Be True in Your Witness

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

I have to admit that I am not “friends” with my neighbors. I am not chummy with them. In fact, I don’t even know them well at all. All of that being true, there is still no reason for me to speak untruths about them.

The ninth commandment above speaks directly to the speaking of truths about others. Whereas, yes, there is some degree where we are not to lie in court, God is more speaking to the lying about others in general. We should be speaking the truth at all times. We should not be treating others in a way that is contrary to the way God will be treating. We should not be lying in the presence of God, period.

Too often I think it is easy to speak of what we are not fully informed of in the interest of getting along with or being accepted by some group of individual. We find ourselves in the situations where those around us are spinning tales of others that may not be based in fact, and we are all to willing to go along with it in the interest of, well, our own interest. I know that I have been in groups where there have been untruths spoken and I have gone along with the conversation just so I would be accepted.

And then there were times where I stood up for what what unknown so as to be sure the story was straight and there were no “lies” being told. I may not have known all of the facts, or whether or not what was being said was true, and that was the basis for me to stand up. There was no reason for anyone to speak ill of someone without the facts. I will say that in those instances of standing up for or simply letting others know that we are to not judge based on that which we do not know, I felt good about the stance I took and know that God was smiling at my witness.

Too often it is easy to just go along with things. Whereas it may seem harmless, it is indeed not following along with the commandments of God. We are to be truthful in our witness and that witness may be simply to get the story straight that we do not know what we do not know and therefore are obligated to not speak ill of those that we do not know all of the information.

When you are out in the world, are you speaking ill of or witnessing the ill speak of others to remain part of the group? Are you willing to take a stand for those being spoken of? What if we were to speak the truth as our witness and allow the facts to be heard to glorify God?