The Ninth Commandment

Your statutes are my delight;

they are my counselors. Psalm 119:24

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. I was listening to Dennis Prager on the ninth commandment and how important truth is to society's well being.  These commandments can be our counselors in life. In fact they should be, society depends on it. Justice in our court of law requires truth in order to fairly administer justice. 
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Psalm 51:6

O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?
Who shall dwell on your holy hill?

He who walks blamelessly and does what is right
and speaks truth in his heart;
who does not slander with his tongue
and does no evil to his neighbor,nor takes up a reproach against his friend; Psalm 15:1-3

God desires us to be truthful. Perhaps it should be a core value in our lives. We often tell what we call little white lies. We don't want to hurt someone so we think we are doing good by saying what they want to hear. God desires truth. When in a court of law how can we have justice if we do not hear truth. If you went before a judge on any issue would you not want the judge to be fair? How can it be if based on lies?  I think of our political climate in which we live, the news reports things slanted to their purposes. Do we want real truth or truth subject to our political beliefs? If the party against you can persuade to their way of thinking politically would it be real truth just because they like it. I had a spouse that would tell me what she thought I wanted to hear. It was not truth and in the end, I could not believe the words that came out of her mouth, I knew from experience it wasn't always truth. We can deal with truth. We can fix problems if we know truth. We can fix society if we know the truth. We may not like where we are at, but we can fix it if we know truth. Bearing false witness has become so common place in our society. Truth is not subject to what we want to hear, to our preformed beliefs. Truth stands on its own, it can be trusted. I had an uncle one time that wanted to trade cars with me. I was only 19 years old. I didn't want his car. I was happy with mine. A few weeks later when he had traded his car to someone else, he was bragging about how he had traded his car that had a transmission that was going out.  How would I have felt if that had been me. If I had traded and then had a bad transmission? I learned I could not trust this man. Truth even when it hurts us to tell it is better for relationships. If you encounter someone who will tell you truth even when it hurts them, you learn you can trust them. Truth is a bedrock of a healthy society. We depend on it for justice.  God put this commandment in his instructions to mankind because we need truth for a healthy society. It was not to make things difficult for us but so we can live the best life possible.  We need truth. A Judge will sometimes ask questions that may not have anything to do with the issue at hand. The judge may be looking for truth, can I believe what this person is saying or not. Looking for truth. How can a judge administer true justice if they do not know the truth? How can you trust someone if you do not know if they tell the truth or not? Truth should be a core value of a Christian life. It is so needed in our society today. It needs to start with me. I remember a time I was selling a car. I had a lot of trouble with it. I liked the car but I was selling it because I was tired of fixing things.  A brother in law wanted that car. I told him of the many times I had fixed the car and why I was selling it. I didn't want to sell it to my brother in law. It had been trouble for me.  He convinced  me to trade. He did not get that car home before it broke down on him. I think often, I was truthful and I had no bad feelings when it broke down. My relationship with family was more important than making a deal. My brother in law told my Dad that I didn't know how to sell cars. my Dad said you don't understand. He did not want to sell you a lemon, you are his family. We can deal with truth. That car was a good car and I would love to have it today if I could deal with the issues. It was fun to drive. But truth was more important. To be trusted was more important than making a good deal.  I wanted that reputation of being truthful.  God bless, LVZ.