The Ninth Commandment

 Exodus 20:16

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Bearing false witness is similar to lying. But only it is more directed at hurting another person’s reputation. The intent behind this lie is to cause harm.  

Proverbs 14: 5

A faithful witness does not lie, But a false witness will utter lies.

There are a couple examples about bearing false witness found in the Bible. The first is the Pharisees going against Yeshua. The intent behind the false witness was to justify a reason to kill Him.

Matthew 26: 59-61

Now the chief priests, the elders, and all the council sought false testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, but found none. Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. But at last two false witnesses came forward and said, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.’ ”

2 Corinthians 13: 1

This will be the third time I am coming to you. “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.”

Deuteronomy 17: 6

Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness.

To make matters worse, they made sure to find two false witnesses in order to ensure Yeshua would be put to death. They knew, according to the word of God, in order for death to be the punishment, they needed two or more witnesses. Not only did they conspire to show He wasn’t who He said He was, they conspired to make sure He would be murdered.

Bearing false witness against your neighbor can only bring problems for them, and in some cases even bring unforeseeable circumstances that could compound the entire situation. For example, if you make a call to police and falsely claim your neighbor is harming children. The police will no doubt investigate. If it is not true, the damage is already done. He could lose a job, kids or his marriage. But ultimately YHWH does not want you to desire for the downfall of your fellow man. Remember we are supposed to love one another. Imagine if your neighbor made false claims about you in a similar matter. Your life could be destroyed over a lie. Therefore, follow what Yeshua called the second commandment.

Leviticus 19: 18

You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

Mark 12: 30-31

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

This is the biggest thing, in my opinion, YHWH wants us to love each other. He wants us to do to each other the things we would like them to do to us and that being said, not one of us would want our neighbor to lie about us and cause immense conflict in our lives.

Matthew 7:12

Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

The next example is that of Stephen. These men were able to conspire against him and talk others into bearing false witness against Stephen. Stephen had been doing a very good job of preaching Gods word, but it went against what the leaders where preaching. They did not like that, but they couldn’t argue against him because his words were in alignment with the Old Testament.

Acts 6: 8-14

And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Then there arose some from what is called the Synagogue of the Freedmen (Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia), disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke. Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council. They also set up false witnesses who said, “This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.”

Acts 7: 54-60

When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

The intent behind the false witness was again to cause great harm to Stephen. Stephen did not want to change the law and customs YHWH gave to Moses. Rather he wanted to ensure they were being upheld the way YHWH intended. This would interfere with the money the Pharisees were making, doing things they were not supposed to be doing in the Temple.

Matthew 21: 12-13

Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”

The Pharisees were also adding so much to the Law of YHWH that it was impossible to keep it, and had become burdensome. This was not what YHWH intended. When Stephen was preaching against this, it made the Pharisees look bad and even worse, wrong. Because nobody wants to be wrong, even more so in the field you’re an expert in, these people took it upon themselves to try to get rid of Stephen, the one making them look bad. In doing this, they chose to commit the sin of bearing false witness against their neighbor in order to continue to be satisfied with themselves and the methods of twisting the words of YHWH among the people of YHWH.

Proverbs 1:32

"Sin and self-satisfaction bring destruction and death to stupid fools"

The ultimate purpose of the ninth command is to show us that YHWH loves us. He gives us these laws in order to protect us from ourselves. One sin seems to always lead to another, and another. When ultimately, if we just treated others the way we want others to treat us, we would not be sinning and we would all be much happier in our daily lives. But sin, it is what we are drawn to. We all deal with the craving of satisfying the desires of the flesh. However, sin always ultimately brings death. This could be the death of a marriage, the death of a friendship, the death of a career, the death of freedom, or even the actual death of a life.

James 1: 14-15

But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

Bringing false accusations against your neighbor is no different. Lying about someone with the intent to cause them harm in some way is a sin and YHWH loves us too much to let us do that to each other.