The Dangers of White Lies | Decoding the Torah Season 3

As we continue to dive deep into God's laws, we examine another one of the Ten Commandments. It's found in the book of Exodus, chapter 20, verse 16. It's the prohibition against bearing false witness. Now many of us, we've heard the term false witness, but we've not really thought deeply about what it means to bear false witness. Well, this command was originally given to address a legal setting. But in reality, as we dig deeper, it applies to so much more in terms of its moral imperative on our life today. If the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him just as he intended to do to his brother, thus you shall purge the evil from among you. So the Lord took this so seriously that the one that was bearing false witness, the one that was seeking to slant the narrative, the one that was bearing false testimony to do in somebody else, to bring down somebody else, to destroy somebody else. When they were found guilty of bearing false witness, the evil intention that they had towards that one that they were bearing false witness for was to come back upon the one that spoke falsely so that that evil intention would come upon their own lives. Very, very serious and very, very heavy. It's a serious thing before the living God to try to tear somebody down by gossiping, lying, slanting a story, creating a narrative that's to our own benefit without speaking the whole truth. These are very serious types of bearing false witness that many of us, if not all of us, have been guilty of at one time or another. Again, this command to not bear false witness originally applied in a legal setting in ancient Israel. The moral implication of it puts a heavy demand, beloved, in the positive sense of the word, a heavy yoke of holiness for us to strive to live up to upon our own lives. Let me ask you a question as you consider, have you ever borne false witness? When we understand that the deeper ethical implication here is that we must not speak something that is falsely making somebody look bad for our own benefit, when we think

about that, let me ask you a question, have you ever shared a narrative about what happened between you and somebody else that really wasn't the full truth? You only told part of the truth. You told the part of the truth that made you look good, but you didn't tell the whole story in speaking about what your responsibility may have been in the situation. I think we've all been guilty of that. We talk about something that has happened to us or some type of relationship that we were in, and we share that scenario with somebody else, slanting the story so that we look good and the other person looks bad. We need, beloved, to guard our hearts. We need, again, I stress this, to be aware of ourselves. Oftentimes when people are acting like this, they're not aware that the reason that they're doing it, the reason that they're bearing false witness by gossiping, by putting somebody in a negative light, they don't understand the reason that they're doing it is because of their own jealousy, is because of the evil in their own heart. And we need to be aware when impulses come up from within our hearts that are not coming from the right place. The Bible says that we need to guard our hearts because from our hearts flow the issues of life. It flows the essence of life. And the truth is that all of us within us have the capacity to do good or to do bad. In Judaism, we call it the good inclination and the evil inclination. So all of us have the ability to act on the good inclination within us or the evil inclination within us. But what the New Testament tells us that we by the Spirit are to be putting to death the deeds of the flesh. When I speak about the flesh, Paul listed the deeds of the flesh, competitions, jealousies, strife, impatience, hatred, all those are actually the flesh. So so when I speak about flesh, I'm not just talking about eating and sex. I'm talking about motives that have to do with a more spiritual composition.

We need to watch our heart and make sure that when we're talking about somebody else, that we're not bearing false witness, that we're not painting a bad picture about them because for some reason they hurt us or because some because we're jealous of them or or because they've offended us, beloved, let's not bear false witness. Because when we do. We not only release a curse on the person that we're bearing false witness of, but we also, beloved, bring a curse. Upon ourselves, because what we sow, we will reap. The Lord said, thou shall not bear false witness. Let's judge our own hearts and in so doing guard our mouth till we're speaking life rather than death or bearing false witness. And in so doing, beloved, by making a commitment to speak life and not death, to speak well of others and not evil of others. In so doing, we ourselves will be blessed and strengthened in God's Ruach in his spirit and be brought more and more into his power and into his glory. You and I have been given the power to overcome. Let's recognize those intentions of our heart of hatred and jealousy and envy, which would prompt us to bear false witness. Let's recognize those intentions in our heart, those evil motives. Let's put them to death under us, not giving them place and instead choosing to overcome evil with good. And as we do, my friends, we will be blessed and empowered in the Holy Spirit of God. In the book of Numbers, chapter six, the Lord gave instructions to Moses and Aaron to speak this blessing over his people, and the Lord said, when you speak these words over my people, I will place my name on them and bless them,

receive the impartation of the Lord's blessings. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up by his countenance and the Lord give you, beloved one, his peace. God bless you and Shalom.