Episode 52: The Eighth Commandment

You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.

• The Seventh Commandment protects your neighbor’s property. What does the Eight Commandment protect?
• His reputation/name.
• “Over and above our own body, spouse, and temporal possessions, we still have another treasure—honor and good reputation [Proverbs 22:1]. LC 1:255
• Proverbs 22:1: A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver and gold.
• “God does not want the reputation, good name, and upright character of our neighbor to be taken away or diminished, just as with money and possessions.” LC 1:256

• What does it mean to give false testimony?
  • It means to tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation.
  • “Now, God prohibits whatever is done with the tongue against a fellow man. This applies to false preachers with their doctrine and blasphemy, false judges and witnesses with their verdict, or outside of court by lying and speaking evil.” LC 1:263
  • “For it is a common evil plague that everyone prefers hearing evil more than hearing good about his neighbor. We ourselves are so bad that we cannot allow anyone to say anything bad about us. Everyone would much prefer that all the world should speak of him in glowing terms. Yet we cannot bear that the best is spoken about others.” LC 1:264
• Martin Luther divides this commandment into three parts:
  • Court:
    • “It is a common disaster in the world that in courts of justice godly men seldom preside.” LC 1:258
    • “They must not gloss over a matter or keep silent about it, regardless of a person’s money, possession, honor, or power. This is one part and the plainest sense of this commandment about all that takes place in Court.” LC 1:261
  • Church: “Next, this commandment extends very much further, if we are to apply it to spiritual jurisdiction or administration… godly preachers and Christians…. must bear the sentence before the world that calls them heretics, apostates, and indeed, instigators and desperately wicked unbelievers. Besides, God’s Word must suffer in the most shameful and hateful manner…” LC 1:262
  • General Public: “In the third place, which concerns us all, this commandment forbids all sins of the tongue [James 3], by which we may injure or confront our neighbor. To bear false witness is nothing else than a work of the tongue.” LC 1:263

• Does God forbid gossip?
  • “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.” Matthew 18:15
  • “Do not speak evil against one another.” James 4:11
  • Yes. (Gossip is when you talk about your neighbor behind his back.)
  • “There is a great difference between these two things: judging sin and knowing about sin.” LC 1:266
  • Matthew 7:1-5: “Judge not, that you be not judged. ² For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. ³ Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
  • “For no judge can punish to a higher degree nor go farther than to say, ‘That person is a thief, a murderer, a traitor,’ and so on. Therefore, whoever presumes to say the same thing about his neighbor goes just as far as the emperor and all governments. For although you do not wield the sword, you use your poisonous tongue to shame and hurt your neighbor [Psalm 140:3].” LC 1:268
  • “But you say, ‘Shall I not say something if it is truth? Answer: ‘Why do you not make your accusation to regular judges?’ ‘Ah, I cannot prove it publicly, and so I might be silenced and turned away in a harsh manner.’ ‘Ah, indeed, do you smell the roast?’ If you do not trust yourself to stand before the proper authorities and to answer well, then hold your tongue. … We should never deprive anyone of his honor or good name unless it is first taken away from him publicly.” LC 1:270
  • “‘False witness,’ then, is everything that cannot be properly proved. No one shall make public or declare for truth what is not obvious by sufficient evidence.” LC 1:271-2, compare with Deut. 19:15. This requirement is not limited to courtrooms.
    
    
    
• Instead of slander and otherwise hurt your neighbor’s reputation, this commandment commands you to do what?
  • Defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.
  • “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.” Proverbs 31:8-9
  • “Love covers a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8
  • “If you meet an idle tongue that betrays and slanders someone, contradict such a person promptly to his face [Proverbs 10:31], so he may blush. Then many a person will hold his tongue who otherwise would bring some poor man into bad repute…” LC 1:273
• God has placed authorities in government, church, and home to deal with sins, to judge, etc. This commandment does not prohibit them from laying down judgment; however, it does dictate a proper course.
  • “However, the civil government, preachers, father, and mother are not forbidden to speak out.” LC 1:274
  • “In the same way, although no one has a personal right to judge and condemn anybody, yet if those who serve in offices of judgment fail to judge, they sin just as surely as a person who would act on his own accord without such office.” LC 1:274
  • “In the same way governments, father and mother, brothers and sisters, and other good friends are under obligation to one another to rebuke evil wherever it is needful and profitable [Luke 17:3].” LC 1:275
  • “In Matthew 18:15, Christ says, ‘If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.’ Here you have a precious and excellent teaching for governing well the tongue, which is to be carefully kept against this detestable misuse.” LC 1:276
  • “For do you think that it is a small matter to gain a brother?” LC 1:278
  • “But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.” [Matthew 18:16] compare Deuteronomy 19:15.
  • “But if that does not work, then bring it publicly before the community, whether before the civil or the Church court. … This is the right and regular course for checking and reforming a wicked person. But if we gossip about another in all corners, and stir the filth, no one will be reformed.” LC 1:280-81
• All this is about private sins. This does not have to do with public sins.
  • “All this has been said about secret sin. But where the sin is quite public, so that the judge and everybody know about it, you can without any sin shun the offender and let him go his own way, because he has brought himself into disgrace. You may also publicly testify about him. … It is like when we now rebuke the pope with his doctrine, which is publicly set forth in books and proclaimed in all the world. Where the sin is public, the rebuke also must be public, that everyone may learn to guard against it.” LC 1:284

• What is perjury? Why does God forbid perjury?
  • Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forwardand said, “This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days.’” Matthew 26:59-61
  • “And the two worthless men came in and sat opposite him. And the worthless men brought a charge against Naboth in the presence of the people, saying, ‘Naboth cursed God and the king.’ So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death with stones.” 1 Kings 21:13
  • Perjury is when you lie under oath, such as in a legal court. God forbids perjury, because it is misusing God’s name and it harms your neighbor.
• General understanding of this commandment:
  • “Let no one do any harm to his neighbor with the tongue, whether friend or foe. Do not speak evil of him, no matter whether it is true or false, unless it is done by commandment or for his reformation.  Let everyone use his tongue and make it serve for the best of everyone else, to cover up his neighbor’s sins and infirmities [1 Peter 4:8], excuse them, conceal and garnish them with his own reputation. … ‘whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them’ [Matthew 7:12]. LC 1:285-86
  • “So also among ourselves should we clothe whatever blemishes and infirmities we find in our neighbor and serve and help him to promote his honor to the best of our ability.” LC 1:288
  • “For there is nothing on or in a person that can do both greater and more extensive good or harm in spiritual and in temporal matters than the tongue. This is true even though it is the least and weakest part of a person [James 3:5].” LC 1:291
    • See LSB 696:3 O God, My Faithful God
      • Keep me from saying words
        That later need recalling;
        Guard me lest idle speech
        May from my lips befalling;
        But when within my place
        I must and ought to speak,
        Then to my words give grace
        Lest I offend the weak.
        
        
• Does God care about your reputation? What good name has God given you?
  • “Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.” 1 Peter 4:16
  • “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Galatians 3:27
  • “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” Matthew 5:11
  • Yes. God has given you the name Christian.
• Luther’s Hymn on the Eighth Commandment
  • “Bear no false witness nor defame
    Your neighbor nor destroy his name,
    But view him In the kindest way;
    Speak truth in all that you say.”
    Have mercy, Lord! (LSB 581:9)