The Eighth Commandment
What is 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.
Up to this point we’ve learned about the gifts of parents, life, sex, and possessions as guarded by the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh commandments. With the eighth commandment we have before us yet another good gift from God that he seeks to protect, namely, a good reputation.
As a picture of this commandment in action, we can take Mark 14:3-9, the story of Jesus anointed at Bethany. In the Gospel of Mark this is one of the final events before Jesus celebrates the Last Supper and is betrayed by Judas. Jesus is reclining at table with a man who was formerly a leper, probably one of the many that Jesus healed. At some point in the meal, Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, draws near to anoint Jesus with a costly oil. But this act of devotion causes quite a stir. People begin murmuring and whispering. “Why was the ointment wasted like that?” “This ointment could have been sold for more than a year’s worth of wages and given to the poor!” This murmuring bubbles over and becomes scolding from the crowd and shame for Mary.
But at this point Jesus comes to her defense. Where they put a negative construction on her action, Jesus puts the best construction on it. Far from a shameful thing, what she has done is a beautiful thing. “You always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could…” and furthermore, Jesus interprets her actions according to his impending passion, “she has anointed my body beforehand for burial.” In this way, unbeknownst to her or the crowd she is found to be caring for the body of the Lord in preparation for his rest in the tomb and resurrection from the grave.
This is a good example of the eighth commandment because lies and slander are easy to spot and denounce. But hurting another person's reputation, speaking well of him, and especially “explaining everything in the kindest way” is much more difficult to demonstrate and practice. As always, though, Jesus is a perfect example. Where the people at table choose to cast Mary in the most negative light, accusing her of being wasteful, inconsiderate, and uncharitable, Jesus chooses to cast Mary in a positive light, to put the best construction on her, and explain her actions in the kindest way possible. In so doing, Jesus defends her reputation and her status among her neighbors.
A good reputation or a good name, though an intangible gift, is absolutely vital for life in relation to our neighbors. In the book of Ecclesiastes, the Preacher proclaims, “A good name is better than precious ointment” and likewise in the Proverbs of Solomon we hear, “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.” The wisdom literature of the Old Testament rightly recognizes that it is our dearest possession on this earth, one that is easily taken away, and one that is not easily restored.
For this reason, God forbids speaking in a way that harms our neighbor. This would include telling lies about our neighbor, both in everyday life but especially in a court of law where a person’s goods and life may be at stake. In Colossians 3 Paul attributes lying directly to the Old Adam, fallen and corrupted by the Devil who is a liar from the beginning. For the saints of God who have been clothed in Christ and who are being renewed after his image, lying is thus incompatible with the new life of righteousness and holiness. While lying is often esteemed as being lower on the list of sins, it is no less important because the breaking of this commandment often leads to the breaking of other commandments such as those against murder and stealing.
Apart from lying, this commandment also prohibits betraying our neighbor. In Luther’s Large Catechism this topic takes up the bulk of his explanation. The most common betrayal of neighbor happens by making their private sins or faults public knowledge. Luther explains that if a sin or fault is only heard of, or even if it is seen, it is not the duty of the Christian to make it public. In fact, it is the duty of the Christian to make his ears a sort of grave which buries the sins of others and covers them over. Luther says this against those who would speak ill behind someone’s back or those who are given to a spirit of gossip. He writes that men naturally cannot stand to have anything bad spoken about themselves, but conversely, they cannot stand to have anything good said about another. Our sin nature delights in spreading filth, dirt, sin, and evil about like a pig wallowing in its own muck, but the law of Christ, the law of faith delights in the truth and the good of our neighbor. This accords with Proverbs 11:13, “Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered.”
In this same section Luther helpfully distinguishes between knowing a sin and having the office to judge a sin. Those offices which God has given to judge sin include the civil government (government officials), ecclesiastical government (pastors), and the domestic government (fathers and mothers). In the same way that God forbids murder and yet the hangman does not sin in exercising his office, so also when those offices which have been given authority to judge sin do so, it is no sin.
This prohibition also extends toward rushing to judgment and complaining about our neighbor or spreading rumors about them. At the end of Luther’s Large Catechism explanation, he famously says that we should seek to explain everything in the kindest way as we would have others do unto us and to “put the best construction” on everything. This language is particularly helpful in checking our sinful inclination to rush to a judgment or to pass sentence without knowing the full story. In many ways, this is the practical embodiment of being “quick to listen and slow to speak” or having a “hermeneutic of appreciation.”
St. James warns us that, “the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.” Today, nowhere is this more true than on social media and through online communication. In these cases, technology has only made ridiculing, gossiping, labeling, demeaning, bullying, taunting, etc. easier. All these things break this commandment and betray what St. Paul commands in Ephesians, that all our speech ought to be “seasoned with salt” so that the truth is always married to love. While we would like to imagine that this sin is only broken in the online world or in the real world by others far away, it also and especially is broken in the church. There is nothing more common and so destructive for a church than gossiping and spreading rumors. Loose lips sink ships and the ark of the church is no exception. As those who stand redeemed by Christ and made holy by the Spirit, let us also walk in holiness with clean hands and pure lips.
Inevitably people will ask if there are occasions where it is lawful or even encouraged to withhold the truth or lie. Withholding the truth may be necessary when speaking the truth would result in harm or injustice. A biblical example of this principle would be Exodus 1:15-20 where the Hebrew midwives are commanded by Pharaoh to kill all the baby boys of Israel. The midwives refuse and when asked how these baby boys have lived the midwives lie and Moses records for us that, “God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and became strong.” So there is an exception to the rule, however, the exception applies in a very limited range of admittedly extreme circumstances.
Prayer: Guard our lips, O Lord, and govern our unruly tongues so that our words about our neighbors are not tainted with falsehood, betrayal, or slander, which would damage their reputation. Instead, give us the wisdom to speak well of our neighbor, defend them, and explain their circumstances and actions in the kindest way; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
