In His Name Devotionals
SPEAK TRUTH
In His Name Devotionals
SPEAK TRUTH
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16 NKJV) From the example set by leaders in the nation’s government, from newspaper misrepresentations, we might come to the conclusion that the eighth commandment has been set aside in America. But one should not judge only those whose fame puts their sins on the front page.
Consider your personal conversation with your neighbor. Do you occasionally gossip? School children use their tongues cruelly to sometimes make life miserable for a dull student, a classmate whose clothes perhaps do not fit, who can’t play the game. Small town reputations can be ruined by the slander that spreads across the back fence, or by the old time telephone “party line.”
Are you breaking this law of God, perhaps by raising an injurious report against your neighbor? Perhaps by simply lifting an eyebrow when a person’s name is mentioned? Even such a little thing, if meant to do so, can do him untold harm.
Stephen was convicted by deliberate lies, but the opposite of perjury is not cold honesty, but Christian charity in your opinion of all that your neighbor does. “If any man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue, his religion is vain. The tongue defileth the whole body and setteth on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by hell.”
“Take my voice and let me sing
Always, only, for my King
Take my lips, and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee.”
“...Striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27 NKJV).
