Exodus 20:16

16          “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor

The Ninth Commandment

This was always taught to me as: “Don’t lie.” Lying does not help any situation that we run into, no matter how hard the truth is to share. The more we focus on the truth and share that, the more we can start to move forward as a society working towards the greater good.  

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: How do you feel when you’ve been lied to or when you’ve lied to someone else?

The Importance of Sharing the Truth

The focus of this commandment comes from giving untrue testimony against others, particularly in a legal context. In ancient Israel, the legal system relied mainly on the testimony of others, since there was no forensic evidence or investigation techniques like we see today. False testimony could lead to a wrongful punishment, and even death. The foundation of this command was to encourage truth and integrity in maintaining justice and social order.

Sharing the truth is a way of caring for your neighbor. Our neighbor is all people, more than just our immediate community. We need to be beacons of trust and harmony no matter where we go, including what we post and share online. Our goal is to live in truth as part of the body of Christ.

The importance of telling the truth could be the life and death of someone. Now, this was more of a literal understanding for the ancient Israelites. However, in our context, with the proper investigative measures, then we can do our proper fact-finding to prove something to be true or not. Social media gives us platforms to share whatever we want regardless of whether it’s true or not. Because of that, we tend to move towards guilty until proven innocent instead of innocent until proven guilty.

Everyone needs to be held accountable for their actions. Everyone needs to be dealt with the proper consequences for their actions. When we run a “guilty until proven innocent” measure, people will face consequences for actions that may or may not be proven. Because our words come from our own experiences and boundaries, we need careful listening, corroboration, and wise discernment – especially in moments of serious harm being claimed.

We should resist rushing to public judgments without proper discernment, but we also need to recognize that some harms, especially systemic or repeated abuse, may rightly be named publicly when private efforts and proper channels have failed. When we call out others in public, we will tend to create a mob mentality with people choosing a side instead of allowing others to think for themselves and do their own fact finding and creating an outcome for themselves. It’s the struggle of a groupthink mentality. We need to be truthful, handle conflicts quietly, and bring in others when needed to help mediate.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: Are you one to share your conflicts publicly, or try to handle things privately?

Accountability in Community

Paul introduces the importance of living out the truth in Ephesians 4:25

25          Therefore, ridding yourselves of falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, because we are parts of one another.

We are in one community trying to make it through our fallen world. The more we can respond in truth to one another, the more we can work together to move forward in God’s plan for the world. Telling the truth can be hard. Telling the truth can create tough conversations and may create grief and conflict in the short-term. However, we can have these tough conversations and moments with love and compassion. We can recognize the pain and hurt, while also working towards a healthier plan forward. We can create a world where we can recognize the pain and harm that others cause, keep accountability for those that do harm to others, and create a future that all can be cared for with love, grace, mercy, and justice. Telling the truth means that we refuse to hide or downplay harm, especially when power and privilege are involved; we need to protect the victims as well as protect the wrongly accused.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: How can you move forward to help keep your community accountable?

Next part: Rejecting Jealousy || I Command You || Part 10 (FINALE)