Exodus 23.1–9; Psalm 5; Mark 14.53–65; 1 Corinthians 15.12–19
The ninth of a series on the Ten Commandments preached at Nedlands Anglican Church 25th February 2024
Next Sunday I will finish this series. I will also begin a series of lectures on The Acts of the Apostles at Nedlands Anglican Church Hall (56 Tyrell St) at 4.30 pm.
From time to time John and I met together to pray. John was a highly educated Cape-Coloured man with a chip on his shoulder about whites, left over from the apartheid era. He didn’t think well of Afrikaaners especially. I asked what we should read together, and he suggested the Psalms. He had just been through a difficult time at his work and had taken much strength from them.
Though he was heavy in degrees, he had been out of work for some time when he scored a job as the Chief Financial Officer of a South African government-owned research institution. His workplace was a long way from the city, and was managed by a scientist with an international reputation. It wasn’t long before John realized this scientist was running the place like it belonged to him. He began to come across serious financial irregularities. He spoke to his boss and explained that things would have to change. The boss determined to get rid of him. A disciplinary hearing was called, and the participants were briefed on what they were to say. John realized that as a coloured man up against a world-renowned white scientist he didn’t have a chance. But he read the Psalms and prayed. The hearing went according to plan; there was much false witness. The last to give her testimony was an Afrikaaner woman. Halfway through her testimony she hesitated. “No,” she said, “John did not do that, I was told to say this.” The hearing exploded. The government brought a team in the next day and moved the scientist away. “It was an example of Afrikaaner honesty,” was the comment of a man who didn’t like Afrikaaners, but recognized a streak of honesty in their culture—which had saved him on this occasion.
I tell this story as I heard it, because it illustrates what false testimony is, and how it destroys, and how truthful witness yields justice. Of course, I changed a few names to protect those involved. I don’t think that is what Moses meant by false witness.
The ninth commandment is sometimes understood to mean it is absolutely wrong ever to tell a lie. When I was a student this was the presumed meaning, and clever people would invent scenarios where telling a lie was the obvious right thing to do.
The curly question about whether you would tell the truth if someone broke in and wanted to know whether there was anyone else in the house—your little sister had quickly hidden herself—is easily answered. The commandment is written for peacetime to govern our normal relationships. Someone intent on doing harm forfeits their right to the truth. When Rahab hid Joshua’s spies in her house and lied to their pursuers, she was acting as a woman of faith; she was doing the right thing.[1] Of course, actions we take in extraordinary circumstances will be judged by God, so we must be careful.
What the commandment is concerned with is formal testimony, though it arises from the importance of truth generally. Working through this study of the Ten Commandments, I have again and again come up agaisnt the question of personal ethics and the conduct of the state. Moses was establishing a new nation, but it starts with an appeal to individual citizens, not to law-makers. This is why, from time to time, I have quoted the old Prayer Book version, which comes from a time when our language distinguished between “thou” and “you.” “You” is ambiguous; it can refer to one or many. God addresses each one of us individually and as a citizen, and says, “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Here is a fundamental recognition that a nation is built from the bottom up by the behaviour of individuals: their loyalty to God, the one God who created the world, the way they worship him and speak about thim, their humane culture, their respect for life, their families, their respect for property, and their honouring of the judicial process. In the matter of law-courts and tribunals truthfulness is critical.
There are two main types of false witness. You can lie to save yourself, and you can lie to destroy someone else. The former is the most common. It is unusual, if someone is accused of a crime, for them to plead guilty—unless they have been toughed-up by police and advised it is their best chance of getting a lighter sentence. If you went by people’s testimony, you would think most crimes never happened. People regularly lie to save their own skin. When a media person is accused of child abuse, we know they will claim innocence. So much is false witness to save yourself expected, that when a respected businessman in my town walked into the police station and confessed that he had murdered his wife, the police told him to go away. The wife had died some time back, and it was ruled to be natural causes. Not only did the police not want to do anything, but the townsfolk were angry, not that he killed his wife, but that he confessed. He got away with it, why didn’t he just shut up? They would have. My Dad, who was his business colleague, felt the same way. It was one of the stupid things people did when they became Christians.
The other kind of false witness is lying to destroy someone else. So serious is this, that Moses’ law lays it down that a false witness in a murder trial should receive the same penalty as the alleged murderer: death in other words. In Jewish law a person could not be convicted of murder on the say-so of one witness. At least two witnesses were needed, and their testimony had to agree. If they colluded, it was attempted murder.
At Jesus’ trial the leaders—his accusers—had to find two witnesses who would say they had witnessed him do, or say something serious enough for a death-sentence. They put up various witnesses but there was no consistency in their testimony; it looked like the case against him would collapse. Frustrated, the High Priest swore him to answer for himself, whether he was the promised king. When he said he was, they all agreed what they had heard was sufficient to condemn him.
It is a terrible thing when lawcourts fall under the influence of the state. Western legislators were aware of this problem and carefully separated the powers of government and courts. In Marxist-controlled countries the state (the party) is the manifestation of the will of the people, which is supreme. The courts must do what the party tells them. Under the Bolshevik regime in Russia there were “show trials,” where people were condemned for what the party regarded as political crimes. Judges had no independence to decide what was just. Marxism in Russia has gone, but it seems the courts can still fall under state control—as they do in China.
The big issue we are dealing with in this ninth commandment is truth. What is truth and does it matter? For thousands of years philosophers and theologians sought to understand the universe in terms of a big picture; they wanted to know the truth about things, and, yes, there were competing points of view. Then, the postmodernists declared there is no Truth, there is only what is true for you, and what is true for me. Truth became relative. “Don’t tell me there is a God. That may be true for you, but not for me.”
But happily, as happens in the public space, others criticized this, and it soon became clear, even to some postmodernists, that they didn’t want your truth to be on the same level as theirs. My truth is better than yours—always! If yours disagrees with mine, you should be censored.
A danger that faces our own country at the present time is the push for misinformation and disinformation laws. Some people only want their truth in the media; mine is false information. A government cannot monitor this itself, of course; it can only appoint a tribunal. And how will an appointed body of men and women make such decisions? I am sensitive to this, because I know that much of what I preach is seen by many as misinformation. But then, I think the Neo-Darwinian theory of evolution is false, though it is regularly taught to students, and touted on television. Many scientists dealing with it up close know it is false, yet have nothing to replace it with, so it remains the official line. But, in the opinion of many, it is misinformation. Recently I wrote something about the war in Gaza. I was glad when someone corrected my one-sided view: it is true that the Palestinians have suffered much provocation from Israel. If we cannot put our honestly-held views out there, and let them be criticized—if a government-appointed tribunal is to dictate what will be shared on the internet, truth in the public square is doomed. Science will also be doomed in the end—in my opinion.
Moses’ stand against false witness comes out of a concern for truth—not yours, or mine, or the government’s truth, but “true truth.” God’s creation is what it is; it will not bend to what I would like. Buildings stand up because they are built in accordance with true engineering principles; there can be no fudging of truth there. Nor can there be in human affairs without chaos— not immediate perhaps, but sooner or later. A people which values truth, speaks truth, and seeks truth, will be a strong people. Let me stick my neck out and say that an individual who seeks truth will find God; it may take time, but for a thinking person all roads lead in that direction. The universe is consistent with its creation by God; all other attempts at explanation will break down. A society which refuses the knowledge of God weakens itself and has no good future. It will collapse from within, even if God restrains his judgement.
But on what basis am I so sure that Christianity is true? The primary reason for why I believe, is the testimony—the witness—of others. I am talking about what the Gospel-writers say Jesus said and did, and what the apostles witnessed and said. I was not there when Jesus did miracles and came back from the dead, but there were those who were, and they bore witness. Listen to Paul as he reasons with the Corinthians about the reality of Jesus’ resurrection.
If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.[2]
Paul belonged in a culture that valued truth, and was open to argumentation. He lays out a clear alternative: either Christ was raised, or he, Paul, is a liar. Why? “Because I am telling you I saw him and spoke with him.” What is more, “I would not just be lying, I would be bearing false witness against God.” It is like he sees himself standing before a court of the law saying he saw something which he didn’t, if Christ was not raised. For Paul this would be an enormity. Of course, you and I have to decide whether we believe him. That is how it is with testimony; you have to exercise your critical faculties. Witness, testimony: these are the same word in Greek—martyr. Historically, a martyr is someone who stands by their testimony even under the threat of death. Calling everyone who dies in Gaza a martyr is a twisting of words; confusing language is another danger that threatens our world.
I believe Paul, because I can see no motive for his certainty—no reasonable explanation—other than that he did see what he says he saw, and knew his testimony to be true. And there were many others who witnessed the same things.
In the Book of Isaiah God said the time would come when he would do a marvelous thing for Israel and the human race. When he did it, he says, he would make sure there were witnesses to tell the world.[3] So, listen to Paul again, this time as he explains himself before the Jewish king, Agrippa II. He is telling of his journey to Damascus to bring Christians back to Jerusalem for trial.
At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles— to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’[4]
Paul saw himself as a witness of something you and I were unable to see, because we were not there. All of the New Testament is like this. But of course, every Christian has their own experience of being rescued by Jesus; we can bear witness about that. Beyond this, we can also point people to the witness of the apostles recorded for us in their writings. True testimony saves lives; it will save the world. False witness confuses and destroys.
Truth matters, even when it goes against what seems to be our best interests. Determine—ask God for his strength—never to testify a lie in your own defense. Never give a false testimony to damage another, nor say anything is true, which we know not to be true, however much we may wish someone down. Make up your mind to be a truth-teller.
Consider also that God’s witness to the world—God’s salvation of the world—comes to us through the witness of those who were there and saw. How monstrous it would be if our Bible which commands truthful testimony, turned out to be itself a false witness!
Consider that the testimony of Jesus before the Jewish High Court is also his testimony to us. “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” “I am,” Jesus replied, “and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”[5] Was it false witness or truth? You and I must judge; and a lot hangs on our judgement. Jesus gave his testimony knowing it would bring about his death. He did it for you and me.
[1] Joshua 2.
[2] 1 Corinthians 15.14–15.
[3] Isaiah 43.10–13.
[4] Acts 26.12–18.
[5] Mark 14.53–65.