The Ten Commandments: #8

Hey folks! As we begin our journey through Lent, our kids are transitioning into a series of lessons about the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments and the moral vision they espouse form the foundation of Christian moral teaching. With a little consideration one can see this everywhere, from the way we think about worship, to the way we think about the value of human life, humility, jealousy, and so on.

Read our introduction to the Ten Commandments (along with a bit about the first commandment) here.

When Jesus himself summarizes the law, he says that there are, most essentially, two commandments from God: Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.

A glance at the Ten Commandments shows that those two commands—the love of God and neighbor—map nicely over top of them. Commands to worship God only, honoring the Sabbath, and misusing his name are all primarily directed to God; the rest of the commands have our neighbors in view. 

This week we're looking at the Eighth Commandment, from Ex. 20:16, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."

This prohibition is often memorized and understood as a prohibition against lying—a commitment to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God—in any circumstance.

But this is not exactly what it means. Nor is this exactly the Christian’s duty, for there are situations in which one can imagine that the whole truth is inappropriate or even evil.

Sharing the details of, say, a confidential meeting, or revealing the location of hidden Jews in your home during the Holocaust because someone asks come to mind as moments where the right thing to do is to not divulge all of the information that is sought, ultimately for the sake of love. 

In view most directly in this commandment is the quality of a person’s testimony in court, when someone has been called upon to say the truth for the sake of the community.

The command is essentially social in nature: it is about protecting the reliability of public witness, public testimony. When this reliability is questioned, communal life descends, eventually into total skepticism and mistrust (which should sound familiar to us in our moment). 

Ultimately, Christians are to be those who tell the truth, and do it in love. For we worship and follow Truth and Love incarnate. This is our general disposition, and we are never to be or be known as those who can’t be trusted to say what is the case.

However, for the sake of love, there may be (and indeed are!) times in which telling every single detail of what has been requested is a violation of the second “great” commandment to love our neighbor as ourself. 

Scripture to consider:

• Exodus 20:16

• Acts 5:1-11

  
  

Question for your kids

• Why does God not want us to “bear false witness” against our neighbor? (Hint: We need to be able to trust one another)

• Why is it better to be able to trust one another than to doubt them?

Peace,

Danny+