The Ten Commandments
THE SIN OF LYING
(Ex. 20:16; 2 Kings 5:20-27; Prov. 6:16-19; Matt. 15:19, 20; John 8:42-47; Eph. 4:25; Rev. 22:14, 15: KJV)
Subject
The Ultimate Source of, the Evil Consequences of, and the Secret of Victory Over the Sin of Falsehood
Golden Texts
“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor” (Ex.20:16); “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts” (Ps. 51:6).
Plan of the Lesson
The Command Forbidding All Untruthfulness (Ex. 20:16)
An Example of Lying in the Life of a Servant of a Prophet of God (2 Kings 5:20-27)
God’s Particular hatred, for All Forms of Falsehood (Prov. 6:16-19)
The Defiling Influence of Bearing False Witness (Matt. 15:19, 20)
Satan a Liar and the Father of All Lies (John 8:42-47)
A Lofty Incentive for Truthful Speaking (Eph. 4:25)
Falsehood Eternally Condemned by God (Rev. 22:14, 15)
Setting of the Lesson
Time: The Ten Commandments were given in 1498 B.C.; the incident in the life of Gehazi took place 894 B.C.; the book Proverbs was written somewhere about 995 B.C.; the passage from the Gospel of Matthew was uttered in April, A.D. 29; the conversation recorded in the eighth chapter of John occurred in October of the same year; the epistle to the Ephesians was written A.D. 64; the book of Revelation, about A.D. 90.
Place: The Ten Commandments were given from Mount Sinai. We do not know where Elisha was staying at this time, or where Gehazi overtook Naaman, nor do we know where the book of Proverbs was written. The words taken from Matthew were spoken at Capernaum; the conversation in the book of John took place in Jerusalem; the epistle to the Ephesians was written from Rome to the great Greek city on the eastern shore of the Ægean Sea; the visions recorded in the book of Revelation were given to John while he was on the island of Patmos, located in the southern part of the Ægean Sea, between Greece and the Province of Asia.
Scripture Reading: Exodus 20:16
The Command Forbidding All Untruthfulness
20:16 … “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” See also Deuteronomy 5:20, and, for the penalty of bearing false witness, Deuteronomy 19:16-21.
“The worst or most serious form of a lie is perjury – false witness-bearing, that is, to a neighbor’s hurt in civil or criminal prosecutions. Society is so much interested in the administration of public justice that it cannot help regarding as a serious crime the falsehood which, if successful, poisons the very foundation of equity. Therefore the man who ‘stands up again his neighbor’s blood’ (as the Hebrew phrase goes), that is, who swears away the life or liberty of an innocent person by perjured evidence whether suborned or not, is not only guilty of a crime against the first table of the law – a crime condemned in the Third Commandment; he commits a breach in the highest degree of this commandment in the second table which guards private character or the treasure of a man’s good name. This has always been in the East a frequent offense. The lax methods of Eastern jurisprudence offer for it singular facilities. The suborned witness becomes there a ready and fatal instrument either for a tyrant’s caprice, as in the case of Naboth; for private malice, as in the instance of Susanna, told in the Apocrypha; or for the judicial perversion of the law by a corrupt court, as in the most memorable of all trails, the trial of our Lord and Savior. For this cause the Mosaic statute-book did its best to render such abominable plots to swear falsely as difficult as possible. It did so by enacting that in capital charges – by and by in all charges – the evidence of a single witness should be insufficient to procure a conviction: ‘at the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established’” (J. Oswald Dykes).
“A thought, once expressed, is transformed and energetic as a bullet when the charge is fired; it modifies other minds, and the word which we took to be far less potent than a deed becomes the mover of the fateful deeds of many men. And thus, being at once powerful and unsuspected, it is the most treacherous and subtle of all the forces which we wield. . . . We transgress this commandment whenever we conceive a strong suspicion and repeat it as a thing we know; when we allow the temptation of a biting epigram to betray us into an unkind expression not quite warranted by the facts; when we vindicate ourselves against a charge by throwing blame where it probably but not certainly ought to be” (J.A. Chadwick).
The heinousness of bearing false witness in court
When we stand before any tribunal to bear witness for or against a fellow citizen, we are bound to remember that the judge or the magistrate is not only invested with dignity conferred by the nation, but that he/she is fulfilling a function that according to God’s own idea of the order of the world, is necessary to the peace and security of society. Equivocation, falsehood, concealment of what we are required and expected to tell is a crime not merely against men but against Him from whom judges and rulers derive their power. We do not lie only to men, but to God. The judge is a minister of God – a revenger to execute wrath on one who does evil. When, by false witness, we endeavor to turn aside the penalties that he/she is commissioned to inflict on the criminal, or to involve the innocent in undeserved condemnation, we are attempting to defeat the ends of a divine appointment, deceiving the representative not only of human laws, but of the justice of God by which the world is governed.
The sin of calumny
If what we say about our neighbor is false, and we know it to be false, then we are guilty of calumny. The caluminator is the forger or propagator of a false report against another, and, like the slanderer, aims at doing injury.
“If the things we say in public against our neighbor are true, and we know them to be true, they constitute, nevertheless, what is called defamation, if they are uttered with a malicious design. The aim of defamation is malicious: its end is not to reform, but to destroy. It is wrong to relate to the discredit of others that which is true, if it is not our duty to do so; and if it is our duty, we are sinning against our neighbor if we make the worst of it, or aggravate the mischief its recital may produce” (R.H. Charles).
The assassin ends the life by swift or sudden stroke, often with little pain; but the slanderer who invents and uses a lie, forms a weapon to take away a reputation that likely will never be regained. Thus causing suffering to the innocent, while the slanderer usually goes undiscovered and unpunished.
The vicious habit of gossip
There is perhaps no commandment in the Decalogue – certainly none in the second table – as frequently broken; the Christian conscience is often lax regarding this commandment. To speak evil of others is one of the commonest sins of society. To keep conversation going, hurtful stories are frequently told that are false, exaggerated, or susceptible of an innocent explanation. Every center of gossip is a workshop of scandal, where the virulence of evil varies according to the character of the group – the conversation is often dull and flat when it lacks the piquancy of anecdotes bristling with unkind personalities. Thus, not only through malicious and willful lying, but through idle and hurtful gossip retailed in sheer wantonness or for the sake of pastime, confidence is destroyed, reputations are ruined, friendships wrecked, and the peace of homes broken.
The Old Testament pages are dark with the records of men and women who lied about other men and women, often with the result that those lied about lost not only positions and reputations, but frequently their very lives. Our Lord Himself was the greatest sufferer of all in the matter of false testimony; the high priests actually allowed false witnesses to testify against the Lord when He was on trial before the Sanhedrin (Mark 14:55-59). In fact, Matthew records (26:59, 60) that “the chief priests and the whole council sought false witness against Jesus, that they might put him to death; and they found it not, though many false witnesses came.” Perjury has always been a problem in our courts. One example that comes to mind is that famous detective who was convicted of participating in the kidnapping and torturing a certain man who he claimed knew something about the little Lindbergh baby. When the judge passed sentence on the famous detective, he deliberately told him that the court knew, all the jurors knew, and he knew, that many of the things that the accused had said in court were absolutely not true, and that if he had been honest in his statements, the court might possibly have been a little more lenient with him. It is not uncommon today, after an important criminal case, for additional trials to be required in order to prosecute witnesses who deliberately perjured themselves.
The consequences of bearing false witness in court are tragic enough, but here there are the following: a judge, jurors, and opposing lawyers, who will generally be able to expose such false testimony and counteract its influence. But who is going to stop the spread of lies and the tragic consequences of the influence of such falsehood when a person tells them about someone outside of court?
Scripture Reading: Matthew 15:19, 20
The Defiling Influence of Bearing False Witness
15:19, 20 … “For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railings: these are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not the man.” We were surprised to discover that many commentators on the book of Matthew offer little or nothing on these two verses. It is a mystery why writers devoted to expanding the words of the Son of God should think that these two sentences are of little or no importance. The sins enumerated here violate the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth commandments, though we are now interested in this particular sin of bearing false witness. When our Lord says that these terrible vices come from the heart of man, He means that man himself is of a depraved and iniquitous character. In fact, all men are sinners and sinful at heart, and only when the Lord Jesus Christ comes into a man’s heart, washes it clean, and then sets up His sovereign reign, can good things and noble acts proceed from that heart. We can all say that in us, of ourselves, and by our own nature, no good thing dwells. The particular point that our Lord is here emphasizing is that the Pharisees were sinning in their severe insistence that food eaten with unwashed hands defiles a man, whereas the truth is that real defilement is not derived from the things we eat, or the manner in which we eat them, but in the things which proceed from our heart, many of which find their expression with the tongue and lips, i.e., the mouth. In other words, what we say not only hurts, pollutes or inflames others, but the words defile and pollute our own life as we express them.
“Sin is defiling to the soul, renders it unlovely and abominable in the eyes of the pure and holy God, unfit for communion with Him, and for the enjoyment with Him in the new Jerusalem, into which nothing shall enter that defileth or worketh iniquity. The mind and conscience are defiled by sin, and that makes everything else defiled (Tit. 1:15)” (Matthew Henry).
Like other sins, lies have a retroactive effect, i.e., they deepen the darkness and pollution of the life from which they proceed. We can never tell a lie without making our own character more iniquitous, without binding ourselves with a new sham of sinful habit, without staining our whole life and warping our attitude toward others by such a sin. In fact, one can hardly imagine a more depraved creature – one who would be capable of every conceivable kind of sin – than a man or woman who would publicly or privately deliberately, intentionally, maliciously tell lies about another. If this is our sin, let us ask God for deliverance and cleansing from it.
How many different people are affected when we break the Ninth Commandment? What are some of the causes that drive men to bear false witness against others? As far as a Christian is concerned, when we deliberately break this commandment, what is the affect of our testimony among those who know of our sin? What is the remedy for the increasing sin of perjury in the courts? How can even little children bear false witness?
Scripture Reading: John 8:42-47
Satan a Liar and the Father of All Lies
8:42, 43 … “Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I came forth and am come from God; for neither have I come of myself; but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word.” For a moment, we must consider the circumstances that led up to this indictment of the Jews by the Lord. Previously in this chapter the Pharisees had deliberately said to Christ that His record was not true, or, in plain speech, that He was a liar. He claimed to be the light of the world; He said He came down from above; He said He was going where they could not go; He said that He always did those things that pleased His Father in heaven, that He, and He alone, could set men free, and that the Father above was always with Him. Many of the Jews not only refused to believe Him, but, as the Lord Himself said (v. 37), sought to kill Him. On their part, they continually boasted that they were Abraham’s children, by which they meant that they were the most superior spiritual race on earth, and that really, being Abraham’s children, they were the last ones on earth ever to be wrong in a matter concerning the God of Abraham, whom they spoke of as their Father. Jesus now tells them that if God were their Father, they would love Him, because He came from the Father – they refused to accept what He was saying because they could not bear His Word, i.e., they were in such a condition of spiritual death that the words of Jesus fell on deaf ears.
8:44 …”Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do.” This is in some ways the most terrible utterance that ever came from the lips of our Lord, and yet He was the Truth, and He always spoke the truth, and, profoundly knowing the hearts of men, we deceive ourselves if we think anything less than this statement is called for. Everyone who commits sin is sin’s slave, is bound by this law and belongs to this father. This is true of all men until grace regenerates them, which is the truth of chapter three, and placed in the forefront of this Gospel (1:12, 13). Men are responsible for their volitions, and, as sin is not the direct offspring of their own wills, but the offspring of surrender of their wills to this mysterious will behind them, then deliverance from this personal influence is possible and is the result of Christ’s salvation.
“He was a murderer from the beginning.” When creation was complete, he brought death on the race of men by his falsehood (Rom. 5:12).
“And standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof.” The first time we discover Satan in the Bible is when he meets Eve in the Garden of Eden, and there he reveals himself at once as the great liar, the false accuser; the deceiver (Gen. 3:1-7). This distinguishes the devil from all other evil persons; his opposition to the truth of God is nothing accidental in him, but his own peculiar mark, it is he himself, at least as far as human history goes. The lie has become his nature; it is his own; he has made it so by identifying his will with it.
8:45-47 … “But because I say the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convicteth me of sin? If I say truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God heareth the words of God: for this cause ye hear them not, because ye are not of God.” Our lesson is primarily concerned with the matter of truthfulness, and speaking truly of one another, and we cannot go into the meaning of these profound verses at this time, but must pass them by without saying that in these words Jesus gives the key for all unbelief, or, to change the figure, throws the light of His infinite wisdom into the human heart, and discovers there the terrible fact that men who refuse to hear the Lord Jesus Christ are those who have nothing of God in them, do not belong to God, do not love God, do not desire God in their lives. Refusing to believe Christ is not a matter of superior intellect, but arises from absolute godlessness. To have God and not believe Christ is an impossible situation.
Scripture Reading: Ephesians 4:25
A Lofty Incentive for Truthful Speaking
4:25 … “Wherefore.” This word refers back to the preceding paragraph (vv. 17-24), in which Christians are reminded that when they receive the truth as it is in Christ, they put off the habits and vices of the old life, which are summed up in the significant phrase, “the lusts of deceit,” and that, being renewed in the spirit of their mind, they put on the new man, “created in righteousness and holiness of truth.” Because of these stupendous facts, Paul is now able to urge on them the admonition found in this verse of our lesson. “Putting away falsehood.” Cf. Colossians 3:9, 10. It would seem that even among some of these Ephesian Christians, the old habit of speaking falsely remained, or possibly broke out from time to time. Deliberately and with finality, Paul now by the power of God urges these regenerated Ephesians to put this vice out of their lives. “Speak ye truth each one with his neighbor.” The Scriptures teach us that a neighbor is anyone near to us – a fellow man of any creed or nation. To all such we are bound to speak the truth.
“Nothing untruthful can possibly be holy. A pious fraud is, in the life of true Christianity, a most grievous sin. Lying is a vice deeply characteristic of heathenism. An Indian missionary said of his first convert: “He would often come to me with tears in his eyes, saying: ‘I told you a falsehood, but it seemed natural to me to say yes, when I should say no; and to say no, when I should say yes’” (H.C.G. Moule).
We are to scrupulously watch that we do not lie to others in business, in home or social life, in writing letters or sending email, in speaking from the pulpit or reporting conversations, in making promises or telling others about personal achievements. We are not to lie about our obligations, income, experiences, friends, the places where we go. Every day something happens that tempts us to be lightly or deeply untruthful, and the way to keep from telling lies is to first live so that we will not have to be ashamed of acknowledging what we do, and then to ask God to give us strength to be delivered from those vices that tend toward lying, such as boastfulness, hatred, extravagance, etc. “For we are members one of another.
Christians are bound by reciprocal ties and obligations, and falsehood fights against such a union. Therefore, trusting in one God, we should not create distrust one of another – seeking to be saved by one faith, we should not prove faithless to others; professing to be freed by the truth, we should not attempt to enslave our brethren by falsehood. Each is bound up with the other, and lying recoils on the one who deviates from fact. Truthfulness is an essential and primary virtue, and the opposite vice is mean and selfish. A long and beautiful analogy is drawn out when we apply the figure of Chrysostom to the body – Does the eye lie to the foot, or the foot to the eye? If reeds cover a deep pit, making it look like solid ground, yet it looks to the eye as only an appearance of solid ground, will not the eye use the foot to ascertain whether it is hollow or firm underneath? Will the foot tell a lie, and not the truth as it is? And what if the eye sees a serpent or wild beast, will it lie to the foot? Notice that whenever the apostle Paul insists on specific duties, there is first a negative, then a positive statement of the duty, and then a motive.
Scripture Reading: Revelation 22:14, 15
Falsehood Eternally Condemned by God
In this chapter of the Bible, the apostle John is speaking about our heavenly home, the new Jerusalem, and about the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, the first and the last, who will soon come to reward every man according as his works have been. A blessing awaits those who have done His commandments, to whom will be given a right to the tree of life, and free and joyous entrance into the eternal city. Outside of the city – and nothing more definite is said of this group, except that they are not allowed in the city and therefore are not allowed the joy and privileges and life that belong to eternal blessedness in the presence of God – are all those who have lived deceitfully, immorally, murderously, godlessly, and “every one that loveth and maketh a lie.” It is only with this last verse that we are presently concerned. How awful that on the last page of the Bible, in this beautiful picture of an eternal, heavenly home, these fearful words depicting the most terrible vices of men, as they have been revealed and condemned through thousands of years of years of divine revelation should here appear, a fact that ought to make us solemnly conscious of God’s eternal, unchangeable wrath against all who practice such things. Cf. Revelation 21:8, 27. Reading of those who not only tell lies, but love lies, reminds us of somewhat similar words spoken by our Lord years before this – “Men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil” (John 3:19). It is one thing to tell a lie and then grieve for having told it, be ashamed of having told it, confess it to God, and have it washed out of one’s life, and be delivered from such a power. But to love telling lies is the consequence of nothing less than the indwelling, empowering and possession of a human heart by Satan himself. We have known people who rarely spoke a sentence without telling a lie, even though they did not mean to achieve anything malicious by doing so. Somehow they seem to be another person, in the grasp of falsehood – an evil demon speaking when the mouth is opened. One who loves to lie will not turn to the Lord Jesus for deliverance. But one who hates the lie, and longs for freedom from its power, the Lord can, if asked, give instant, permanent deliverance now.
