Bearing False Witness

I just read some disturbing thoughts. It was on the blog joethorn.net.

Here's the part that has been nagging at me. The author was basically taking something that we routinely do, that I routinely do, and calling it a sin.

How many times have you heard someone talk about some other person in the church that they disagree with? How many times have I talked about someone in the church that I disagree with? If false doctrine is being taught, then yes, someone needs to confront that. But that's not what I'm talking about, or what Joe Thorn was addressing. We can take a man's words and then disagree with them, or show why we believe he is in error based on what he has said.

But once we cross the line where we are no longer talking about the man's words, but about the man himself, we run into problems. How many times have we judged another person's motives? How can this be? Are we God? Do we definitely know a person's motives? Especially if we barely know the person in question? And if we are talking about a person for the purpose of making him look bad, whose motives are in question?

So after I looked at my heart and saw that I am at times guilty of this, I decided to be more diligent in keeping a rein on my tongue. Unfortunately, the blog didn't end there. Thorn makes this point when he quotes Thomas Watson:

"The mandatory part of the commandment (not bearing false witness) implied is that we stand up for others and vindicate them when they are injured by lying lips. This is the sense of the commandment, not only that we should not slander falsely or accuse others; but that we should witness for them, and stand up in their defense, when we know them to be traduced. A man may wrong another as well by silence as by slander, when he knows him to be wrongfully accused, yet does not speak in his behalf. If others cast false aspersions on any, we should wipe them off."

Thorn also says:

"I am compelled by the ninth commandment to speak up for others, even those I sometimes disagree with, when false accusations are leveled against them, and to encourage greater care when we engage those we disagree with."

Even those I sometimes disagree with. This is the real crux of my post. I want to more honest in my treatment of others. I want to stand when it's the hard thing to do. Even if it's being said over and over again, and even if I'm the only one to stand. I don't ever again want to be a silent participant in the defamation of another.

That is my challenge to all of you today. And for myself.