Description
The Importance of Truth: Understanding the Ninth Commandment
This episode explores the significance of truth as emphasi… (visit YouTube for more)
Transcript
Truth matters. It matters what we say. And this is what we consider as we look at the penultimate commandment in our miniseries. It’s Exodus 20, verse 16. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
Now, this sounds very much like a legal thing, doesn’t it? If there’s some kind of court proceeding you shouldn’t be lying in a way that causes trouble for someone else.
But by extension, we shouldn’t be lying at all. God is interested in the truth. We can see from the fact that this looks like some kind of legal matter that truth is central to this. Truth is central to God’s moral law.
How do we know that God is who he says he is? Because he’s true. He’s true to himself. And in this post-modern post-Christian environment, sometimes we forget that truth does actually really matter.
There is no such thing as a white lie. There’s just a lie or the truth. Do we have to lie to avoid hurting someone’s feelings? Or is it better to be honest with one another at all times? Yes, there are some things that we simply shouldn’t say if that’s going to damage someone. We always have the option to say nothing, don’t we. Let us not speak false things in court or in any other context.
Out of the heart, the mouth speaks, and if what’s coming out of us is falsehood that means that we essentially are false too. God can see this. He can see deeply into our psyche. He knows everything there is to know about us, and he wants us to be pure and holy. There’s no place for lies or falsehood in our lives, and if it’s in there, then we must ask him to root it out.
And this is something that the Holy Spirit will do for us. But we need to decide, don’t we? We need to decide that we are going to be honest kind of people, because we serve an honest God who is our Father. We serve Jesus, who is our role model, and he never lied.
Lord God the temptation to say something that’s just a little bit other than true is so strong sometimes. I know that you forgive us and I thank you for that, but please help us as well to be pure and holy. We can’t get there in our own strength. We need you to redeem us and to make us righteous.
Amen.
