Word of Salvation – Vol. 36 No. 09 – March 1991

 

False Witnessing

 

Sermon by Rev. M. P. Geluk on Lord’s Day 43

Reading: James 2:23-3:12; 1Peter 3:8-12

 

Whenever we hear God’s will for our daily lives, we are reminded that we are to love God and our neighbour.  In the second half of the Ten Commandments it is the neighbour that gets the attention.  But no one can love anybody as God wants us to, without loving God first.  When we love God, we don’t murder our neighbour.  But murder is of course the end result of hate and jealousy.  And adultery is the end result of impurity and lust.  Likewise, stealing results from wrong desire and greed.

What then goes before false witnessing?  Well, that is what we want to find out.  We know that we can cause a lot of problems by saying things that are not true.  And false words, spoken carelessly, have a habit of spreading far and wide, and it’s well-nigh impossible to undo the damage.

There is the story about an African village where the person who was caught spreading false gossip was punished by the tribal elders.  The false witness had to appear before the elders and on the way home the person had to scatter the feathers of a chicken.  Then, after the wind had blown them in different directions, the gossiper had to regather the feathers – all of them.  When the person found this to be an impossible task then he/she had learned the lesson that evil words cannot be recalled; they go on their way causing a lot of harm.

The ninth commandment is about this whole matter of evil words.  We have to think of false rumours, false gossip, false responses and false testimonies.

“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.”

Let us, in the first place, look at some forms of false witnessing, hoping thereby to learn to appreciate the truth more.

The Heidelberg Catechism in Lord’s Day 43, summarises the Scriptural teaching as follows:

‘God’s will is that I never give false testimony against anyone, twist no one’s words, not gossip or slander, not join in condemning anyone without a hearing or without a just cause.’

One place where a false witness can do great harm is the courtroom of course.  In Old Testament times, a person accused of a crime could not be condemned on the basis of one witness alone (Deut.17:6).  There had to be two or more.  A person’s life could be at stake if the witnesses testified to a crime punishable by death.  The judge, therefore, had to thoroughly investigate each case, for injustice could be done if the witnesses had agreed beforehand to give false testimony.

If it was discovered that the witness had been lying, then whatever the false witness had intended for his victim had to be done to him (Deut.19:16-19).

In this way God tried to protect the innocent and keep the courts free from corruption.  But no matter how good the laws are, evil people will always find a way.

When Queen Jezebel heard from her husband, King Ahab, that he could not obtain Naboth’s vineyard by fair means, she persuaded two scoundrels to accuse Nathan of having cursed both God and the king.  In spite of Naboth’s protestations, the false witness could not be proved wrong and the innocent man was executed (1Kings 21:8-14).

Weak judges who cannot maintain impartiality, help corrupt the courtroom, of course.  In the case of Jesus, the high priest did not stop the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin from bringing false witnesses into the court to testify against Jesus.  But they told so many conflicting lies that no two witnesses said the same accusation.

Finally, two could agree that Jesus had said He was able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.  Jesus did not even bother to explain what He had really meant by that statement (Matthew 26:59-60).

But even good judges can only act on the evidence presented by the witnesses.  And there are cases where only God knows whether the witnesses are true or false.  And the Most High says, ‘do not give false witness’.  People might get away with their lies in the world but never with God.  He hates the liar with a perfect hatred and will punish those who do not repent.

A lie is not the same as an unintentional error.  A person might say something and then discover that he had it wrong.  When he is a person of truth then he will speedily correct the error and apologise for the hurt and inconvenience caused.  But a lie is a statement that is intentionally false.  A liar aims to deceive others.  He wants to deliberately present a false picture for reasons only known to himself and those in cahoots with him.

All people are inclined to lie.  That tendency can raise its ugly head even within the Christian church.  It is possible, for example, that there is someone, or a number of people, whom you don’t particularly like very much.  Now because that is your frame of mind, it is the easiest thing in the world to put them in an unfavourable light.  You are not prepared to accept anything good about them, or very little, but you are much more willing to accept anything bad said about them.  In fact, you’re likely to join in and come up with statements of your own that only make the other person or persons look worse still.

It’s a terrible sin amongst people, Christians not excluded.  Those to whom such lies, false statements, innuendos are directed, suffer badly.  They are up against it from the start.  It’s all very well to say that they have got themselves to blame but that will not do much to promote the neighbour’s good name.  It may even be true that people are themselves to be blamed for the bad name they got.  But we sin against God and that person when we continue to join those who condemn them when we do not know whether they are true.

Then there is another form of false witnessing that we are all familiar with.  It is the lying that reaches us through the media.  We often hear or read the words, ‘we care about you’.  Or, ‘we want the best for you’.  We would probably believe it if those words came from parents we trust, or office-bearers we respect.  But we probably do not believe it if such words were directed to us by politicians, advertisers, and salespeople.

Why have we become so suspicious?  It’s because our whole modern culture is interested not in truth but in perception.  It’s no longer a question of what it is but of what it is perceived to be.  It’s no longer a matter of substance but of appearance.  Our culture is not interested in character but in image.  Public relations are no more important than truth.  Words are not the means to communicate but to manipulate.  Governments and corporations love modern communications like television, radio and video because they are wonderful tools to mould public opinion.

Sadly, the Christian church has not been able to stay clear of false witnessing.  As members we have our tendencies to present truths in ways that suit us most.  And Christians who are to be admired for going up to people in order to talk about the Gospel, should not seek an opening under the pretext of doing a survey with all sorts of irrelevant questions.

But the worst form of false witness the church and its members can engage in is deliberately to distort the Word of God.  To say that the Scriptures do not condemn homosexuality when in fact they do.  Or to say that sex before marriage is okay, or to deny miracles because science can’t allow for them, or to be more conservative and orthodox than God is; these are all forms of false witnessing.

We’re not now talking about differently held interpretations on difficult passages but obvious misrepresentations of what the Word of God already says.  How annoyed we are if the newspaper prints our article or letter quite differently to what we submitted.  But what about God when a church distorts His Word so much that it no longer is made to say what it; really says?

Some may want to say that in the Word of God itself one finds examples of false witnessing that God seems to approve of.  Rahab hid the spies from Israel under stalks of flax on the roof but told the servants of the king of Jericho that the men had already left.  Rahab was loved by God for believing in Him and her life was spared but it can’t be denied that she lied.  But neither can it be denied that God loves the truth and wants everyone to speak the truth.  We will have to know how to act in special circumstances but before we speak to that, let us see in the second place, the real evil of false witnessing.

God has given us tongues with which we are gifted to speak.  With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father (James 3:9).  The tongue is just about the most important piece of equipment for teachers and preachers.  Word processors and computers cannot quite replace them.  Small as it is the tongue can tame all kinds of animals but no one can tame the tongue.  The Scriptures even refer to this marvellous part of the human body as a restless evil, full of deadly poison (3:8).

It is, of course, not the tongue that is the culprit.  It is the human mind, for that is where all sin originates.  But the tongue is the means and for a little member of the body it can do many things.  Just like the bit in the horse’s mouth can turn the animal, and the rudder the ship, so also can the tongue do great things.

But as a small spark can start a devastating bushfire, so also can the tongue cause evil that just keeps on spreading.  The deeds of the tongue can have great consequences, for good or for evil.  Jesus even said, ‘For by your words you will be acquitted and by your words you will be condemned.’ (Matthew 12:37).

Yes, with our tongues we sing psalms and hymns; we pray, and we tell people of the mighty deeds of God.  With our tongue we can speak words of love and encouragement.  But we can also curse men with it.  Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing.  And the Lord says, ‘…this should not be.’ (3:9,10).

One of the reasons why it should not be that way is that it ruins trust.  We no longer feel confident about each other when experience has shown that our tongues are forked, meaning that we say one thing but mean something else, or utter half-truths, or distort the facts, or when we spread harmful gossip or slander.  And when trust is no longer present, then people become guarded.  Open and honest communication suffers, for people will only speak when it is absolutely necessary.

False witnessing, then, destroys good relationships.  It also destroys one’s own integrity.  Others know that you cannot be trusted and you yourself know that you are not a truthful person.

Now truth and integrity are precious virtues we can ill afford to lose among Christians.  The reliability of the spoken word is the cement that holds people together.  But when ‘yes’ probably means ‘no’ and ‘I don’t know’ means ‘I am not going to tell you’, then trust is absent and people become strangers to each other.

Why do people lie?  Why these half-truths?  Why gossip and slander?  Well, have we not realised that we intentionally distort the facts in order to benefit from it ourselves?  We are frequently tempted to have people think well of us and to speak favourably about us.  It is so easy to put the other person in a less favourable light and make ourselves look better.  We criticize others and say unkind things about them and the subtle implication is that we ourselves are not like that.  We talk about others but we convey unspoken messages that we are the purer ones.  God wants us to love our neighbour as we do ourselves but often we love our neighbour a whole lot less.

When we think about all this then we should realise that we are engaged in a form of self-salvation.  Within ourselves we are insecure and see our sins and shortcomings.  But instead of coming to Christ and letting the Saviour make us a complete and full person, we try to do it for ourselves, using false witnessing as a means.

The worst thing about all this is that we are serving Satan instead of God.  Lying and deceit are devices the devil himself uses.  Satan is a liar by nature and the father of lies.  Jesus said, ‘There is no truth in him.  When he lies, he speaks his native language.’ (John 8:44)  When we, therefore, twist the truth, work with half-truths, maliciously gossip and slander, then we are playing right into Satan’s hands.  We are using all the tools out of his toolbox.  But Satan is out to destroy the church and to throw society into chaos and anarchy.  That is the real evil about false witnessing.  It advances the forces of darkness.

Therefore, let us in the final place consider the only effective weapon against false witnessing.  It is love.  Yes, love for God and love for the neighbour.  Love is the fulfilling of all of God’s good commandments.  When God says, ‘You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour,’ then He is also saying, ‘you shall love your neighbour.’

But bear in mind that we can’t love our neighbour by merely flicking a switch inside us.  Remember that the Heidelberg Catechism deals with the Lord’s commandments in the gratitude section.  The doctrines of the cross and salvation have gone before it.  So there is need for the sinner to first repent and flee to the Saviour for pardon and renewal.  It is only then, when God has given the forgiven sinner His Holy Spirit and made the sinner new, that He can go about loving the neighbour and speaking truthfully about him.  God has made a new and full person out of the liar and deceiver.  He has made the Christian love the truth.  And thus, from the fullness of God in the Christian, he can now use his tongue to guard and advance his neighbour’s good name.  He will now speak the truth candidly and openly acknowledge it.

But it is also right here that we can find ourselves in situations like Rahab’s.  So what do you do when you are faced with a dilemma like that?  You know that you must not lie but you also know that to tell the truth could bring disastrous consequences.  In times of war people are often faced with such dilemmas.

Well, let us first remind ourselves that we fulfil the law by loving God and our neighbour (Romans 13:10).  Now we must not bend the law of God in every direction so that whatever we do it will be all right.  We can’t use love as a pretext to permit things that are plainly wrong.  You can’t, for example, say you really enjoyed the food your host gave you when she asked if you liked it, when in fact it almost made you sick.  If you’re not asked then you don’t have to say anything.  But if you are pressed to give your opinion, then you should do so, politely and tactfully.  It’s speaking the truth in love.  Such situations are not too difficult.  Your host will survive.  But it’s when telling the truth could bring upon another great danger, it’s then that we have to use love as the key to understand God’s will.  We must love the truth but if that endangers people, then there are situations where a lie is the lesser of two evils.

Life often presents us with complex situations.  In such times we must be guided by what we honestly think is best for the neighbour.  We rejoice with the truth but love does not delight in evil.

Love, therefore, will try to avoid the lie but also the painful truth when that is better for the neighbour.  A delightful example comes to my mind from a situation a relative of mine was in.  He had returned to a village where earlier he had befriended a young lad who had been very helpful to his daughter who lived there.  To show his appreciation for what the young fellow had been doing he presented him with a nice pen.  The boy loved it but then insisted on knowing on how much it had cost.  My relative felt that it was not in the boy’s interest to know that, for he might start to show off to his friends if the pen was very expensive, or he might feel depressed, thinking the pen worthless if it was very cheap.  Now my relative loves the truth but he also was concerned for the boy’s well-being.  So he told him, ‘The pen I bought for you was not the most expensive one but neither was it the cheapest.’  There are times, therefore, when love has to be inventive.

God’s people, then, must respect the truth, love truth and speak it lovingly.  We are conscious that God hears every word we speak.  But that should not worry us when the Spirit of God lives within us.  We are, in fact, thankful for that because the Father has given His Spirit to His children in order to lead them into all truth.

In complicated situations, the Spirit may prompt us to say whatever needs to be said in a loving way, or He may put a guard over our lips so that we keep inside what should not be said.

Only God’s Spirit can teach us to love God above everything else, and to love our neighbours as ourselves.  The Spirit will rule in our hearts so that we with our tongues uphold the truth in love and protect the good name of our neighbour.

AMEN