“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour,” verse16.

We are commanded not ‘to kill’ in the sixth commandment. That is, we must not take away the physical life of any person unlawfully.

1. However, we may ‘kill’ a person’s good name and reputation by bearing false witness against our neighbour. That is why the civil courts take very seriously any false statements a person may make about others. The Lord certainly takes the matter very seriously!

2. Lying comes very naturally to mankind. Man is much quicker to tell a lie than to tell the truth. Boys and girls you know this from your own experience. How easily you find it to be untruthful when confronted about wrong-doing!

God describes the mouth of man.“Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips,” Romans 3:13. There is a deadly poison in the mouth of men. They can 'kill’ with their words! “A faithful witness will not lie: but a false witness will utter lies,” Proverbs 14:5.

3. Christians are required to seek the good of their neighbour by the words they speak. “These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates,” Zechariah 8:16. The chief form of speaking the truth to our neighbour is our sharing the gospel with him! It is the “word of truth”, Ephesians 1:13. “In whom (Christ) ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.” “A true witness delivereth souls: but a deceitful witness speaketh lies,” Proverbs 14:25.

4. We have the example of the Lord Jesus to guide us. “ . . . Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession,” 1 Timothy 6:13.

This refers not just to when he owned himself to be a King and explained the nature of his kingdom, and showed the purpose of his incarnation (John 18:37), but I am sure Paul was referring also to the faithful, plain, and open witness Christ bore to truth throughout the whole of his ministry, under Pontius Pilate, by his doctrine and miracles, and at last by his sufferings and death, which he endured under him. So we must likewise speak the WHOLE truth of the gospel to our neighbours.

This is what it is to keep the ninth commandment.