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by Katie Erickson

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

You know how some things from your childhood have a way of sticking with you for years? This is one of those for me. I went to a parochial school, and at my kindergarten graduation ceremony, each student had to recite one of the ten commandments, usually with a partner. This, the eighth commandment, was the one I memorized and recited with my classmate Karla. The wording of it then was “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor,” and at 5 years old I didn’t fully understand those words, but I did get the general concept: don’t tell lies or in any other way be false with what you say.

Luther’s Small Catechism gives the meaning of this commandment as, “We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.” As we’ve been seeing with the commandments, this meaning takes things further than being commanded to not do something, but rather it instructs us on what we should do instead. Don’t just not lie about or betray our neighbor, but we should speak well of him or her in all situations.

This brings up the question of who is our neighbor? Jesus answered that question very well with the story of the Good Samaritan, which you can find in Luke 10:25-37. The teacher of the law had this very same question of who exactly is one’s neighbor, though his motivation was to make himself look good. But Jesus’ answer remains true, that every person is our neighbor, whether they’re like us in certain ways or not.

We see many other places in the Bible where the idea this commandment is echoed. Proverbs 19:5 says, “A false witness will not go unpunished, and whoever pours out lies will not go free.” Ephesians 4:25 says, “Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.” Proverbs 6:19 says, “A false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.”

The opposite of speaking falsely is, of course, speaking truthfully. We honor God and show that we love Him when we speak truthfully to others instead of lying and saying false things. For more on what the Bible says about truth, check out this blog post.

In the original Hebrew, this commandment could be literally translated as, “You shall not answer your neighbor as a witness of deception.” When you’re a witness to something, you’re sharing your experience of that event or person. We should be witnesses of truth, especially God’s truth, instead of being witnesses of falsity and deception.

It may not seem like a big deal if we tell a little while lie to someone else, and we may not experience immediate negative consequences for it. But any time we do not speak truthfully, we are sinning against God. Whenever we sin, we separate ourselves from God - and that goes for ANY sin, not just the ones we consider to be “big.” If we can’t be faithful and truthful in our speech, then it’s unlikely we’ll be faithful and truthful in the bigger things in life (Luke 16:10).

Where in your life are you struggling with being truthful? Are there particular people or situations who seem to bring out falsehood from your mouth? I encourage you to examine your speech this week to see where you can ask the Spirit to help you be more truthful and encouraging, rather than being false and bringing others down.

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