The ninth commandment is "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor." When I was younger, working in the fields was a rite of passage. There was all sorts of work to be done--bailing hay, picking up rocks and debris, mowing. So one summer I decided to de-tassel corn. What I understood is removing the tassel helps the corn to more effectively pollinate, and the field produce dramatically higher yields. Hey just because I grew up in the corn fields doesn't make me expert! Cut me some slack!
Do you know, I was terrible at de-tasseling? They would assign you a row of corn a mile long, and it was hot, and the days were long. It was in the 80s, when there was a severe drought, and corn was barely knee high. And walking along, it seemed like you were in a desert, you'd fall into a trance, and become mesmerized with the distant mirages of water.
They assigned these muscle-bound, upperclassmen, football players to supervise us. They kind of made it a sport to humiliate us. They would trail along behind you, piling up all the tassel's you missed in their arms, and then they'd really let you have it. So to avoid the humiliation... whenever we saw them behind us... we would all shift over a row. And we'd play dumb and say, "Ah, I don't know whose row that was, I thought this row was mine...must be my neighbors row." Lying became a way to avoid shame and embarrassment.
So what are we to make of this commandment? First, it speaks to all of us individually. Notice the word "You" as in "You" shall not bear false testimony against your neighbor. I wonder, to what degree we internalize each of these commandments? Do these commandments still matter? Are they still relevant to us? Do we believe anything sacred is at stake in not violating them?
I remember once lying to my grade school geography teacher. He asked me a question, and I started fabricating an ever burgeoning story. Well the teacher wasn't buying it--and to this day I remember Mr. Nugent looking in my eyes and asking very calmly but directly, "Jon, are you lying to me?" To which I said, "yep." What a relief it was for me to confess, and move on!
Someone once said "lies don't have legs." For a lie to keeping standing, you have to support it with more and more lies. Lying is an escalating commitment!
In seminary, I took a preaching class with Dr. Wayne Shaw. In order to pass the course, you had to complete all the assigned reading and fill out an end-of-semester report. Well it was the final day of class, and there was one book I hadn't finished reading. And I remember rationalizing, "What's the harm, I'll mark that I've read the book, and I'll finish reading it in a few days."
Well a few days passed, and I still hadn't read that book. Then a week passed, and a few weeks, then a few months. (Keep in mind, it was a book on preaching, and I was a preacher...) but I kept putting off finishing that book, and the longer I waited, the more the guilt I felt, and the more I procrastinated.
The next semester of courses started, and I still hadn't read that book! By then my conscience was eating me for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Finally, I couldn't stand it no more, and I went to Dr. Shaw and confessed. Now Dr. Shaw is a pretty nice guy. And he asked, "Jon, are you going to finish it?" Before I could even stop myself, an enthusiastic "YES" slipped off the end of my tongue!
Argh. That book is still sitting on my shelf, and I think I have a few chapters more chapters to go! I hope there is statute of limitations on lying?
Isn't it perplexing how easily/effortlessly, we can lie? I know some of you are sitting there judging me! "If this preacher lies about reading preaching books what else might he be lying about?" But here is the spiritual reality... James 3:2 says, "We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check." There is room for all of us to internalize this commandment, realize its application starts with us. No one is exempt from its reach!
Second, this commandment speaks to the content of our words. What does the word "false" mean except that which is "untrue?" Think of all the content that gets pushed down the pipeline. Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. Wikipedia. Satellite radio. The 24 hour news cycle. Newspaper articles. Blog posts. Mass mailings. Phone calls. Email. We are inundated with vast amounts of content--more than we could ever process, and more than we could ever verify the "veracity" the "truthfulness" of. If something has a "truthiness" about it, we mindlessly blast it forward to others.
One of my good friends is Ray Long. Ray is a writer for the Chicago Tribune, and he's broken some of the biggest news stories in our state over the past few years. But you know wealthy or poor, democrat or republican, powerful or weak... Ray is impartial. He investigates and documents every detail. He turns over every stone. He doesn't write a single paragraph, or sentence, or word without first verifying its truthfulness. Not its "truthiness"--but "truthfulness." We've had awesome conversations. I always remind him that all truth is God's truth... and that he's a servant of the truth... and that he's doing God's work shining the light on the truth. Let's just say some of our incarcerated governors know Ray by first name! He's tenacious.
But listen... if we as God's people don't care about the truth, who will? God's standard isn't whether something has a certain "truthiness." Do we take time to discern whether a thing is true or false? If's it false, why circulate? If we can't verify the truth of something, why forward it on? Content matters.
Third, this commandment speaks to our motives. I thought about this word "against." "Do not bear false witness against your neighbor." Sometimes we think we are helpings ourselves, or helping those we love, by lying. In reality we're often storing up the damage for later. Lying is like kicking the can down the road. Eventually you got to deal with the reality of what's in the can.
We tend to lie out of pride. Pride is all about maintaining appearances. Pride is when how we look to others becomes more important than the content of our character before God. For example, I was more concerned with how I looked to preaching professor, than I how I looked to God. [Pharisees]
We tend to lie for acceptance. How often do we go along, feeding into a person's vanity, feeding into a bosses or friend's ego, because we want to be liked. Billy Joel had that song, "Honesty." Chorus says, "Honesty is such a lonely word. Everyone is so untrue. Honesty is hardly ever heard. And mostly what I need from you." The song is basically, "don't just sympathize with me... tell me what I really need to hear..."
We tend to lie out of fear. If there are strong negative repercussions folks will almost always lie. And lies beget more lies. I can tell you this... the cost of telling the truth today is a fraction of the cost of telling the truth tomorrow. The longer you stay in fear the higher the cost you will pay. [Abraham & Sarah]
We tend to lie out of malice. Just a quick example, nice isn't always good. Some of the nicest, coolest people have the most evil of intentions. They say all the right things to you, and do all the right things for you, but in the end, take everything. The spider probably seems pretty nice, until you fall into its web. [Absolom the blessing?]
We lie out of sectarianism. We can be so vested in our particular group, a perspective, a team, a party, a politic, a denomination, an affiliation... that we refuse to see the good, or the truth, that sits across the table from us. Confirmation bias is when you listen only to those voices that confirm your existing views, prejudices, and biases.
You know for years I listened to talk radio, and heavily watched cable news. I'd find myself getting worked up about something, only to discover later on, I was only being fed one side of the story. I find that a lot of what we hear is propaganda--carefully crafted to stoke our fears, manipulate our perceptions, exaggerate. It's very important that we step outside our sectarian circles and get that wider perspective.
We lie out of faith. I had never considered this before, but in an evil word, we often find ourselves in ethical quagmires, where neither telling the truth nor lying seems like a perfect option. Ethical quagmires take lot of prayer...discernment! [Corrie Ten Boom, in Nazi Germany, hiding Jews.] [Egyptian midwives, hiding Moses in basket, sending him down river] [Rahab the prostitute hiding the spies commended for her faith in both old/new testament].
Last, this commandment speaks to God's character/gospel. What do we know about God character? Numbers 23:19 says, "God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?" God want this same character to be amplified through our words.
But more than this, God has entrusted us with the most important words of all... the gospel of salvation. 2 Corinthians 5:20, "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us." If people can't trust our words in finite things, how will they trust us in eternal things? What a tragedy if people fail to trust our gospel because we discredited ourselves in other things?
In Acts 5 there is a story of a couple that lies about their generosity in front of the whole church. They pledge to sell a piece of land and give full amount to the church. And they make this public! The could have kept it private. They could have done anything they wanted. But instead they chose to lie pretending to give one thing while giving another. In Acts, they are judged quite severely. Both of them die.
Could you imagine at that critical juncture... if the integrity of the church's gospel message had been compromised? The power of the gospel hinges upon us be truthful (not truthy, or truth-lite, but truth-full) representatives of God. In the sermon on the mount Jesus invites us to simply let our yes be yes, and our no, no... and to acknowledge anything more than this comes from the evil one.
Prayer... our words need to be trusted... because ultimately your words need to be trusted for eternal life. Our character needs to shine... because ultimately your character is seen through us...