Commandment #9: I once read a statement made by a successful businessman who stated that it was impossible to succeed in America without lying. “Lying” is referred to in the ninth commandment as “bearing false witness.” One can lie in a variety of ways, one of which is often referred to as “white lies” or “stretching the truth just a little” or “good lies” because they supposedly help other people or ourselves. In God’s eyes, a lie is a lie. Period. The fact of the matter is that lying on any level helps someone and hurts someone. Whether the lie concerns one person or an entire nation, lying is sin, and the wages of sin is death–spiritual death in this life, eternal death in the next life.

From atop Mount Sinai God said to the Israelites and to the rest of the world, “You must not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exo. 20:16). This is the fifth commandment relating to one’s relationships with other human beings. In this commandment God guards what is important to any and all people–their reputation. Lying can be considered another way stealing. The loss of physical things to a thief is bad, but things can be replaced. However, diminishing the reputation of another is often not correctable. In today’s world we find children living in misery, and even committing suicide because someone has said or written something that the wounded child cannot prove to be wrong.

Early on almost all lying was done with the tongue. Most people could neither read nor write, so the tongue was the major mode of spreading false information. God has much to say about the tongue. The Apostle James wrote: “Behold the ships which, though they are large and are driven by strong winds, yet are turned about with a very small rudder, whithersoever the captain wants it to go. Even so the tongue is a little member ….” (Jam. 3:4,5). In so many cases the power unleashed by the tongue causes irreparable damage. James continues: “Behold how great a matter a little fire kindles. And the tongue is a fire that defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature; and is set on fire of hell” (vss 5,6).

When we deeply meditate on the Lord’s Words relative to this subject we realize that there has been untold human suffering and damage caused by a careless statement or a bit of seemingly harmless chatter about another human being. But truth be known, it is not only the subject of the lie that is damaged, the speaker also pays a price if the lie is uncovered. Who would ever trust the word of a known liar? And even if the liar is not caught in his words, God heard or read them. The Proverbist states: “He that hides hatred with lying lips and he that utters a slander is a fool” (18:21). Why is this true? “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it will eat the fruit thereof” (18:21). James calls the tongue “an unruly evil, full of deadly poison (3:7,8). The point is that if the Lord, through His Holy Spirit, is not directing the thoughts and words of a person, that person cannot control his/her tongue. In Romans 8:14 Paul tells us that only those who are led by God’s Spirit are His children. The Holy Spirit does not tell a person to lie.

Commandment #10: One Biblical illustration will tell us all we need to know about this command concerning lust for (coveting) things and stuff. In Luke 18:18-23 we find a rich man who, having found the man he had been searching for, ran to Him, knelt before Him and asked Him what he must do in order to inherit eternal life. The Man (Jesus) told him to sell everything he owned, give the prophet from the sale to the poor, then follow Him. The man went away sad, KNOWING THAT HE WOULD NOT RECEIVE ETERNAL LIFE. Is this not incredible? He was willing to give up eternity in paradise for just one more thing to boost his ego. Satisfying his need for things and stuff was more important to him than his eternal future. Such is the pull of lust. That story tells us that if we place anything between ourselves and obedience to God, that thing becomes an idol, even if we do not view it as such. The true saint views everything through the eyes of God.

There is a life and death difference between wanting something and the feeling that one cannot live without it. Of course we are not talking about those things that are necessary for life such as food, clothing, etc. Today we find some people using their credit cards for things they do not need, but desperately want. I read years ago that the average American credit card-owning family owed over $10,000 on the cards. If only people would lust for and covet a closer walk with the Lord, what a wonderful world we would have. Let us so lust and covet to be like our Savior who set the perfect example. That is one lust the Lord will satisfy, IF we will use His help to obey what He tells us in His Holy Bible, specifically His Ten Commandment Law in letter and spirit.

THE COUNTERFEIT CHRIST tells church people that everything that I have written about the Ten Commandments, as well as the Commandments themselves, are IRRELEVANT AND PLAY NO PART IN THE LIVES OF TRUE CHRISTIANS. Each denomination has its own version of the Lord Jesus Christ as well as His Father. Those who keep up with social trends will notice that the current Catholic Pope is doing everything he can to bring the world’s people together under the Catholic version of Jesus Christ and His religion. And he will succeed. Read about the soon-coming church civil war in which the reigning pope will lead the world’s governments to enforce a Sunday Sabbath Law. Key word–Soon-coming. Do not be led astray by the Great Whore–Mystery Babylon and her harlot daughters (Rev. 17:1-5). This is the universal church that the False Prophet will lead against God’s true saints in the very near future. L.J.