It’s Monday Grace!
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16, NKJV)
How do you feel when someone lies about you? Most of us have experienced this in one form or another. When you are accused of doing something you didn’t do? When others are told that you said something you didn’t say? What are the feelings that go through your heart? Fear, betrayal, anger? I think most people feel a pointed sense of loss, like they have become something less than they were just because of the lie.
When I teach about narcissism, I say that the primary offense of the narcissist is the depersonalization of others. That simply means that the narcissist fails to see or to treat others as real people. In a sense, the narcissist takes away the life, the identity, of others. They do this by stealing credit for accomplishments, by constant criticism, and by lying.
Perhaps it is obvious that murder is a form of depersonalization. It reduces the victim from a person to a body. The person dies. It may not be as obvious that adultery does much the same thing. The adulterer takes away the reality, the personhood, of his or her spouse and the spouse of the other. Again, the one who steals reduces the owner of the property to something less than a person so that the theft can be justified or rationalized.
When someone speaks falsely about another person, the same thing happens.
So, to “bear false witness” against another person is a way of taking that person’s life. It renders the reality of that person to nothing for the purpose of the liar’s gain. The truth of who the victim is doesn’t matter to the person who “bears false witness.”
Under grace, other people are important as persons. Why? Because they are persons in the eyes of the Lord. The Christian faith has always been about a personal relationship between an individual and the Lord. Even in traditions where the community provides identity for the people, the individual is still expected to affirm faith. In other words, in Christian denominations where joining the church is seen as the path of salvation, the individual is still seen as important and a person. God knows us as persons and calls us to love each other as He loves us.
Sometimes, when people look at this commandment, they say that this means we are not to lie. That’s true, of course, but that isn’t what this commandment is about. The admonition against lying is also in Scripture, but this is about treating others as important. That’s why Jesus could summarize this and other commands as: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” If you see yourself as a person, you must see others in the same way.
The heart of God is for our good. When we use each other and hurt each other, we come against His heart. His love for others is part of His love for each of us. There are no comparisons, no divisions, no hierarchy, and no second-class citizens among the people of God. We are all, each of us, dependent on His love and grace.