" THE GOD OF PEACE TEACHES US TO PRESERVE OUR NEIGHBOR’S REPUTATION ."

112. Q. What is required in the ninth commandment?
A. I must not give false testimony against anyone, twist no one's words, not gossip or slander, nor condemn or join in condemning anyone rashly and unheard.[1] Rather, I must avoid all lying and deceit as the devil's own works, under penalty of God's heavy wrath.[2] In court and everywhere else, I must love the truth,[3] speak and confess it honestly, and do what I can to defend and promote my neighbour's honour and reputation.[4]
[1] Ps. 15; Prov. 19:5, 9; 21:28; Matt. 7:1; Luke 6:37; Rom. 1:28-32. [2] Lev. 19:11, 12; Prov. 12:22; 13:5; John 8:44; Rev. 21:8. [3] I Cor. 13:6; Eph. 4:25. [4] I Pet. 3:8, 9; 4:8.

Scripture Reading:
Deuteronomy 19:15-21
James 3

Singing:  (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 120:1,2
Psalm 34:5,6
Psalm 141:2,4
Psalm 140:1,2,8,10
Psalm 119:11,17

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

As we speak today about the ninth commandment, we need to bear in mind Paul’s words to the Romans in chap 3. All men, this Jew writes to the Gentile Christians of Rome, "are all under sin" (vs 10). As evidence of that statement the apostle quotes a string of Old Testament texts, vss 10-18. The first quote (from Ps 14) speaks of depravity in general; "There is none righteous…, There is none who does good, no, not one." His second quote addresses the material of the ninth commandment: "Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit" (Ps 5:9). His third quote also revolves around the ninth commandment: "The poison of asps is under their lips" (Ps 140:3), and so does the fourth: "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness" (Ps 10:7). An asp, by the way, is a poisonous snake, deadly in its bite. Paul’s point with quoting these texts? This: every person has an asp in his mouth, every person –whether Jew or Greek, Dutchman or Australian- has a tongue much practiced with deceit.

So, brothers and sisters, when we speak today about the ninth commandment, we are speaking about me, and about you. Please, let nobody think today of somebody else; let each of us, as we listen to God’s word about the ninth commandment, think about himself. For we all have "the poison of asps" under our lips – I first of all (cf James 3:2).

For the sake of such people the Lord God has sent His only Son into the world, and so with such people God established His covenant of grace and declared us His. To people given to poisoning the other with their tongues, the Lord has given His Holy Spirit so that we learn to love the other – and therefore guard what we say about the other. We don’t do it perfectly yet –that’s why the ninth commandment remains so relevant- but the beginning is there.

I summarize the sermon with this theme:

The ninth commandment has a striking formulation. The sixth commandment is short and to the point: "you shall not murder." So is the seventh: "you shall not commit adultery." The eighth is too: "you shall not steal." We would expect the ninth commandment to follow suit: "you shall not lie." But that’s not the command the Lord gives here. Why not? Why does the Lord instead speak here about being a "false witness"?

The notion of ‘witness’, of course, comes from a court setting. It happened with Israel as it happens today: someone accused of wrongdoing had to appear before the judge. In Israel’s days, however, the judge could not use fingerprinting or DNA samples to determine innocence or guilt; the only mechanism the judge could use was the testimony of witnesses (cf Dt 19:15ff). On the basis of what witnesses said, the accused was declared innocent or guilty – and if guilty he could possibly (depending on his crime) be sentenced to death. The point: so very much depended on what the witnesses said. The life of the accused, the reputation of the accused, the freedom of the accused, the family of the accused: all depended on the testimony of the witnesses.

But what kind of a person was the witness? I quoted already from Rom 3, and therefore from the various Psalms of the Old Testament from which Paul draws his quotes. Those Psalms are emphatic: the witness –like anybody else in Israel- has the poison of asps under his tongue, his throat too is an open tomb. A witness was quite able to falsify his testimony in order to damage the accused – and so earn him a heavier sentence. The witness could do so deliberately, as happened in the case of Naboth when Ahab wanted his inheritance for a garden; the false testimony of the witnesses resulted in Naboth’s death (1 Kings 21). We can imagine that witnesses could also falsify their testimony through carelessness – and the neighbor would suffer the consequences.

In that context, the Lord addresses specifically the witness. In the ninth commandment the Lord tells His people at the foot of Mt Sinai that they are never to "bear false witness against the neighbor" in such a court setting. Actually, the word that is translated for us as ‘bear’ is in Hebrew the word ‘answer’. That is: the judge asks you a question, and then you are not to answer with false testimony. Always one’s testimony was to be true, factual.

The point is important. Somebody is accused of wrongdoing. God’s command to you was then not that you were to volunteer all sorts of evidence that the accusation was true. God’s command was that you were to answer the judge. You see, there’s a reticence here, an unwillingness to pass on information damaging to your neighbor – though you know it’s true. It’s to be pulled out of you; when the judge asks, you answer – and answer truthfully.

In putting it that way, we’re getting closer to the fine point of the command. The fine point of the Hebrew does not revolve around the words coming out of the witness’s mouth, but instead around the attitude the witness has. Literally, the command is this: Do not answer against your neighbor as a false witness. How you answer is determined by the kind of witness you are, that is, what thoughts live in your heart about the accused. The fine point of this command is not simply that cold, naked truth be voiced (as opposed to lies); the fine point of this command is that your neighbor’s reputation is safe with you. So in court, when the judge in Israel (and he was authorized by God to be judge!) asked for your testimony in relation to an accused, you not only had to speak the truth (and not falsehood), but you also had to speak the truth in a certain way – that is, with an attitude of deep care for your neighbor. Out of concern for him you had to speak the truth in love. That was the point of the ninth commandment.

That being the case, we can bring this commandment directly into our day and age. As we say in our Lord’s Day: "in court … I must love the truth, speak and confess it honestly, and do what I can to defend and promote my neighbor’s honor and reputation."

Yet it’s not just in the Court of Petty Sessions or in the Supreme Court that I am to love the truth, and speak and confess it honestly. So few of us ever get called upon to testify in court. Far more common is the chatter we have with each other about other people, be it out on the car park or over a cup of coffee. I speak about another, and my hearers weigh what I say, and they form a judgment about him. You see: though God has not called my hearers to make a judgment on the neighbor we’re talking about, the fact of the matter is that they function as judges. The material I’ve just told them influences what they now think about the person we were speaking about. When I’ve related positive material, there’s not much damage done. But if I’ve told some negative stories, I’ve hurt my neighbor’s image in the minds of my hearers. Then what I’ve said may be factual to the last word, but I’ve transgressed the ninth commandment! How so? The fine point of the ninth commandment is not that I speak no false testimony (so: pass on only facts), but that my neighbor’s reputation is safe with me, that I in no way downsize my neighbor through what I say or how I say it. Remember Jesus’ summary of the law of God: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Do you see, congregation, how close to home this commandment comes?

Talking about another happens so often, and so we repeatedly influence another’s perception of a given neighbor. So we do well to explore the point further. Just how can you downsize your neighbor through the things you say? In our Lord’s Day the catechism mentions a list of ways this can happen.

What, then, is the daily setting of false witness? While this command has its origin in the setting of Israel’s legal system as per Dt 19, it addresses so many of our daily conversations. In those daily conversations, we damage each other’s reputation so easily, and so often – even with words that are factual. So we transgress God’s ninth commandment. That brings us to our second point:

Where does ‘false witness’ come from? What, at bottom, moves us to be a false witness concerning a neighbor?

All sin, of course, has roots in the devil (cf Lord’s Day 3). Yet the Lord tells us that lying has roots in the devil in a particular way. Jesus was one day in conversation with the Jews, and spoke to them these words:

Note those last words. The devil, says Jesus, "is a liar and the father of [lies]." It’s something we know from elsewhere in Scripture too. Right in the beginning, when Adam and Eve lived peacefully in the Garden of Eden, the devil came to them in a serpent. "Has God said that you may not eat of all the trees of the Garden, and if you do you will die? Not true! God knows that if you eat of that tree you will be like Him, knowing good and evil." What that was? A lie! Here was both twisting God’s words and giving false testimony, slander. Here was a lie in Paradise. In truth, the devil is the father of lies.

And Eve fell for it, and Adam did too! Adam’s very first word after the fall into sin involved transgression of the ninth commandment. Said he to God: "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate." Yes, it was fact: God had given the woman to Adam. And yes, she had given him of the tree, and yes, Adam had then eaten. All facts. And yet a lie! By listing these facts as he did in the context in which he did, Adam implied that God was somehow to blame for his eating from the tree; had God not given the woman, he wouldn’t have eaten what she gave him….

And that’s become the habit of all Adam’s descendents. We left God and His peace, and joined ourselves with Satan and his deceit. As children of the devil, we took on the characteristics of our father – including that we became liars. I remind you again of the texts Paul quotes in Romans 3: of Jews and Greeks alike (and the reference here is to all people) it must be said that "the poison of asps is under their lips." That’s to say: by nature our words are devil-driven. And what does the devil want? He wants to pull people away from God, as he did in Paradise. He wants to separate person from person, wants to sow discord, distrust, unrest, pit brother against brother.

James makes exactly this point. James 3:6: "the tongue is a fire," he says, "a world of iniquity." But what sets the tongue off? What makes the tongue say those damaging things? Vs 6: the tongue "is set on fire by hell." What makes a person give false testimony? What makes a person twist another’s words, or gossip over a coffee, or slander another? Is that the work of the Holy Spirit? No, says the Scripture, No! It’s not something neutral either, just something of this life, just ‘one of those things’. It’s rather that such a tongue is dominated by hell! In the words of our Lord’s Day: "all lying and deceit" is "the devil’s own work" (cf Gal 5:19ff). And exactly because it’s the devil’s own work does such lying and deceit attract the judgment of God. "Lying lips," says Solomon, "are an abomination to the Lord" (Prov 12:22), and so the Lord will bring him to shame (Prov 13:5). Indeed, the New Testament emphasizes how much lying is an abomination to the Lord, for the Holy Spirit says emphatically that "all liars shall have their place in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death" (Rev 21:8). Liars, you see, belong with the father of lies…. Every tongue that speaks evil of his neighbor is driven by hell. He who condemns the neighbor or joins in condemning him plays with fire from hell….

Who, my brothers and sisters, is free of iniquity here? "Do not take to heart everything people say," said the Preacher in Eccl 7, "Lest you hear your servant cursing you." Why not take their negative words to heart? Says the Preacher: "For many times, also, your own heart has known that even you have cursed others" (Eccl 7:21f). Yes, that’s the hard reality. We all repeatedly curse another in our words. And that’s because we have negative thoughts about the other in our heart; the neighbor’s reputation is not safe with us…. That in turn should make us cautious about accusing others of sin against the ninth commandment; it’s better to begin with ourselves…. Sin lies so close at hand, Satan’s evil influence so near to us all….

But that, beloved, is not the end of the story! For the Lord our God has triumphed over the destruction hell would wreak between neighbors, between brothers! It’s our last point:

It pleased the Lord God to rescue a people from their bondage in Egypt, bring them to Mt Sinai, and tell them that they were His people. That bondage to Egypt: that was a picture of their bondage to sin and Satan! But from that bondage the Lord delivered them through Jesus’ blood, so that they might be children of the devil no longer. And for that reason the Lord told the people of Israel that they were no longer to answer as false witnesses against a neighbor; instead of downsizing the neighbor, his reputation was to be safe with you, you were to protect and promote his reputation. That’s what God did. Though He knew that the poison of asps remained under the tongues of His children, He did not keep saying that they were liars or inclined to lie (and hence point up their link to the devil); He instead called them His children, and kept drawing attention to His bond of love with this unworthy people. You see: God Himself promoted their well being, talked up their reputation. And that’s the example God’s children are to follow!

And that’s why in turn the Lord has poured out His Holy Spirit. James is emphatic: "no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison" (3:8). But what no man can tame the Spirit of God can tame! The ascended Christ –He who defeated sin and Satan, and received a throne from God over all- has poured out His Holy Spirit to change and renew the hearts of sinners – our hearts included. The fruit of the Spirit includes love and peace and kindness and gentleness (Gal 5). Love, says Solomon to his children, "covers all sins" (Prov 10:12). More: "He who covers a transgression seeks love, But he who repeats a matter separates friends" (Prov 17:9). And is separating friends not precisely what Satan wants? But the Spirit wants the opposite, the Spirit wants unity, communion of saints, mutual acceptance, trust and love. Why then speak to each other about the neighbor’s abiding weaknesses? Why downsize his reputation? That separates friends, and that’s devilish, and it’s not according to the triumph of Jesus Christ on the cross. The ascended Christ does not keep reminding the Father in heaven of our sins, but intercedes before Him on our behalf so that the Father sees us as righteous, our sins covered in Jesus’ blood. And see: that is precisely what we on earth are to do with each other’s sins and weaknesses also.

Solomon had said that "love covers all sins" (Prov 10:12). Peter quotes that text from Solomon in his first letter, quotes it in the context of Christ’s imminent return. 1 Peter 4: "the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins" (vss 7f). You hear it: we await Christ from heaven, the triumphant Savior who restores Paradise fully. As we await this Savior and the perfect peace of the New Jerusalem, what shall we do? Pit brother against brother? Sow distrust, tension? Not at all! What we’ll do instead, in love for each other and the Lord who saved us, is "cover a multitude of sins." We won’t talk about the other person’s wrongs, we’ll instead bury them. To avoid misunderstanding: Peter is not declaring Jesus’ words in Mt 18 to be null and void. We are to address the sinner on his sins, of course. But talk to others about those sins? Most definitely not! In the company of the other we’ll cover the neighbor’s sins – lest we end up separating friends. Those friends shall sit together at the table of the Lord in the New Jerusalem; shall we speak words today that will pit brother against brother in this life??

Just how and when to speak facts can require much Biblical wisdom, a wisdom that the Lord has promised through the Holy Spirit. But this much is clear: never may the devil with his divisiveness be behind our words and stories about others. James 3: "The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits…" (vs 17). That wisdom has the neighbor’s well being at heart, his reputation included.   Amen.