Last
Sunday, we looked at the eighth commandment, the one against stealing, and we
said that ultimately it is a commandment that requires our respecting of our
neighbor’s person and property. We said
that it was rooted in the principle of the providence of God. If we really believe that God is who He says
He is, then the desire to steal should never even be considered. In this regard, the eighth commandment
directly correlates to the first (the one forbidding other gods) which
primarily is an establishment of God’s authority. Well, our commandment for today, the
commandment against false witness against our neighbor shows a similar
correlation to the third commandment (the one against taking the Lord’s name in
vain), which we said was ultimately against lessening the name of God. You see, we said during our look at the third
commandment, that when we call ourselves Christians and don’t live as such,
then we are taking God’s name in vain. We
said that the directive within this commandment goes much deeper than simply
forbidding our using God’s name in the midst of profanity or profane
statements. Well, for us to give false witness
and testimony against our neighbor is to conduct ourselves in a manner that is
unbecoming of a Christian. Not to
mention the way in which it seeks in no way the good of our neighbor, a
principle in which we have said over and over again throughout the past few
weeks ought to be at the top of our priorities and a principle in which the
final six commandments is really built around.
Before
we deal with the application of this commandment, I want to first build a
little better understanding of this commandment than may exist amongst us right
now. I don’t know if you’re like me, but
you like to boil things down to as simple of an idea or statement as you
can. For me, it helps me remember things
much better when I don’t have all the minutia of details floating around in my
mind. However, this does cause problems
at times, such as in case like the one before us. You see, there’s a good chance that many of
us here today have remembered this commandment simply as a command against
lying. When your mama or daddy or Sunday
school teacher caught you in a lie, they reminded you that one of the Ten
Commandments is that you shouldn’t lie.
Well, that’s true, but it’s not the full scope of this commandment. As we dive further into this commandment, we
will see that this commandment has to do with much more than simply not lying,
but it has to do with speaking in a manner that is positive and uplifting as
well.
As we’ve said,
all of the commandments dealing with our horizontal relationships (how we
relate to and deal with those around us) are about loving our neighbor and a
building up of our community. Well, it’s
impossible for a community to be strengthened and built up if there is rampant
dishonesty. Dishonesty leads to a lack
of trust, and ultimately to a mindset that seeks preservation of self above
everything else. So it’s not just enough
for us to seek only personal integrity, but a community that is built on such
integrity. Integrity comes primarily
from being truthful and completely owning the words that we say in our
speaking. We have to be concerned with
speech as a whole. We have to conduct
ourselves in a manner that is devoid of gossip and slander. Our speech is a measure of our loyalty to
God. And the way we love our neighbors
in speech is a more accurate gauge to our real piety and love of God than any
claim that we can make.
I want to take
a moment and do just as we’ve done throughout this look at the Ten Commandments;
let’s look at what Christ said as he expounded upon this commandment and gave
the fuller meaning. Matthew 5:33-37
says, “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not
swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all,
either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his
footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you
cannot make one hair white or black. Let
what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” Now, I want to take some time and expound
upon Jesus’ expounding of this commandment.
You see, Jesus was criticizing the Pharisees with his words here. He was doing so because of two things that
the Pharisees were prone to do in their interpreting and applying of God’s Law. The first problem was that they Pharisees
took for themselves, as well as making others take, multiple oaths. There would be an oath for this and an oath
for that until everything in someone’s life was part of some legally binding
contract. However, the Pharisees were
also very prone to create loopholes in every single one of these oaths. They would swear on different things (body
parts, possessions, family members, etc.) depending on the perceived importance
of the agreement. The lesser the vow,
the lower the object in which they swore upon.
Well, what good is an oath if there’s a loophole? In my life, I have taken vows of both
ordination and marriage. There aren’t
any loopholes in either of these vows. There
are no clauses in either vows where I have the right to excuse myself of all of
my responsibilities and all the duties and obligations I swore to carry
out. I have a friend of mine who after
getting married asked the preacher why his wife’s vows seemed a lot less strict
than his. He said that he felt like he
had to swear to a lot more than his new bride during their wedding
ceremony. Well, they were actually the
same exact vows; his just seemed stricter to him because he was the one who had
to live in accordance with his. It’s a
very different feeling when we’re the ones promising before God that we will
live a certain way as opposed to watching someone else take such vows.
So what’s the
point of Jesus’ words here as he’s expounding upon the ninth commandment. Well, he’s saying that our words mean
something. He’s saying that it shouldn’t
take an oath for us to do something, but that if we say we are going to do it
then we are to do it. Notice that in his
words that we read just a moment ago that Jesus places a high emphasis on yes
meaning yes and no meaning no. There are
no loopholes in yes and no. You see, that’s
the main point of Jesus’ words here. It
isn’t that Jesus is against oaths, which is usually what gets taken away from
this passage. After all, Paul made
oaths, and I don’t think there is anyone who would say that Paul didn’t
understand the Law.
As we begin to
wrap this entire thing up, I want to simply ask a series of questions. I want you to think about your speech. I want you to think about how you speak with
and about your neighbor. When you speak,
do you have in mind that you stand as a witness to the work of God in your
life? Do you speak in a manner that
shows submission to His Lordship? Or do
you speak more as a witness to Satan? Is
your speech filled with insults, gossip, and demeaning comments. Does your speech help or hurt the community
in which you live. Remember, there is no
such thing as having no impact. All of
our actions, including of speech, no matter how seemingly insignificant, has
some impact on the community in which they live. Not only does your speech have an impact on
the emotions and feelings of those around you, but it affects the level and type
of witness you have for God’s kingdom.
Jesus makes it clear that all of our speech is said in the sight of God,
and therefore all of speech – especially speech about our neighbor – must be
truthful and designed to build up our neighbor.
We’ve all had
those people in our lives who are either constantly talking negatively about
other people or who are always in a foul mood.
We don’t want to surround ourselves with those types of people. We want to surround ourselves with people who
encourage us and uplift us. However, we
ought to not only want to be around those people, but we ought to strive to be
those people. Words are a powerful
thing. They are perhaps our most
dangerous weapons. We can destroy or we
can build with our words. The question
become which one we will do. Will you
build up God kingdom by encouraging those around you, being faithful witnesses,
and speaking only in truth? Or will you
destroy His kingdom with your words?
Will your talk be only of hatred, gossip, slander, dishonesty, and seek
only to promote yourself?
No matter which
speech you choose (and believe me there are moments when your speech will
destroy rather than build); remember that this table before us atones for
both. It atones for the inadequacy of
our positive speech just as much as it atones for the negative filth that so
often comes out of our mouths. And that
my friends, is the truth that ought to fill our speech this day and every other
day. That is the only truth that is
really worthy of our dominating our speech with one another. Glory be to God; in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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