/b>\u00a0<\/a><\/span>\u00a0\u201cYou shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span>Leviticus 19:16<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the LORD.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span>Psalms 101:5-7<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly I will destroy. Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart I will not endure.\u00a0\u00a0I will look with favor on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; he who walks in the way that is blameless shall minister to me.\u00a0\u00a0No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span>Proverbs 10:18<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0The one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever utters slander is a fool.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span>Proverbs 11:13<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span>Ephesians 4:31<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span>James 4:11<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
In an extended sense, we can break the ninth commandment through slander, tale bearing, creating false impressions, by silence, by questioning the motives behind someone\u2019s actions, or even by flattery. The New Testament puts it simply.\u00a0Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds. Lying and false representations belong to the old man, not to the new life we have in Jesus. Satan is always there to encourage a lie, he is the father of all lies. (Guzik)<\/p>\n
The ninth commandment concerns our own and our neighbour’s good name. This forbids speaking falsely on any matter, lying, equivocating, and any way devising or designing to deceive our neighbour. Speaking unjustly against our neighbour, to hurt his reputation. Bearing false witness against him, or in common conversation slandering, backbiting, and tale-bearing; making what is done amiss, worse than it is, and in any way endeavouring to raise our reputation upon the ruin of our neighbour’s. How much this command is every day broken among persons of all ranks! (Henry)<\/p>\n
Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Neither publicly in a court of judicature, by laying things to his charge that are false, and swearing to them, to his hurt and damage; nor privately, by whispering, tale bearing, backbiting, slandering, by telling lies of him, traducing his character by innuendos, sly insinuations, and evil suggestions, whereby he may suffer in his character, credit, and reputation, and in his trade and business. (Gill)<\/p>\n
We may think it is far from us to bear false witness against another, but surely our society looks favorably upon it. Look at social and news media outlets. A good journalist can easily destroy the life of any person with both their mouth and pen. Day after day you read it and hear it and even expect it. It almost becomes so natural that it seems right and ok to do. There is nothing subtle about it. Twisting words and actions of others to fit a narrative and opinion is common. It is still wrong. It is equally bad to tell a lie by calling it the truth or tell a truth and have it called a lie about a person. Both are false and designed to harm someone in character or financially or both. As Christians, we see it wrong and doubt this type of sander and falseness would come from our mouths.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Repeating gossip is a form of false witness. How many divisions in our churches have evolved because of this type of behavior? Did you hear\u2026\u2026..? I think we should pray for \u2026\u2026\u2026 I just heard.\u00a0 <\/span>Did you know that \u2026\u2026. cheats on his wife? Did you know that our pastor did\u2026\u2026..? I heard that\u2026\u2026. get\u2019s drunk every night. And the list goes on and on. Soon the reputation and character of that person is destroyed. Unless we might get too comfortable and say we do not do this at church or with church members, can it be said about us that we don\u2019t do it at our place of employment? Do we cause harm to our witness and to the honor and glory of Jesus Christ because we allow ourselves to be caught up in social norms? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Will what I say honor and glorify Jesus Christ? Should I repeat what I have heard? Discernment is a gift from God. Oh, that we would seek all we read and hear through the filter of God\u2019s Word and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Don\u2019t become blind to the ease at which our culture and society have approved bearing false witness in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Allow the Holy Spirit to guide your thoughts. Pray that God would lead you in proper discernment, speech, and deeds that Honor and Glorify Jesus Christ.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
When we intentionally choose and commit to honoring and glorifying Jesus Christ in all we think, say, and do our discernment and control of our thoughts, tongues, and actions will follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Exodus 20:16\u00a0\u00a0\u201cYou shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. \u00a0Leviticus 19:16\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the LORD. \u00a0Psalms 101:5-7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly I will destroy. Whoever has a haughty look and an … Continue reading “43.e. “Wilderness” – 7.l. Sinai – \u201cYou shall not bear false witness against your neighbor””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1400,2027,1810,286,16608,2831,2029,178,164,57,7089,119,6755,796,16609,3257,396,16611,3565,3537,16607,16610,442],"class_list":["post-164732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers","tag-anger","tag-arrogant-heart","tag-bitterness","tag-blameless","tag-conceals-hatred","tag-covered","tag-deceit","tag-endure","tag-evil","tag-faithful","tag-false-witness","tag-fool","tag-haughty","tag-lord","tag-lying-lipes","tag-malice","tag-neighbor","tag-put-away-from-you","tag-secretly","tag-slander","tag-slanderer","tag-trustworth","tag-wrath"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164732"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164811,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164732\/revisions\/164811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}