Q: What does it mean when the
Bible commands against bearing “false witness against your neighbor?” What things does this commandment require
Christians to do and forbid them from doing?
Among the Ten Commandments, this one
(the 8th) is certainly in the running to be considered the most
frequently misunderstood. Some have
paraphrased this commandment as “You shall not lie,” but it is really much more
than that.
The first three commandments deal
with how humans are intended to act toward God, and the fourth through seventh
commandments can be sinned against with thoughts, words, or actions. Now this commandment deals primarily with
our words, and how they relate to other people’s reputation.
It is obvious that this commandment
forbids Christians from lying—not only in formal testimony but also in private
conversation. This would include
repeating untrue things we have heard from others, as well as starting the
untruths ourselves, and it includes all lies, both those told publicly to many
people or privately to only one person.
Not only does this commandment apply
to lies, but also to telling the truth in ways that are harmful. This would include revealing secrets or other
information one has been told with an understanding of confidentiality. It would also include revealing sins or other
unfavorable truths that were previously private or giving even greater
publicity to unfavorable truths that have already been made public about
another person.
In general, Christians should make
every effort not to harm the reputation of other people if it can be
avoided. Private sins and offenses
should be dealt with privately for the preservation of the reputations of
everyone involved. In Matthew 18, Jesus
instructed the people to first go to a person who has sinned against them
privately, then with 2 or three witnesses, and only if all other attempts had
failed to make a matter public.
The only occasion when it would not
be sinful to keep a sin or other unfavorable truth secret is if it is revealed
for the sake of helping the person in question or other people who might
otherwise be endangered if the secret were kept.
Some obvious examples of this would
be when citizens report a crime, children report bullying or other harmful acts
in school, or friends and relatives reveal an addictive behavior or suicidal
intent with the intent of finding help for the person. Even in these cases, though, one is not to
declare such things in public, but rather only to those who have the proper
authority to deal with them, such as law enforcement, teachers, pastors, or
parents.
Another instance in which it might be
not only permissible to make unfavorable truths public is to correct an false
statement that has been made publicly by another. For example, if one businessman has publicly
defamed another, the only way to correct the lie is to make the first man’s sin
public in order to defend the good reputation of the second.
A similar instance comes concerning
religious teaching. If a religious
leader is making public statements or publishing books about God, the Bible, or
religious teaching that are blatantly untrue, not only would it be a faithful
pastor’s option to make this known to the people under his care, and perhaps to
the community at large, but he would be negligent if he became aware of such
statements and failed to do so.
In both cases, the businessman and
the religious leader have made their own sins public, and those seeking to
correct them have no choice but to address them likewise.
In any case, the Bible speaks frequently,
such as the books of James and Proverbs, about the importance of using our
words wisely. We do so when we speak for
the sake of helping others and defending their reputation rather than with the
intent to do them harm.
