Exodus 20:16

Thou shalt not hear false witness.

The Ninth Commandment

I. This Commandment is a recognition of those tribunals which are necessary to the peace and to the very existence of the State.

II. In this Commandment there is a Divine recognition of the importance of the moral judgments which men pronounce on each other: the judgments which individual men form of other men as the result of the testimony to which they have listened, whether it was true or false; the judgments which large classes of men or whole communities form of individuals, and which constitute what we call the opinion of society concerning them.

III. Many ways might be mentioned in which we may avoid bearing false witness against our neighbour.

1. We should try to form a true and just judgment of other people before we say anything against them.

2. We have no right to give our mere inferences from what we know about the conduct and principles of others as though they were facts.

3. We have no right to spread an injurious report merely because somebody brought it to us. (R. W. Dale, D. D.)

The law of truth

1. There is no engine by which we help or harm one another more than by our speech. In one aspect words are mere counters, but he who supposes them to be only that is greatly mistaken; more often they are very children of our inner selves, out-growing quickly the control of their parents, and entering upon an independent career which may be full as sunshine is of blessing, or more destructive than a prairie-fire.

2. What is truth? It stands for the relation which God has established between things, the relation in which their harmony consists. It expresses conformity to fact--what really is seen as it is. It accords with, and is, the constitution of all things. It is of the essential substance of God; for if God were not true He would not be God. The more we think about this sublime theme, the more we see its ineffable dignity, and that the law which guards truth must be of supreme importance.

I. Consider this law in relation to courts of justice.

1. The literal form of the precept implies the existence of a court of justice. Here is a definite acknowledgment, at least by implication, of the principle of state tribunals; and if of tribunals, then also of governments, and of the necessary machinery of government.

2. Courts of justice exist, as their name implies, in order that justice may be done; and justice can only be done in proportion as truth prevails. The supreme business of every member of the court, from the judge to the humblest official, is with truth.

II. Consider this law in relation to public opinion.

1. It is not by any means an ideal bar, this of public opinion: inconsistent in much, inconsequent in more; not patient in sifting evidence, nor impartial in hearing both sides, nor cautious in coming to conclusions; liable also to bursts of impulse, when, as in a wind-swept cornfield, all heads are bowed one way only to bend back again at the next breath: often its judgments are hasty, not seldom warped, sometimes cruelly unjust. Nevertheless, public opinion is a great natural assize, where every one of us passes judgment upon others, and where others pass judgment upon every one of us--a court with wider jurisdiction than any other in the world, a court always sitting, a court everywhere present. The special moment and consequence of its decisions lies in the fact that they affect our reputation. This being so, every man has a right to demand of every other man, and every man is bound to accord to every other man, a true and righteous witness.

2. In glancing at the more conspicuous forms of false witness in the court of public opinion, one dark and monstrous shape demands immediate notice. I mean slander, the deliberate invention of a lie to injure a neighbour. All forms of wilful misrepresentation, base insinuation, wanton detraction, damning with faint praise, and guilty silence that does the work of open defamation, belong to this category. Next to slander, I must mention tale-bearing, which signifies the spreading of evil reports. We ought not to carry stories to our neighbours’ discredit, even if they are true (Leviticus 19:16).

III. Consider this law in relation to the personal conscience.

1. When the Commandment says, “Thy neighbour must not be wronged by untruthful words,” it manifestly says also, “Thou shalt not be a liar.” Unless we are true, how can our witness be true? And if we are true, how can our witness be other than true? Three elements enter into a falsehood. It is a statement of what is not true; it is intended to deceive, and it violates a promise or obligation to speak the truth.

2. In this view of the obligation of every man to “put away lying and speak truth with his neighbour,” the paramount importance of the law of truth stands forth conspicuous. Equivocation is seen to be nothing but a lie complicated with the meanness of evasion. Mental reservations are detected as lies blackened by breach of contract. Exaggerations and extenuations, fibs and white lies, are shown to be inexcusable. Pious frauds are branded as fraudulent piety. And the one only course open to a Christian man in his dealings with his neighbour is to speak truth. “Dare to be true; nothing can need a lie!” (W. J. Woods, B. A.)

The Ninth Commandment

This Commandment hath a prohibitory, and a mandatory part: the first is set down in plain words, the other is clearly implied.

1. The prohibitory part of the Commandment, or, what it forbids in general. It forbids anything which may tend to the disparagement or prejudice of our neighbour. More particularly, two things are forbidden in this Commandment.

(1) Slandering our neighbour. The scorpion carries his poison in his tail; the slanderer carries his poison in his tongue. Slandering is to report things of others unjustly; “they laid things to my charge which I knew not.” Eminency is commonly blasted by slander. Holiness itself is no shield from slander. The lamb’s innocency will not preserve it from the wolf. We must not only not raise a false report, but not take it up. He that raiseth a slander, carries the devil in his tongue: and he that receives it, carries the devil in his ear.

(2) The second thing forbidden in this Commandment is false witness. Here three sins are condemned:

(a) Speaking that which is false; “lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.” There is nothing more contrary to God than a lie. Imitate God who is the pattern of truth. Pythagoras being asked what made men like God answered, “When they speak truth.” It is made the character of a man that shall go to heaven; “he speaketh the truth in his heart.”

(b) That which is condemned in the Commandment is witnessing that which is false; “thou shalt not bear false witness.” There is a bearing of false witness for another, and a bearing false witness against another.

(c) That which is condemned in the Commandment is swearing that which is false. When men take a false oath, and by that, take away the life of another. The Scythians made a law, when a man did bind two sins together, a lie with an oath, he was to lose his head, because this sin did take away all truth and faith from among men. The devil hath taken great possession of such who dare swear to a lie.

2. The mandatory part of this Commandment: that is, “that we stand up for others and vindicate them, when they are injured by lying lips.” A man may wrong another as well by silence as by slander when he knows him to be wrongfully accused, yet doth not speak in his behalf. If others cast false aspersions on any, we should wipe them off. When the primitive Christians were falsely accused for incest, and killing their children, Tertullian made a famous apology in their vindication. This is to act the part both of a friend and of a Christian, to be an advocate for another, when he is wronged in his good name. (T. Watson.)

The scope of the Ninth Commandment

This Commandment checks all propensities to lying, and commands truthfulness of speech to and about our neighbour. It is very difficult to over-estimate the value of truth or the importance of being truthful in character and speech. There is a reality to the things and the laws which surround us and are within us which we call truth. When our thoughts exactly correspond with this reality we have apprehended truth. When we conform ourselves to this we are true. If our thought does not exactly correspond with this reality we are in error, and error is a mischief to us. We disobey the laws, we abuse the things about us, we are like blind men striking against obstacles, falling into pits. The nature of things remains unchanged, the laws are immutable, but we are false to them. Truth is not merely to be known, it is to be transmitted into life. Man is to be so hearty in his allegiance to the truth he knows, that he lives it and speaks it. The man who knows the truth and disobeys it, is false in his nature. He may not deceive his neighbours as to himself. Every one may know he is a false man, but his whole life is bearing false witness as to the truth, and as to it may deceive many. The greater part of the truth we possess we have derived from others. There is an exchange of truth. Men who search in one realm give the truth they find to their fellows who are searching in other realms, and receive truth from them in return, and each generation leaves its rich legacy of inherited and acquired truth to the following, and thus the race advances in the knowledge of truth. Wide is the realm of truth, in earth and sky, in matter and spirit, in time and eternity. Man should not shut his fellow out from any portion of it. If any one bears false witness to any part of the wide realm of truth, it is always against his neighbour, depriving him wrongfully of that which is of the greatest importance to his well-being. Great is the difference between truth and falsehood. Infinity and eternity cannot measure it. Of God it is said; “He is light. He is the truth.” Of the devil it is said: “There is no truth in him. He is a liar and the father of it.” Hell is the home of universal falsehood and distrust. Each one there is alone in the midst of others, deceiving and being deceived, distrusting and being distrusted. Heaven is the home of universal truth and confidence. The more we follow truth, the nearer we advance to God. The truths in nature are His thoughts, written on the heavens in light, on the earth in beauty, on our souls in virtue. As we express truth we help others to advance to Him, by small steps or large, according to the importance of the truths we speak. The Commandment requires truth in ordinary conversation. Conjecture and partial information must be spoken of as such, not made to pass for complete knowledge. We must strive to know fully, that we may speak clearly. Vivid, sprightliness, and colour may be employed to interest in and set forth the truth, not to gain applause, and all exaggeration must be avoided. Our aim must not be selfish, to be considered as having had a wonderful experience, or as having fine descriptive powers, or as being well informed, but simply to convey truth to our neighbour. In all those cases in which we speak to our neighbour with intent to lead him to a desired line of conduct, our self-interest may be aroused against our loyalty to truth. Mental reservation, double meaning, significant silence, the end justifies the means, and all kindred evasions, may quiet a confused conscience, but will never do to plead before a truth-loving God. But, says the business man, must I reveal the defects in the property I am trying to sell? Must I reveal the fact I have skilfully acquired, that prices in the market will be much lower tomorrow? Certainly, you must, or you will both lie and steal in one act. We are to speak truth, again, not only to our neighbour, but about him. This Commandment guards a man’s reputation--gives each man a right to have his reputation the exact expression of his character. We should guard against secret prejudice against our neighbour, or envy of him, and should cultivate such love for him that we will rejoice in his good qualities and in his good name, that we will sorrow over the faults in him we cannot help seeing, and throw over them the garment of Christian charity, rather than exulting to proclaim them to the world. This Commandment should govern not only our tongues, but our hearts and ears as well. It forbids an appetite for gossip, a desire to hear detraction, and a tendency to form unfavourable opinions of others. By holding our peace when we have it in our power to defend, by failing to mention the good when the evil is spoken of, by encouraging the telling of evil by eager listening, we assault the reputation of our neighbour by the assent of our silence. There is a modern statue of Truth, instinct with the fire of genius, which strongly incites an opposite spirit and action. A stately woman in pure white marble, with beautiful and firm face, wears on her head a helmet and carries a sword in her hand. At her feet lies a mask touched by the point of her sword. She has just smitten it from the face of Slander, and now she proudly draws her robe away from its polluting touch. (F. S. Schenck.)

The Ninth Commandment

I. This command prohibits lying.

1. What a lie is.

(1) A lie, according to St. Austin’s definition of it, is a voluntary speaking of an untruth, with an intent to deceive.

(2) Lies are usually distinguished into three kinds.

(a) There is a jocular lie: a lie, framed to excite mirth and laughter; not to deceive the hearer, only to please and divert him.

(b) There is an officious lie: which is told for another’s benefit and advantage; and seems to make an abundant compensation for its falsehood, by its use and profit.

(c) There is a malicious and pernicious lie: a lie, devised on purpose for the hurt and damage of my neighbour.

2. Now, for the aggravations of this sin, consider--

(1) It is a sin, that makes you most like unto the devil.

(2) Consider, that it is a sin most contrary to the nature of God, who is truth itself.

(3) Consider, that it is a sin, that gives in fearful evidence against us, that we belong to the devil, and are his children.

(4) Consider, how dreadfully God hath threatened it with eternal death (Revelation 22:15).

(5) A lie showeth a most degenerous and cowardly fear of men, and a most daring contempt of the great God.

(6) Mankind generally account it the most infamous and reproachful sin of all others.

(7) It is a sin that God will detect; and exposeth those who are guilty of it to shame and contempt (Proverbs 12:19).

II. There remain two other violations of this Commandment: the one is, by slander and detraction; the other, by base flattery and soothing. And both these may respect either ourselves or others.

1. Indeed slander and detraction seem somewhat to differ. For slander, properly, is a false imputation of vice; but detraction is a causeless, diminishing report of virtue.

(1) If thou wouldst keep thyself from being a slanderer of others, addict not thyself violently to any one party or persuasion of men.

(2) If thou wouldst not be guilty of slander, be not busy in other men’s affairs.

(3) If thou wouldst not be guilty of slander, be frequent in reflecting upon thine own miscarriages; or thy proneness to fall into the same, or greater faults.

(4) If you would not be guilty of slander, listen not unto those who are slanderers and detractors.

(5) If you would not be slanderers of others be not self-lovers. For self-love always causeth envy; and envy detraction.

(6) Be not too easy and facile to entertain suspicious and evil surmises against others.

III. The third sin against this Commandment is base flattery and soothing; which is a quite opposite extreme to the other, as both are opposite to truth. Now this is, either self-flattery, or the flattering of others.

1. There is a self-flattery. Learn, therefore, O Christian, to take the just measure of thyself.

2. There is a sinful flattering of others: and that, either by an immoderate extolling of their virtues; or, what is worse, by a wicked commendation even of their very vices. This is a sin most odious unto God, who hath threatened to cut off all flattering lips (Psalms 12:3). (Bp. E. Hopkins.)

Slander

A man of overweening curiosity who looked down his neighbour’s chimney to see what he was cooking for supper, not only failed to find out what he desired to know, but was nearly blinded by the smoke. Somebody has conveyed a well-deserved rebuke to such unamiable people, who said, “If we would sit down by our neighbour’s fire occasionally, instead of looking down his chimney, we would see many good points in his character that smoke will certainly obscure.” There are so many ways of kindling a flame by the poisonous breath of slander, that only a few of them can now be referred to.

I. Perverting one’s words or actions is an every-day occurrence.

II. Another way by which flames are often kindled to the damage of one’s good name, is the habit of jumping to conclusions without sufficient evidence to sustain them. While Wilberforce occupied his prominent place in the British parliament he was exceedingly annoyed by finding himself chronicled in opposition papers as “St. Wilberforce.” “He was lately seen,” said the slanderous print, “walking up and down in the pump-room at Bath, reading his prayers, like his predecessors of old, who prayed at the corners of the streets to be seen of men!” Mr. Wilberforce, who was not more distinguished for his brilliant mental gifts than for his unobtrusive goodness, remarked upon this wanton falsehood: “As there is generally some slight circumstance which perverse-ness turns into a charge or reproach, I began to reflect, and I soon found the occasion of the calumny. I was walking in the pump-room, in conversation with a friend; a passage from Horace was quoted, the accuracy of which was questioned, and as I had a copy of the Latin poet in my pocket, I took it out and read the words. This was the plain “bit of wire” which factious malignity sharpened into a pin to pierce my reputation.” It is pitiful to think how many ugly pins have been fashioned out of smaller bits of wire than that l

III. The cruel purposes of slander may also be accomplished by sly insinuations and crafty questions calculated to arouse serious and damaging suspicions. When any one spoke evil of another in the presence of Peter the Great, he would promptly stop him and say, “Well, now; but has he not got a bright side? Come, tell me what good you know of him. It is easy to splash mud; but I would rather help a man to keep his coat clean l”

IV. Slander is encouraged by those who patiently listen to it, and who prompt the cruel person to vent his venom on the innocent. (J. H. Norton, D. D.)

Violations of the law of truth

I. Misrepresentation. It is an ingenious method to class an opponent with those whom the world has already condemned as heterodox. It is still another to make his truth responsible for all the folly that unwise minds have added to it.

II. Insinuation. A whisper dropped carelessly in some corner among the combustibles, a look, a shrug of the shoulders, a sneer, a laugh may serve the purpose. Rumour with most minds is presumptive evidence, and they will say with a knowing air, “There must be some fire in so much smoke.”

III. Detraction. If we be unable to find evil in the opinions or actions of another, we can attribute his good to doubtful motives.

IV. Talebearing. Is there, I pray you, a creature more contemptible than this, who fattens on the griefs of others, and passes day and night in such petty larceny? How few dream of their responsibility in this! We know the power of strychnine or arsenic, but not of a word. What undesigned phrases we drop in conversation, and forget as soon as passed, yet they are never forgotten! What insignificant insects may have a fatal sting! (E. A. Washburn, D. D.)

The Ninth Commandment

This Commandment requires us, as the Catechism says, “to keep our tongues from evil-speaking, lying, and slandering.” Slandering means saying anything that will injure the character of another person. There was a company of ladies once at the house of a clergyman. As he entered the room he heard them speaking in a low voice of an absent friend. “She’s very odd,” says one. “Yes, very singular indeed,” says another. “Do you know, she often does so and so?” says a third, mentioning certain things to her discredit. The clergyman asked who it was. When told, he said, “Oh yes, she is odd; she’s very odd; she’s remarkably singular. Why, would you believe it?” he added, in a slow, impressive manner; “she was never heard to speak ill of any absent friends!” A clergyman was once examining the children of an infant school upon the Commandments. He put his hand on the head of a little boy, and said, “My little man, can you tell me what the Ninth Commandment means by “bearing false witness against thy neighbour”? The boy hesitated a while, and then said, “It means telling lies, sir.” The minister didn’t exactly like this answer, so looking at a little girl who stood next to him, he asked, “What do you say?” Without waiting a moment, she replied, “It’s when nobody does nothing, and somebody goes and tells of it.” “Very good,” said the minister. The little girl’s answer was a very funny one; but the little boy’s was true. Bearing false witness is telling lies, and telling lies is bearing false witness. We break the Ninth Commandment every time we tell a lie.

I. The first reason why we should never bear false witness or tell a lie is, because it is a mean thing. Who was the first person of whom we know that ever told a lie? Satan. Where was this lie told? In the garden of Eden. Satan bore false witness against God. He contradicted God. This was mean of Satan. He did it out of spite. A gentleman once sent his servant to market with the direction to bring home the best thing he could find. He carried home a tongue. He was sent again with the direction to bring home the worst thing he could find. Again he brought home a tongue. This was right; for the tongue is the best thing in the world when properly used, or the worst when not so used.

II. The second reason why we should not do it is, because it is aa unprofitable thing. People generally expect to make something when they tell a lie.

III. The third reason why we ought not to do this is, because it is dangerous. Lying is like letting water through a bank. When it once begins to run, there is no telling where it will stop. Now, suppose it were possible all at once to draw every bolt and fastening out of that ship as she sails over the ocean, what would become of her? She would fall to pieces directly, and all her cargo would be lost. Well, every family, every village or town, is like such a ship. It is made up of a number of persons bound together. And what binds them together? Why, truth or confidence. Truth among people in society is like the bolt in the ship. If nobody told the truth, and people had no confidence in one another, they could no more live together in families or communities, and do business together, than a number of pieces of timber without bolts to fasten them together could make a ship. Would it not be very dangerous to have a person on board a ship who had a machine for drawing the bolts out, and who was trying to use it all the time? Certainly it would. Well, lying is such a machine.

IV. Our fourth and last reason is, we ought not to do it because it is a wicked thing. This is shown by--

1. What God says of liars (see Proverbs 6:19; Proverbs 12:5).

2. What God does with liars (see Revelation 21:8). (R. Newton, D. D.)

On the sin of bearing false witness

I. First, what are the different senses in which a man may be said to bear false witness against his neighbour.

II. The enormity of the sin of bearing false witness. The malignity of an offence arises either from the motives that prompted it or the consequences produced by it. The most usual incitement to defamation is envy, or impatience of the merit, or success of other; a malice raised not by any injury received, but merely by the sight of that happiness which we cannot attain. Calumnies are sometimes the offspring of resentment. When a man is opposed in a design which he cannot justify, and defeated in the prosecution of schemes of tyranny, extortion, or oppression, he seldom fails to revenge his overthrow by blackening that integrity which effected it. The consequences of this crime, whatever be the inducement to commit it, are equally pernicious. He that attacks the reputation of another, invades the most valuable part of his property, and perhaps the only part which he can call his own. (Bp. J. Taylor, D. D.)

Breaches of the Ninth Commandment

I. In heart a man may fail--

1. By suspecting others unjustly, this is called evil surmising (1 Timothy 6:4), which is when men are suspected of some evil without ground, as Potiphar suspected Joseph.

2. By rash judging, and unjust concluding concerning a man’s state, as Job’s friends did; or his actions, as Eli did of Hannah, saying, that she was drunk, because of the moving of her lips.

3. By hasty judging, too often passing sentence in our mind from some seeming evidence of that which is only in the heart, and not in the outward practice; this is but to judge before the time, and hastily (Matthew 7:1).

4. There is light judging, laying the weight of conclusions upon arguments that will not bear it, as Job’s friends did, and as the barbarians suspected Paul, when they saw the viper on his hand, to be a murderer (Acts 25:4).

5. The breach of this command in the heart may be when suspicion of our neighbour’s failing is kept up, and means not used to be satisfied about it, contrary to that (Matthew 18:15). If thy brother offend thee, etc., and when we seek not to be satisfied, but rest on presumptions, when they seem probable.

II. In gesture this command may be broken, by nodding, winking, or such like (and even sometimes by silence), when these import in our accustomed way some tacit sinistrous insinuation, especially when either they are purposed for that end, or when others are known to mistake because of them, and we suffer them to continue under this mistake.

III. By writing this command may be broken, as Ezra 5:6.; Nehemiah 6:5, where calumniating rebels are written, and sent by their enemies against the Jews and Nehemiah; in which respect many fail in these days.

IV. But words are most properly the seat wherein this sin is subjected, whether they be only or merely words, or also put in writing, because in these our conformity or disconformity to truth doth most appear. (James Durham.)

Slander

The false witness which was born against the Puritans by the profligate wits of the court of Charles II., produced in the mind of this country a strong antagonism to the great principles for which the Puritans contended. The calumnies which, during the first two centuries, were flung at the Christians, made many upright heathen believe that Christianity itself was an execrable superstition. Slander a clergyman and you help to make the principle of an Established Church odious, and you try to win the cause of ecclesiastical freedom before the tribunal of public opinion by “false witness” against your neighbour. Slander a Nonconformist and you help to make Nonconformity odious, and you try by “false witness “against your neighbour to induce the tribunal of public opinion to pronounce in favour of religious establishments. Pick up and circulate any scandal you may happen to hear--no matter how untrustworthy the authority for it--to the dishonour of a religious man, and you do what lies in your power to create a conviction in the public mind that all religious men are hypocrites, and that religion itself is an imposture. It is by the opinion which society forms on individuals that its general opinions on all questions, moral, religious, and political, are to a very large extent created; and to bear “false witness” either for or against any man is to attempt to deceive and to mislead that great Tribunal--whose decisions affect not merely the happiness and the reputation of particular men, but the formation of the conscience and the judgment of the whole nation. (R. W. Dale, D. D.)

False witness

There was a boy of the name of John Busby. He said once, “What a wicked man Mr. Bradburry is.” A gentleman said to him, “I do not think he is wicked; I think he is very good; he is always on the line of his duty.” “I only know,” said John, “that he went to church last Sunday, and he slept all through the sermon.” The other was very much surprised, because he thought Mr. Bradburry was a very good man; so he said to the boy, “Can you tell me what the text was?” “No, I can’t,” said John; “but I can tell you Mr. Bradburry was asleep all the time.” “Then,” said the gentleman to him, “I happen to know the text; for Mr. Bradburry told me not only the text, but all about the sermon. You say he was fast asleep; but I can tell you he has got very weak eyes, and there is a gas lamp between him and the pulpit; and he is obliged to shut his eyes because he cannot stand the light.” Do you see, that was “bearing false witness” on the part of John Busby; that was slander, taking away his character. We must not bear “false witness.” We used sometimes to play a game called “Scandal.” It is a very good game. You all sit round in a circle, and somebody tells a person at one end a story he has heard about something or somebody--anything you like. He whispers it to the next one, and he again whispers it to the next, and he to the next, and to the next. When it comes to the last person, he is to say aloud what he has had whispered to him, and the first is to say what he had said. Often the act of repeating it all around makes it seem quite a different story. That is called “Scandal” or “Slander.” You try that game some day, and it will teach you the importance of being very exact in repeating what you hear, if you would not “bear false witness.” (J. Vaughan.)

A cure for backbiting

A gentleman writes that he once saw the title “Slander Book,” printed on the back of a small ledger in a friend’s house. On examining it, he found that the various members of the household were charged so much for every piece of slander they were found uttering. The accounts were very neatly and correctly kept, credits entered, etc., as in a merchant’s office. The plan originated with a good young girl, who had observed the wretched effects of evil-speaking in families and in the neighbourhood.

Scandal

The story is told of a woman who freely used her tongue to the scandal of others, and made confession to the priest of what she had done. He gave her a ripe thistle top, and told her to go out in various directions and scatter the seeds, one by one. Wondering at the penance, she obeyed, and then returned and told her confessor. To her amazement, he bade her go back and gather the scattered seeds; and when she objected that it would be impossible, he replied, that it would be still more difficult to gather up and destroy all evil reports which she had circulated about others. Any thoughtless, careless child can scatter a handful of thistle-seed before the wind in a moment, but the strongest and wisest man cannot gather them again.