“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” Deut 5:20
Playgrounds are training grounds. We get our first taste of competition. Among the laughter there is experimentation, and risk-taking. Knees get scraped. Foreheads and backsides get bumped and bruised. Pride is unpacked. Tempers flare. Out of nowhere, there is name-calling. Amidst the giggles, jeering and hooting you may hear an age old jingle arising: sticks and stones may brake my bones, but words will never hurt me.
If only it was true!
Scripture contains plenty of reminders that words can be used as weapons. Solomon asserted life and death are in the power of the tongue, that reckless/rash words pierce like swords, and a false witness is one of the six things God hates (PR 18:21; 12:18; 6:19). A group of men arose to criticize Moses; God responded by causing the earth to open its mouth and swallow them (Num 16:32). Rom 1:30 lists slanderers just before haters of God and violent people.
I used to wonder why God included bearing false witness among the “Big Ten”. Idolatry, Murder, Adultery…these are giants in Sin’s camp. I just couldn’t figure out why bending the truth about another person could also be considered such a game changer. Until it happened to me. If you have been the target of word assassins, you will understand immediately. When sniping persists, you may find yourself strangely nostalgic about sticks and stones!
Deut 19:18-19 expounds upon the weightiness of the 9th Commandment. If someone was found guilty of being a false witness, “then you shall do to him as he thought to have done to his brother.” Simply spoken, more than just committing perjury, if the false testimony was about a murder, the lying witness would be charged as a murderer. In our own courts today, bearing false witness can result in an innocent man being stripped of his rights and freedoms. So the idea that “words will never hurt me” flies out the window.
President-elect Trump’s last few months are a sobering reminder of the danger of rhetoric. The media’s bombastic pronouncements of “Hitler!” and “fascist!” transformed virtual sticks into literal bullets. Had it not been for Divine intervention, false witnesses could have changed the trajectory of our nation, if not the world. Being in the crosshairs of unfounded, embittered accusations is not something I would wish on anyone.
Sadly, the guns of verbal homicide are not blazing only in the political arena. I’ve had to raise a shield around too many unsuspecting fellow soldiers of the cross through the years. I used to be surprised, caught off guard. I’ve learned to expect it, and therefore become a watchman on the walls. Though it should be shocking that Christians so virulently smear others in the Body of Christ, we must not be ignorant of Satan’s ability to capitalize on our weaknesses and turn the screws upon our ignorance. I’ve spent months, even years, trying to put out the fires of these flamethrowers; I’ve walked among fields strewn with the casualties of these bloodied battles.
This calls for vigilance, brothers and sisters. If we all raise our shields together—better yet, if we construct Iron Domes around each other—we can quench this vile tactic of the Evil One. We all, with one accord, must take God’s commands seriously. All of them. Attacking the good name of another is not a small matter. For very good reasons, it’s one of the Big Ten.
Beloved, we live in a generation when whether via social media or to one’s face, missiles that malign and viciously injure the reputation of others are shamelessly hurled at the defenseless and innocent. Although the Ten Commandments have been removed from our classrooms and institutions, may they ever be inscribed upon the walls of our hearts and consciences by the Finger of God. Before you open your mouth, lift your pen, or touch your keyboard, consider long and hard if you have irrefutable evidence before you cast aspersions at another. You may well find these words bringing punishment upon your own head.
Breaking the 9th Commandment is not child’s play.