NCF Sunday Worship

Most people agree lying is wrong but maybe the commandment broken most often. It sometimes is hard to detect and has little risk of being found out. 50% of job resumes have at least one falsehood on them. Our God loves the truth and is the Truth. This commandment refers to bearing false witness in a court of law. At least two witnesses were necessary to convict a person of a crime in OT Israel. They had to see the criminal act or prove a witness was lying. Lying in court, perjury, was so serious that a false witness received the punishment of the accused. Deut. 19:18-20: “The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you.” The witness in a capital case threw the first stone at the convicted person. If you lied, you saw the devastation your lie caused others. The 9th commandment like all the others applies to all types of lying. Are there exceptions? What if we lie to protect the life of individuals and nations? We need to hate a lying tongue as much as God does. We need to hate lying as much as being lied to.