Many people quote the ninth commandment as ‘Thou shalt not lie’ but that that is not what how the commandment reads. Three important words are tacked to the end of this commandment, the words ‘against thy neighbor’.  And so the question invariably arises today as it did in Jesus day, ‘who is my neighbor’?  Honesty is indeed the best policy as we will see in today’s post.

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Exodus 20:16 (KJV) 16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Just Who Is My Neighbor?

• A neighbor, in the Old Testament, does not mean, ‘The person who happens to live next door.’
• Bible interpretation is key here.
  • Context is everything.
  • The Bible is an eastern book.
  • You cannot fully understand an eastern book with your western mind.
• If you lay your western mind over the Bible, you will absolutely mess-up or miss God’s intention in many verses or passages of scripture.
• You cannot just read the Bible with your 21st-century understanding because your 21st-century background will color what you read.
• Instead, you have to study the Bible in its pristine context; in the context of the day and age of the Old Testament.
• Once you understand the Bible in context, you then take the underlying principle taught in that passage (if it is appropriate to the Covenant we are in) and upload that to the 21st century.
• This is how proper Bible study or exegesis should occur.
• When you drill down into the word ‘neighbor’, you will find that the term is full of Blood Covenant implications.
• The word drips with the idea of covenant.
• Leviticus 19:18 defines ‘neighbor’ a little differently than Americans do.

Leviticus 19:18 (ESV) 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

• Notice in this passage of scripture that the word ‘neighbor’ equates to ‘sons of your own people’.
• The Land, that God promised Israel, which Joshua and the children of Israel conquered, was doled out by order to each of the tribes of Israel.
• That land, once distributed, was, in turn, passed to the descendants of each family or tribe.
• Let us go back one verse in Leviticus 19 and look at verse 17.

Leviticus 19:17–18 (ESV) 17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

• Notice the word ‘brother’ and the word ‘neighbor’ is equivalent in this passage.
• So, a physical blood relationship existed between these ‘neighbors’.
• ‘Neighbor’ and ‘brother’ were equivalent in the Old Testament.
• So, the ninth commandment was literally, “you shall not bear false witness against your blood-related brother.”
• But, there’s another level of distinction to be noted here.
• These ‘family members’ were not only ‘brothers’ related by human blood but they were also Blood Covenant brothers via the Abrahamic Covenant.
• So, the ninth commandment has a double punch
• When this commandment was broken by a person in Israel, it was a double violation.
• It was a violation against family
• It was a violation against the Blood Covenant that bound the family.
• Now that we have talked about the ‘neighbor’ part, let us talk about the ‘false witness’ part.

Do You Swear to Tell the Truth, the Whole Truth…

• The commandment is a narrow application of the principle of ‘not lying’.
• ‘Bearing false witness’ is legal language.
• The ninth commandment was designed to protect family members from being falsely accused legally.
• The commandment is literally ‘do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’ in a legal context.
• The legal systems of ancient times hinged many times on the accusation of a single person.
• In Old Testament days, it was literally one person’s word against another.
• The importance of accurate testimony and truthful eyewitnesses were of utmost importance in the legal systems of ancient times.
• A false testimony or charge could be devastating to a ‘neighbor’.

The Ninth Commandment Is A Mirror Showing God’s Likeness

• The commandment is a mirror showing who God is.
• God is a God of integrity
• Integrity means the steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code.
• Integrity speaks of honesty.
• One gentleman said, “Integrity is like virginity–once you lose it, it is gone for good.”
• To a certain extent, this quote has validity but it’s not completely the truth.
• Violated integrity can be restored.
• It just takes a long time.

The God Who Cannot Lie

• You’ll never understand God, the light will never dawn on your spirit, until you understand the fact that God is not a man that He should lie.
• To this, the scriptures testify amply.

Numbers 23:19 (KJV) 19 God is not a man, that he should lie; Neither the son of man, that he should repent: Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

• See also, 1 Samuel 15:29, Ezekiel 24:14, Titus 1:2

Hebrews 6:13–14, 17-18 (ESV) 13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you”… 17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

• Now, think about what God did here with Abraham and his seed.
• God was willing to show Abraham that He was a God who cannot lie.
• So, He backed His Word that He had given to Abraham with a Blood Covenant oath.
• God bound Himself with an oath AFTER He already given Abraham His Word.
• He condescended to Abrahams level speaking comfort to his heart by cutting a covenant with Abraham communicating to him a language he understood.
• Abraham understood the mechanics of blood covenanting because that is how agreements or contracts were drawn up among people in ancient days.
• Understand that the God who cannot lie had already given His Word to Abraham.
• He really did not have to give him anything else.
• His Word is enough.
• God took what He had spoken to Abraham previously, wrapped it in the ceremony of blood covenanting so Abraham had something physical to identify with.
• Abraham saw the blood.
• He saw the animal split down the backbone,
• He felt the blood on his feet as he walked the ‘figure eight’ walk between the split pieces.
• New Testament believers do not need all that ceremony in order to believe Him.
• All we need is for Him to speak the Word only and we will be delivered.
• It’s just that simple.
• If He said it, He will do it and if He spoke it, He will bring it to pass.
• I am telling you boldly, you will never understand God until you understand the fact that God cannot lie.
• And now we have the ninth commandment which says ‘You be like Him’.

Call to Action:

It would be wise to put all this in perspective and understand the importance of following the principles of the ninth commandment in the day and age in which we live. Rooting out this sin in one’s life takes a quality decision, one that we are all well able to make.

Question: How did you handle this ninth commandment in your life? What particular commitments did you make? Please leave your comments in the comment section below.

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