Torch, Fall 1994

I mplicit in each of the Ten Commandments is the understanding that behind the Decalogue exists a personal Creator God who is the source of truth. He is the One who speaks, and we do well to listen. The ninth commandment, "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor" (Exodus 20:16 NIV), is a call to truthfulness. It forbids lying that is designed to put down one's neighbor and, simultaneously, to exalt oneself. Positively, it calls for speaking truth about our neighbor in such a way as to produce good in his life. The call to truthfulness is as vital in our day as it was in the day it was given. We live in a climate where the idea of absolute truth is rejected. Immanuel Kant, more than any other philosopher of modem time, introduced the notion that there is no absolute truth; that truth is, in fact, relative; that truth is only what we believe it to be; that truth possesses no existence in and of itself. Truth is only what we subjectively conceive in our own minds. The way this plays out in our culture is statements such as, "Well, that may be true for you, but it isn't true for me." The Bible rebuts that way of thinking at every point because the Bible begins with God who is a truth-telling, promise-keeping God who cannot lie; God who in Himself embodies truth; God who in His incarnate form said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life... " (John 14:6). God who on account of His great holiness can not tolerate sin and, in the list of the seven things God is said to hate in Proverbs 6, says He hates lies and He hates deception. What the Bible says is absolute, contemporary culture says is relative. The magazine, Child, essentially has to do with child psychology. Its April 1992 edition had an article entitled, "The Truth About Lying," which expresses the "old view" and the "new view" of lying. The article states that the old view of lying, like other issues of morality, was seen only in black and white. Children were taught that all Torch 14 lying was bad, deserving of strict punishment. They were frequently reminded that lying would make one's nose grow as long as Pinocchio's, which of course is itself a lie. The article goes on to describe the new view: "Today, some lying is considered normal. In fact, a child's first few lies are seen as an important step in the development of self." What foolishness! Totally counter to the Bible. HOW DO WE LIE? We can lie with the wink of the eyes, by silence, with a nod of the head. The most common way we lie is by means of the tongue. The tongue is a vital part of human existence; God deemed it so. Without tongues, our world is reduced to unintelligible shrugs and grunts. But the Bible says the tongue is vicious. It "defiles the whole body.. .is full of deadly poison" (James 3:6,8 NAS). A perfect man is the man who has perfect control over this vital, yet potentially vicious little slab of membrane. The problem is that people by nature belong to their father, the devil. He has a language all his own-lying (John 8:44). Everything coming from his mouth is a deception. If he ever speaks truth, it is to manipulate us, to create lies and chaos and distortion. The world held in the grip of the evil one buys into lies like crazy. What about the manner in which we tell lies? First of all, there is perjury- people going into court, taking an oath, and then failing to tell the truth or deliberately misrepresenting the truth. Any trial lawyer will tell you that perjury is far more prevalent than our culture is prepared to admit. Indeed, one of the reasons that it is so difficult to try cases effectively is because of an endemic problem with lying and no absolute standard of righteousness, especially when those in the jury have been brought up to believe that "what is true for you may not be true for me." Another way in which we break the ninth commandment is by rumor– saying things that just aren't true; little gossipy statements about other people. It may be only allegation. It can be a pack of lies. But in the culture in which we live, where truth is relative and not absolute, where rumor abounds and sells millions of magazines, we would be hard pressed to rebut the things said. Have we passed on any rumors this week, something we had no way of knowing whether it was true or false, but we liked the feel of it? Have we passed on something someone dropped like an incendiary device into casual conversation in the office or school- something that may damage the life of some individual for a long, long time? Deception is another way we lie. Paul says of those who are godless, "Deceit is on their lips" (Romans 3:13). They deceive by their very nature. Some of us deceived our parents, and some of us were very good at it. When we didn't want them to know something, we told them something they did want to know in the hope that they would not pursue other information we wanted to keep from them. We are tempted to do the same in business. How about flattery? Someone has said, "Flattery is saying things to a person's face that we would never say behind his back." We say to someone, "I hold you in the highest esteem" and then defame him to others. That's flattery. That's lying. What about exaggeration? "How cold was it?" "It was minus 55 degrees. It was so cold people were having their teeth extracted without any anesthetic." "How bad was it?" "You read about the second world war? That was nothing compared to this."