The Ninth Commandment (Exodus 20:16, Deuteronomy 5:20)
Our day and culture is not one of truthfulness. It’s just not. You cannot trust people to tell the truth in our day.
I cannot trust news organizations to give me actual news. News organizations lie so much that I have to double check them before trusting what they say.
This commandment is not overly complicated. And it’s application is very straightforward. Therefore, there is not as much to teach and think about concerning interpreting the commandment. Unlike some of the others, this is very straightforward.
Don’t lie and stay far away from lies. We are supposed to be truthful people. So, don’t lie and stay far away from lies.
Here are a few of the commands given in the Pentateuch that concern the ninth commandment.
1 “You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. 2 You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice,” (Exodus 23:1-2 ESV)
“7 Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked.” (Exodus 23:7 ESV)
“16 You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the LORD. 17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.” (Leviticus 19:16-17 ESV)
16 If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, 17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days.” (Deuteronomy 19:16-17 ESV)
This commandment is incredibly easy to interpret. But it is probably the most broken command of our day. I want to give special attention to one area and that is social media.
Social Media
I want to discuss our usage of Social Media. Some of you got uneasy at the mention of this because you likely know exactly where this is going.
Things would be much easier if we would only think of the Internet as an actual place. For some reason, when there is no person in front of us, we can act as if we weren’t really doing anything. But that’s not the case. Things that happen on the internet really happen. And that’s why we have to be careful online.
As I mentioned above, news organizations can spread a lot of lies. And, I have noticed that they spread a lot of their lies on social media. And a lot of people participate in these lies by sharing the lies online.
Christians have a responsibility to tell the truth and represent the truth. And so, this sort of behavior should be repented of when it happens.
And this doesn’t just happen with national news stories. It happens with discussions about other believers in Christian groups all over the Internet. It needs to not be a part of the Christian life.
Concluding Thoughts
Christians are supposed to be people of the truth. We preach the truth. We declare the truth loudly. We defend the truth. And we need to be people who stay far away from lies.
When we think through this as a mirror, or how it shows our flaws it is very possible that we see many times in our lives and ways that we have sinned. But this should not be so. We should be people of the truth, therefore we see all the ways that we have failed and we flee to Christ for forgiveness.
As we look at the Civil Law, we understand that we could never enforce truthfulness and honesty. But we should strive for truthfulness and honesty to reign. We should encourage those lawsuits that bring penalties upon those who lie and encourage truthfulness. We should embrace those things that encourage honesty and vote for honest politicians. Just because politicians lie so much that it has become something we always say, “Politicians Lie” does not mean we have to settle for lying politicians. Hold them accountable to what they say at the ballot box.
This also tells us that being an honest person is what pleases the Lord. So, we should be people who deal honestly with others.
R. Dwain Minor