Exodus 20:16

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“Do Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor”

Law and Self-Control

“We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition Revenge or Gallantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution… Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Romans 3:28

“For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.”

“Neighbor”

• Leviticus 19:18 - ‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.

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• Exodus 11:2 - “Speak now in the hearing of the people that each man ask from his neighbor and each woman from her neighbor for articles of silver and articles of gold.”

Exodus 20:16

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“Do Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor”

Breadth of the Commandment

• Narrow understanding - This commandment is against perjury in a legal setting, given to protect an innocent person.

Breadth of the Commandment

• Broad understanding - This is against all lying.

Colossians 3:9

“Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices…”

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Other “Witnesses”

• Genesis 31:50 “If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.”

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• Genesis 31:52 “This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass by this heap to you for harm, and you will not pass by this heap and this pillar to me, for harm.”

Breadth of the Commandment

• Narrow understanding - This is against perjury in a legal setting so as to hurt an innocent person.

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• This commandment forbids any false statements that damage someone.

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• Broad understanding - This is against all lying.

• Leviticus 19:16 ‘You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people, and you are not to act against the life of your neighbor; I am the Lord.
• Leviticus 5:1 ‘Now if a person sins after he hears a public adjuration to testify when he is a witness, whether he has seen or otherwise known, if he does not tell it, then he will bear his guilt.

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• Numbers 35:30 “‘If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death at the evidence of witnesses, but no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness.”

Deuteronomy 19:16-19

16 If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing, 17 then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. 18 “The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.

Zechariah 8:16–18

‘These are the things which you should do: speak the truth to one another; judge with truth and judgment for peace in your gates. 17 ‘Also let none of you devise evil in your heart against another, and do not love perjury; for all these are what I hate,’ declares the Lord.”

2 Corinthians 12:20

“For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish; that perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances;”(Cf. Matthew 15:19; Ephesians 4:31; Col. 5:8; 1^st Peter 2:1)

Proverbs 18:8

“The words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels, And they go down into the innermost parts of the body.

John 8:44

“You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

1 John 2:1

“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;”

Exodus 20:16

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“Do Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor”

Matthew 7:1–2

“Do not judge so that you will not be judged. 2 “For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.”

Ephesians 4:31–32

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”

Exodus 20:16

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“Do Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor”