Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.

Script:

You shall not testify falsely [that is, lie, withhold, or manipulate the truth] against your neighbor (any person).

Exodus, Chapter 20, verse 16, Amplified Bible

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VK: Hi and welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. I’m Victoria K. We’re glad that you are able to join us for another episode of Anchored by Truth. Today, we are continuing our series on the Ten Commandments but since we are coming to the 9th commandment we know we are starting to approach the end. With us today in the studio we have RD Fierro. RD is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. RD, today, we are going to discuss the 9th commandment which we heard in our opening scripture. That means that we have gone over the first 8 commandments. And in the last part of our last episode of Anchored by Truth we had begun to discuss the fact that one common thread that binds all of the commandments is that they are all concerned with the concept of dignity. Can you give us a brief summary of what you are thinking of when you say the Ten Commandments all concern “dignity?”

RD: Well, before we get to that I would also like to welcome everyone to this episode of Anchored by Truth. We’re very grateful that everyone is with us. So, for a second let’s think about the Ten Commandments as they unfold from start to finish. The order of the commandments within the Bible is not random or haphazard. God had a reason He put them in the order that He did. The first 3 commandments all concern themselves with the dignity of God. This is entirely appropriate because God existed before He made any part of the created order. The next two commandments concern themselves with preserving God’s dignity as that dignity begins to manifest itself in the created order. The 4th commandment to honor the Sabbath refers us back to God’s period of creative activity.

VK: The 4th commandment tells us that we are to honor the 7th day of the week because that was the day that God declared to be “blessed.” Genesis, chapter 2, verses 2 and 3 say, “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” So, when God instructed Moses, the Israelites, and us to honor the Sabbath God is directing our attention straight back to – as you said – His period of creative activity. God created for 6 days and rested on the 7th. We are to work for 6 days and rest on the 7th – just as God did.

RD: Yes. And the 4th commandment is evidence that the various theories that somehow the 1st chapter of Genesis refers to 6 indeterminately long periods of creative activity don’t make sense. God doesn’t intend for us to work for 6 periods of indeterminate activity followed by a rest period that might be thousands of years. God used a 7 day period of 24-hour days when he gave the 4th commandment and that is a direct reflection of how God performed His own creative activity. Then, the 5th commandment tells us to honor our mother and father. That refers us back to God’s partial delegation of the oversight of His created order to the creature He created in His image: man. God conveyed a portion of His authority to Adam and Eve in what is often referred to as the “Dominion Mandate.” So, the first five commandments are all concerned with the inherent dignity of God.

VK: But of course man also possesses an inherent dignity because man is the only creature that God made in His image. We possess an inherent dignity because we are the image bearers of God.

RD: Yes. And the 6th through 10th commandments, like the commandments that precede them, are also concerned with dignity. The 6th commandment is concerned with the dignity of their lives, the 7th the dignity of marriage, and the 8th the dignity of work. The 8th commandment, which says, “do not steal” is concerned with the dignity of work because it is through our labor that we produce the goods and services that we need to sustain our lives. If someone steals any of those goods or services, regardless of the amount or value, they have exhibited a blatant disrespect for the labor and work of another person. God took His own work in creation seriously. He said the product of His work was valuable. It was good. When God finished the entirety of His creative activity He said it was “very good.”

VK: God highly valued the work that He had completed. He should. He made a universe with 50 to 100 billion galaxies each of which has 50 billion or more stars. That’s an impressive total of production for 6 days. And while our own work is not on the same scale anyone who is performing legitimate, productive labor may also be proud of their efforts. So, if anyone steals the product those efforts they are just denying the producer the value and they are demeaning the effort that went into the production.

RD: Exactly. So, we see that the 6th commandment is concerned with the dignity of innocent human life, the 7th the dignity of marriage, and the 8th the dignity of work. Today we will see that the 9th commandment is concerned with the dignity of words, speech, and truth. And, to complete the thought, as strange as it may seem the 10th commandment is concerned with the dignity of desire.

VK: The “dignity of desire” – now that’s a phrase you probably don’t hear every day. Would you care to give us a glimpse of what you’re thinking about with that?

RD: I don’t want to take too much time today on the 10th commandment. That’s what the next episode of Anchored by Truth is for. But suffice it to say this. Too often, we equate the words “desire” and “lust.” And, as a general rule, lust is sinful. So, we think we are to avoid it. And, of course, we should avoid sinful lusts. But desire need not be sinful. The Bible commands us to desire good things. For instance, in the opening lines of the Lord’s Prayer Jesus taught us to pray for “[God’s] kingdom to come and [God’s] will be done.” Well, if we want God’s kingdom to come and God’s will to be done, then obviously we are to desire those things. We are to desire to live holy lives, to have faith, and to please God. We are to desire to spend an eternity with God in heaven. Desire is a basic attribute of being human and there is nothing wrong with desire. There is a lot wrong with allowing our desire to be transformed into sinful lusts. The 10th commandment not to covet anything of our neighbors helps us see where and how to draw the line. So, the 10th commandment is concerned with the preserving the dignity of desire. And one thread that ties all of the commandments together is that are concerned with the dignity of God and the dignity of people because they are God’s image bearers.

VK: Interesting. The “dignity of desire” – more about that in the next episode of Anchored by Truth. For today let’s turn our attention back to the 9th commandment which says not “bear false witness against our neighbor” or, as the Contemporary English Version put it, “Do not tell lies about others.” We might again think that this commandment would be unnecessary because it is so obvious. But it is necessary because we humans resort to lying so quickly when we get into trouble. And, even though the commandment is often phrased as “not lying about our neighbors” Christian scholars are uniform in their agreement that our neighbors isn’t just referring to the people living in the next house or apartment. The 9th commandment is concerned with a wide variety of human behavior including the behavior of individuals, groups, and governments. That’s why we used the Amplified Bible’s version of the 9th commandment as our opening scripture. Many versions will use the phrase “not bear false witness against your neighbor” but the Amplified Bible makes it plain that there are many forms of such “false witness” such as withholding or manipulating the truth.

RD: Bible scholars down through history have recognized that certainly one of the primary applications of the 9th commandment has to do with giving false testimony in a trial or judicial proceeding. But that is only one of its applications. The 9th commandment goes well beyond just one specific venue where lying is prohibited. For instance, one of the best known Bible commentaries was written by Matthew Henry in the latter part of the 17th century and early part of the 18th century. Henry wrote this: “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!”

VK: And another Bible scholar Matthew Poole, who wrote in the 17th century, reinforces the observation that there is a wide variety of behaviors that violate the 9th commandment. Poole said, “[do] not speak a false testimony, or as a false witness; which doth not only forbid perjury in judgment, but also all unjust censure, slander, backbiting, scorning, false accusation, and the like; and also requires a just and candid judgment of him, and of his words and actions, speaking well of him, as far as truth and justice will permit, and defending his good name against the calumnies and detractions of others.” Poole and Henry’s observations help us to see that the 9th commandment, like all of God’s commandments, are designed to help us recognize the sin that lurks deep within our hearts. (214 punch) Perversely enough, the 9th commandment about not lying about our neighbor is unlike the 8th commandment about not stealing because lying about others often injures the victim but doesn’t do any good for the liar. William Shakespeare wrote: “Who steals my purse, steals trash, But he who filches from me my good name, Robs me of that which not enriches him, Yet leaves me poor indeed …” What Shakespeare is observing that lies often destroy one person while not helping anyone else. Stealing property or money at least leaves the property or money in the possession of the thief. But you can decimate a person’s reputation with a lie and yet that may very well never improve the life of the liar. When you stop and think about it that truly is vile.

RD: The 9th commandment is one area where God’s commandments and law were consistent with many of the other ancient cultures which took lying, especially lying in judicial proceedings, very seriously. This is true because most cultures have recognized that lying in court makes the administration of justice impossible. The Pulpit Commentary available at biblehub.com says this about the 9th commandment: “ The wrong done to a man by false evidence in a court may be a wrong of the very [worst] kind – [it] may be actual murder … [because it is] fatal to the administration of justice, false witness in courts has been severely visited by penalties in all well-regulated states. At Athens the false witness was liable to a heavy fine, and if thrice convicted lost all his civil rights. At Rome, by a law of the Twelve Tables, he was hurled headlong from the Tarpeian rock. In Egypt, false witness was punished by amputation … Private calumny may sometimes involve as serious consequences to individuals as false witness in a court. It may ruin a man; it may madden him; it may drive him to suicide. But it does not disorganise the whole framework of society, like perjured evidence before a tribunal...”

VK: And as bad as lying in judicial proceedings may be for individuals and society the worst consequence of lying at all is that it displays an intentional disregard for God’s majesty, doesn’t it?

RD: Yes. In our day and age we have forgotten the importance of words, speech, and language. But the Bible makes it clear that words and speech are so important that God used them to bring much of what exists into existence. In fact, God’s first use of language occurs in the 3rd verse of the 1st chapter of Genesis. And thereafter, chapter 1 of Genesis is full of “And God said,” such as “And God said let there be light.” God spoke the entire creation into existence and as He did so He started assigning names to things: day, night, sky, land, seas, etc. Words and language are so important to God that they were the mechanism by which he created life and made the world a suitable habitation for man. And the first task that God gave man involved the use of language. Adam’s first task was to name the animals.

VK: Obviously, if God could give Adam a task that involved language we know that Adam was created with the capacity for speech and language. In fact, that is one of the major attributes that separates man from all other creatures. The ability to use language, speech, and words is one of the ways that man bears God’s image. Theologians sometimes use the phrase “communicable attributes” to refer to attributes that God possessed that He transmitted to man.

RD: Correct. Other creatures certainly use sounds and audible signals to communicate with one another. But obviously, the information that goes back and forth is rudimentary and biological. I’m well aware that gorillas have been taught words by stimulus and response and some have developed vocabularies that are impressive by non-human standpoints. But no gorilla or chimpanzee has ever written a sonnet and no dolphin has ever composed in iambic pentameter. The human capacity for speech, language, words and the ability to express abstract and mathematical concepts is unique among the creatures that live on this earth. Now we know that angels speak and use language intelligently but angels are, of course, greater in power, mobility, and action than human beings. No other physical creature besides man uses words, linguistics, and speech.

VK: So, when we misuse speech and words by lying or distorting the truth we really are committing an offense against God in a very real and fundamental way. We are, in effect, telling God that we have so little esteem or regard for the gifts He gave us that we are unconcerned about whether we use them in the manner in which He intended. In our time misrepresentations and distortions of the truth are so common that we come to expect them. We will use clever terms such as “political spin,” “gilding the lily,” “being disingenuous,” etc. to cover over the fact that someone is not telling the plain truth. We will excuse advertisers, marketers, and sales people for making ridiculous claims and say things like “well, that’s how business is done” or “everybody does it.” Students and politicians alike turn in work that is not their own as if it were. Lawyers go into court, blatantly lie, hide evidence, or use misleading arguments and claim that they are just providing zealous representation. All about us every day we see people manipulating the truth and we grow so used to it that we never bother to call it what it is: the sin of lying. But God is never misled and God always knows the plain truth. Spin is sin in God’s eyes and He sees the motivations of our hearts. Our clever, inventive ways neither mislead or please Him.

RD: Exactly. God gave man the capacity to speak and use language and words but He also gave us the choice about we would employ that capacity. He gave us free choice. But violations of the 9th commandment are not strictly limited to the use of words or language. We can withhold, distort, or manipulate the truth even when our words may be technically accurate. In my first summer at West Point they gave us quite a number of classes about the cadet honor code which in those days said, “A cadet will not lie, cheat, or steal or tolerate anyone who does so.” One of the subjects they discussed at length was what was termed “quibbling.”

VK: Quibbling was the practice of using technically accurate words that were intended to deceive or deflect. If a senior officer asked you whether you had shined your shoes, and all you had really done was rub a wash cloth over them, technically you could say that you had “shined your shoes.” But that, of course, was not what the senior officer was talking about. You knew it. He knew it. But you could – technically – accurately say “yes.” But that was quibbling. And I suspect it rarely fooled anyone at that place. But we have an awful lot of quibbling that goes on around us these days. Quibbling violates the 9th commandment as do all of the other detours and bypasses that are used today to manipulate the truth.

RD: So, the point of all this is that the 9th commandment, like the commandments that precede it is concerned with dignity. The 9th commandment is concerned with the dignity of words and speech in no small measure because words and speech are so important they were used as part of God’s process of creating the universe. God spoke many parts of the created order into existence. By words God ordered a world that was “void and formless.” By words God made living creatures out of inanimate matter and energy. By words God made people. Today, we have more ways of communicating language and speech than ever before, but it has made us far less careful in how we use them, not more.

VK: Well, Shakespeare also said “familiarity breeds contempt.” We have so many ways of flinging words about, we exhibit a blatant contempt for being accurate or careful with their use. Jesus’ half-brother James said in James, chapter 3, verses 5 through 8, “…the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” That’s from the New International Version.

RD: The 9th commandment is concerned with the dignity of words, speech, and truth. James helps us understand the dangers that abound when we misuse them. In James day it was far more common for ordinary people to communicate orally rather than in writing. I have a feeling that if James were to bring his same message today he would note that not only is the tongue “restless” and “full of deadly poison” but so are our fingers and thumbs.

VK: Now that is a really scary and sobering thought. How many people ever think about the 9th commandment when they sit down at a keyboard and go into a social media site or get ready to send a text message? And how much of the content that circulates on the internet violates the 9th commandment? And how many of us contribute to this mass of misleading content? When you think about the 9th commandment that way it probably would lead to some troubling questions and consciences.

RD: God gave the 9th commandment to a people who leaving a period of captivity to begin to establish a new nation in a new location. As we heard earlier ensuring that truth is present in a judicial system and in judicial proceedings is a fundamental necessity for a sound society. In that respect, the 9th commandment was similar to the expectations of many ancient cultures. But in at least one respect it was different. As Jesus would clarify during His lifetime the neighbors who were not to be lied about or slandered were not limited to just Hebrews or Israelites. In the tale of the Good Samaritan we hear that our neighbors include even people who are not from our tribe and tongue. That was not all that common. Even in come cultures today it is perfectly okay to lie to someone who is not from a particular group. But that is not true for Christians. God expects us to be truthful in our speech, actions, and treatment of all people. This does not mean that we don’t need wisdom when we do so. We can, but we shouldn’t, hurt people by woodenly telling the truth. So, what we should do is pray for discernment to always be guided by a spirit of integrity but one that recognizes the dangers that lurk in a fallen world.

VK: We don’t need to tell someone that we hated the cabbage rolls that they served us at dinner. And we don’t need to disclose the hiding places of people fleeing death or slavery. The 9th commandment would not have been necessary except for the fall but the fall has occurred and the 9th commandment sits behind the 6th commandment that prohibits murder for a reason. Like all the commandments, the 9th commandment restrains the sin that came from the fall but some deviations from the strict truth will be lesser sins than the ones that might follow when we tell all we know at the wrong time. And that’s a topic we will to continue to explore in this series because we just don’t have enough time to fully explore it today. God gave us the commandments because He wants us to have the right relationship with Him and a right relationship with each other. But until Jesus comes again we still have to navigate in a fallen creation. That’s one of the big reasons we wanted to do this series. The Ten Commandments are enduring ethical principles that are the basis for sound families, communities, and nations. We used to understand that. But the Ten Commandments, like all of God’s pronouncements, contain and demand wisdom to correctly apply and understand them. We should be willing to devote the time and energy necessary to be sure we apply them correctly because God gave His all for us. We should be willing to give our time and energy to Him to understand how to properly honor Him with our lives. Sounds like a good time to go to our God in prayer. Today, let’s listen to a prayer that we may all be faithful stewards of the resources that have been entrusted to us. Faithful stewardship is evidence of our own faithfulness to the cause of Christ.

---- PRAYER TO BE A FAITHFUL STEWARD (MARCUS)

VK: We’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.”

If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!”

(Opening Bible Quote from the Amplified Bible)

Exodus, Chapter 20, verse 16, Amplified Bible