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

This command, the ninth, is another simple command. It only occupies one line. The prohibition is simple: do not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Understanding the Commandment

What is a false witness? The idea is simple enough. It is the idea of saying something to or about your neighbor that you know to be false. Of the sixty times this term for "witness" is used, all of them refer to the typical way we would use it today. It is always used to describe one or more people (and sometimes objects) who have seen something and can corroborate a story or fact (cf. Gen. 31:48; Deut. 17:6; Ruth 4:10-11).

The basic idea behind the command is that we should not make a false report, claiming something to be true which is not. Proverbs 19:5 draws a direct parallel between a false witness and a liar.

We should not skip over the victims of our false witness. The victime is our neighbor. It is amazing how much the Bible focuses on our treatment of our neighbors. Our neighbors are those people with whom we live and work closely. They are the people who live next door and the fellow regulars at the grocery store. They are the people we do business with and whose lives we are at least aware of from a distance. Our neighbors may also be close friends.

It is a simple formula. If each person is honest with and about his neighbor, then truth will fill the community. But if one person bears false witness, either in a legal setting such as a trial or an informal setting such as a conversation, that dishonesty can have a ripple effect that grows stronger as it emanates out. False witness is no small thing. Dishonesty is a great evil that can destroy relationships, communities, and even kingdoms.

But we are masters of falsehood. Like master designers, we have as a human race cultivated and developed falsehood far beyond simple false statements. Lies are intentional false statements. Deceit is the art of concealing the truth for the purpose of misleading. Craftiness is skill in underhanded schemes. Pretext is putting something forward to conceal a true purpose or object. Hypocrisy is pretending to have a virtuous character. Dissimulation is concealing one’s true motives or thoughts by pretending. Guile is crafty or artful deception. Duplicity is speaking or acting in two different ways to different people about the same thing. Fraud is deceit for the sake of profit or dishonest advantage. Subterfuge is a trick to escape, hide or avoid. Dishonesty is a disposition to lie, cheat or steal. Slander is telling lies in order to hurt someone’s reputation. And there are many more: libel, invention, misrepresentation, and alternative facts.

We have so many words for falsehood because we have created so many types of it. And each one works like a tool in our toolbox, and the more we have the easier the job is. Falsehood is such a part of our lives that people have begun to refer to “my truth” and “your truth.” One theologian has commented,“Our society today is so dependent on lying that if it suddenly turned to tell the truth our way of life would collapse.”[1] Falsehood is part of the very essence of what it means to be a fallen human being.

Where does falsehood come from? These two passages make it clear. It comes from the old self, from an unrenewed mind. It comes from deceitful desires which seek what one wants for oneself while pretending to whatever extent necessary to not do so. There may be fake righteousness and counterfeit holiness, but it is not true righteousness and holiness (4:24).

At the core of falsehood lies the old self, that old man or woman - that old nature - that old, dead, hardened, calloused, cunning, dark, greedy, impure, corrupt heart. Our old selves absorb lies like the dry ground soaks up the rain. And because lies are what we take in, lies are what we produce. You cannot expect fresh water from a salt spring. You cannot expect the truth from an old self. This is why the language of my truth” and “your truth” is so ironic. There is no my truth or your truth. Truth is not something you whip up from your own special recipe. There can be my falsehood and your falsehood, but only one truth. And that’s the truth.

Bearing True Witness

What does it mean to speak the truth? Surely it must mean, as one commentator put it, that “Christians are habitual truth-speakers.”[2] We need only consider falsehood's many facets and say their opposite. Speaking the truth means no lies, no deceit, no craftiness, no pretext, no hypocrisy, no dissimulation, no guile, no duplicity, no fraud, no subterfuge, no dishonesty, and no slander. Speaking the truth means letting your yes be yes and your no be no. Speaking the truth means your words genuinely reflect what is in your heart. Speaking the truth means being above board. Speaking the truth means being honest about your purpose and object. Speaking the truth means your words reveal rather than conceal. Speaking the truth means talking the same way about the same things to different people. Speaking the truth means accepting the consequences of your words.

Paul wrote to the Ephesians, "Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another" (Ephesians 4:25). We should not fail to notice that the ground for speaking the truth is because we are members of one another. Paul is implying a comparison between the way the members of a body work and the way that believers in the body of Christ should work. Of course, members of a body should not speak falsely so as to deceive or mislead. It is the same as doing harm to yourself. Members of the same body ought to communicate together in order to collaborate together. Yet collaboration is precisely what speaking falsely involves. Instead of working together, it is a secret working at odds. It is pretending to be together and working toward the same end while secretly working toward an alternate goal. Of course Christians should not do that.

If you have put on the new self and are continually being renewed in your mind, then speaking the truth only makes sense. What else would you speak? But to whatever extent the old self, the hard, corrupt, deceitful heart still holds sway, speaking the truth is unappealing. As Christians today, we must similarly put away falsehood and bear true witness rather than false witness.

[1] Morris, Ephesians, page 143

[2] MacArthur, Ephesians, page 183