True Witness (Part Two)

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16)




Speaking the truth in love does not always mean saying everything we could say or saying it to everyone who has “ears to hear.” We have to be careful judges with our own words. Love, and what the old-timers call “charity,” is to be the motive and operating principle behind our “truth-telling.”

In fact, God through the atonement in Christ “covers” our sin, and we are to do likewise when we can. “Love covers a multitude of sins.” Our desire should be to protect the good name of our neighbor as far as it is possible. If I have a problem in my relationship with someone, God instructs me to go to him alone to work it out. If I still run into difficulty, I may need to get “one or two witnesses” to act as counsel or to help us work through things, but it should still be for the purpose of reconciliation and working through to a solution advantageous to both of us.

So much of the time, however, our motive is our own defense or an attack on the person with whom we have the disagreement, so we start looking for “support” for our case in others—sometimes many others—and that can all too easily slip into gossip, slander, rumor, whisperings, back-biting, and complaining. Love, love for the truth, and the truth in love avoid all of these things like the plague. There is often absolutely no reason to talk to others, even if we think we are “telling the truth.” Here once again we find the golden rule well applied: we are to do as we would be done unto.

It is true that truth often hurts. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend—open rebuke is better than love concealed.” But this sort of hurt is once again motivated by love and a genuine desire for the good of the other, just as a parent’s loving discipline or the surgeon’s use of the scalpel. God is the master at this kind of truth-telling: all that He speaks to us His children—whether rebuke or praise, admonition or promise—is designed for our good and to build up our relationship with Him. His example must be our guide in all of our communications and relationships with others.

The worst of false witnesses we can give is our lying about God. We do this verbally when we complain—as if God has cursed us when in reality He has blessed us beyond measure and infinitely beyond what we actually deserve. We also lie about God without ever using our tongues—in fact through our actions and attitudes we may speak directly against what we do say with our tongues. But because we bear the image of God, and because we bear the name of Christ, we bear a false witness with every sin, whether it is with our tongues or not. Only as we follow the truth and live according to the truth will we begin to bear a true witness to the ultimate Reality, God Himself.

“Great and wonderful heavenly Father, we give You thanks for Your truthfulness and for Your speaking to us the truth—through creation, through Your Word, in our consciences, and through Your own Son Jesus Christ. Thank You for always bearing a true witness, and we pray You would make us like You. Guard us and help us to guard our tongues. Keep us from bearing false witness through gossip, slander, hypocrisy, and complaining. Help us in our communications and relationships with others to speak the truth in love, to cover others’ sins for the sake of love, and to seek peace with one another through loving confrontation, confession, and forgiveness. Keep us from sin, dear God, that we might bear a true witness to Your glorious image, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”

True Witness (Part One)

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16)

In a courtroom, the witness takes the stand. “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?” “I do.” If the witness tells partial truths, mixes fantasy with fact, or exaggerates one element of the truth while minimizing others, those making judgments—the judge and the jury—may condemn an innocent when the truth might have set them free. God is a just God and a merciful God, and His law is designed to protect against such injustices.

In the courtroom of life, we are continually and simultaneously the accused and the accuser, the judge and the judged, the witness and the one being witnessed “for” or “against.” We are making judgments about all sorts of things, including other people, and others are forming their judgments about us. We also give our witness about ourselves, others, and all the rest of our world; and others are “sharing” what they think about us, the world, others, and God Himself.

Because God is Truth and cannot lie, He calls for the truth in all of this. We are called upon to speak the truth, to speak it in love for God and for our neighbor, and to believe the truth as well and make our judgments according to it alone. God, of course, is the ultimate Judge—we are accountable to what He says is true and right and good; but He is also the ultimate Defender and the true Witness, who knows the truth about those who trust in Him, who look to Him for deliverance, who are repentant in heart and deed.

Satan, “the Accuser,” on the other hand, is a murderer and a thief and a liar from the beginning. His motive was the death and destruction of man and the theft of God’s glory for himself, but his tactic was false witness and deception. He twisted God’s Word, lied about God, lied about Adam and Eve, lied about creation, and lied about the consequences of sin. Mankind’s undoing, including yours and mine, was the result of believing Satan’s false witness, making false judgments, and becoming deceivers ourselves just like our adopted “father.”

The more we become like Christ, the more we know the truth and love the truth, and the more we discern the lie and hate the lie. When we come to Christ, we are coming into the light—and light exposes the lies for what they are. When liars and their lies become exposed, like roaches, they often begin to scurry for the dark places again, attempting to cover up with more lies. That approach will always fail in the end because the light always triumphs. But if we come to the light, live in the truth, walk in integrity—if we run into the light ourselves—we find there a loving and forgiving God, who knows the truth about us anyway and calls us to be true witnesses who truly admit the sinfulness of our sins—including our sins of deception and lying—and turn from them to the truth as it is in Christ.

“Lord God, Judge of the whole world, have mercy on us for Christ’s sake. Forgive us for our attempts at hiding from You. Forgive us for lying about You, ourselves, and the world. Jesus is the Light of the world, and nothing can be hidden from You. Shine Your light on us. Jesus is the Truth, and no one can come to You except through Him. Teach us the truth—about Yourself, about ourselves, about the world in which we live. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, and lead us into all truth. Make us lovers of the truth, men and women of integrity, and keep us from lies, deceit, slander, secret-keeping, and hypocrisy—that we might be like our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”