“Respecting Truth” Dt. 5:20;
Mt. 15:19; James 4:11 Do not bear false witness against Your Neighbor
19 For
out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft,
false testimony, slander. (Mt. 15:19)
11 Brothers
and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or
sister[d] or
judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you
are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12 There
is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But
you—who are you to judge your neighbor? (James 4:11-12)
In 1993 the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey ran a help-wanted ad for
electricians with expertise at using Sontag connectors. It got 170
responses - even though there is no such thing as a Sontag connector. The
Authority ran the ad to find out how many applicants falsify resumes.
Lying is indeed a
part of life. Studies have shown that 91% surveyed routinely lie about
matters deemed trivial, while 36% about things which are important. Some
sociologists say the average person lies about 50 times a day, but
only one in seven lies are ever detected.
What a
tangled web we weave when we practice to decieve.
We all lie.
The really
good news is we do not have to be stuck with our lies forever.
God forgives.
One great
example of this is how God worked with Abraham.
He is the father of faith, but he also lied out of fear.
He told the king of Egypt that Sarah was his sister.
Sarah was his half sister.
God forgave him. He then, several
years later told the same half truth to Abimelech, and was forgiven again.
God used Abraham mightily- despite his lies.
Even Abraham was rebuked for not telling the truth, but God used him and
forgave him. He forgives us as
well.
One the
assumptions this commandment makes should not be taken for granted today.
That is, there is such a thing as truth- and we should tell it.
I. THERE IS SUCH A THING AS TRUTH-
Postmodernism is
the philosophy of our day. It would
tell us that there is not truth underneath it all.
There is only sincerity and perspective.
To speak of truth is to speak narrowly—a truer statement could not
be said- for two and two do not equal anything and everything.
We cannot and do not live as if there is no such thing as truth.
When I sit
down, I expect the chair to hold me up. When
the doctor prescribes medicine, I expect it will not be poison.
When my wife tells me she loves me, I believe her.
When God tells me that if I believe I will go to heaven- I don’t
say- I’m not sure what you’re talking about.
Truth and
Faith go together. If something
is true and I don’t believe it, it doesn’t matter.
If the sign says “caution, elevator will not hold over 200 pounds”
and I weight 250, I could not believe the sign and step out and go
nowhere. On the other hand, if the sign says, “newly constructed elevator-
3,000 pound capacity and I don’t believe it, then I will be huffing and
puffing up the stairs. We put our
faith in what we believe to be true.
We live in a
world of “spin.” I think the
idea is to spin what you hear so much so that you don’t know what to believe, or
think it really doesn’t matter what you believe or do.
We all have our perspective, and we all have our take on things.
Our perspective is already distorted with our selfishness within us. The
word “spin” came into being when the Clinton administration used it to soften
the wrong of Monica Lewinsky. I
will not forget the president saying that “it depends on what the meaning of
“is” is.” We have to start
believing that telling the truth is more important than telling spin.
II. WE SHOULD NOT TRY TO HIDE OR DISTORT THE TRUTH
TO HURT ANOTHER PERSON IN ORDER TO HELP OURSELVES
NOT HIDE- David J. Lieberman wrote a NY Times Bestseller-“ Never be lied to
again.” It is a bestseller because
people have been lied to and want to escape being lied to (he speaks of ways to
ask question and body language as indications of lying). Pinnocchio’s nose was
agreat indication of lying- would that we could tell when someone else- or even
when we ourselves lie. I would like
to see my nose grow- and maybe correct it as I’m going. The CIA tried to come up
with a universal truth or anti-lying serum, but they failed.
Ananias and Saphira- lied to the church and the Spirit about a donation
they had made. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t
fool God anytime.
NOT DISTORT- We should avoid tricks, Spin, distortion,
misrepresentation. We may start
with little lies but such things lead to bigger lies; There is actually a new
kind of lie detected in the last few years.
Cornell University labeled it “The Butler Lie” where someone sends an
email or text message that says, “I gotta go- the waiter is here.”
When, in fact, there is no waiter and they may not even be at a
restaurant.
When
this commandment was originated, it specifically had to do with speaking lies in
a trial. We still say sometimes “I
will tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God.”
This is asking God’s help to tell the truth and holding us accountable to
God when we do not.
It is just as wrong to use the courts to find loopholes for our lies. Such was
the case of a Charlotte, NC man who purchased a case of rare, very
expensive cigars and insured them against... fire. Within months, having smoked
his entire stockpile of fabulous cigars, the man filed a claim against the
insurance company. In his claim, the man stated that he had lost the cigars
in, "a series of small fires." The insurance company refused to pay, citing
the obvious reason that the man had consumed the cigars in a normal fashion. The
man sued... and won. In delivering his ruling, the judge stated that since the
man held a policy from the company in which it had warranted that the cigars
were insurable, and also guaranteed that it would insure the cigars against
fire, without defining what it considered to be "unacceptable fire," it was
obligated to compensate the insured for his loss. Rather than endure a costly
appeal process, the insurance company accepted the judge's ruling and paid
the man $15,000 for the rare cigars he lost in "the fires." But... after the
man cashed his check, the insurance company had him arrested on 24 counts of
arson. With his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case
being used as evidence against him, the man was convicted and was sentenced to
24 consecutive one-year terms.
This is ironic and manipulative.
That is what they did with Jesus.
They made up false stories- he said he was a king- going to take over from
Caesar.
III. WE SHOULD STAND UP FOR THE TRUTH
Stand up for those who are oppressed- even if it means we are oppressed
as well. The Civil Rights
movement had many failings. I knew
three white pastors who lost their churches because they had marched with the
blacks for civil rtrutights.
Jesus called the evil one “The Father of lies.”
We should never doubt our ability to deceive ourselves.
Our confessions tell us that we do so often, so we should rely on the
holy scriptures to bring us back to reality.
If the Word is truth as Jesus said, then we need to hear it.
We are in the campaign season.
There were at least three Republican candidates in our state this week.
The may of Chapin says they may all be here on Labor Day.
As you know, there is a lot of charge and countercharge in the midst of
the debate both on the Republican and Democratic side.
We do not need spin. We do
not need flattery. We do not need
more empty promises. Nor do we need
people to say the sky is falling and run for the hills.
We simply need the truth about what our situation is and what can be
done. We need truth.
God desires truth for He designed the truth.
All that you see is not an illusion or delusion.
Reality is God's design by creation and providence.
This is why evil is not only parasitic, it is delusional.
There is a spiritual contrast between the devil who decieves and
is the father of lies; and Jesus who made the tremendous claim that He
is the truth. In claiming He is
truth, He is claiming He is the Maker of truth and reality God.
The Word is truth for it comes from God.
Jesus is truth for He is God come to us,
To be on the side of Christ means to be honest, truthful and stand up
for that no matter what.
I think of the girl in Columbine. When the gunman who was anti-Christian came
up to her and pointed a gun to her head, and asked her if she was a Christian,
she could have lied but she said yes.
When Jesus was asked are you the son of god?
He could have lied but He said yes.
We choose God when we choose to speak the truth.
Amen.