2005-02-11
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Before leaving the subject of vows, it is a natural progression to discuss the bearing of false witness. This is lying at any time, especially after taking an oath that you will tell the truth. The Scriptures have something to say about this. Nothing said in the Scriptures is a mistake or idea that dangles with no support. Such is certainly the case with Matthew including his comments in MT 26: 62-64, “The High Priest stood up and said to Jesus, ‘Have You no answer to give to this accusation against You?’ But Jesus kept quiet. Again the High Priest spoke to Him, ‘In the name of the living God I know put you under oath: tell us if You are the Messiah, the Son of God.’ Jesus answered him, ‘So you say. But I tell all of you: from this time on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right side of the Almighty and coming on the clouds of heaven.’” This testimony was met with charges of blasphemy, which led to the Romans convicting Christ and sentencing Him to crucifixion. Now you may wonder why I’m bringing this up amidst an ongoing discussion of Christ’s teaching on vows from the Sermon on the Mount, but there is a good reason for it, as you will soon see.
God has made His will concerning the bearing of false witness clear in such places as EX 20: 16, “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” We who believe know that Christ was not lying when he gave the testimony above to the High Priest, Caiaphas, the son-in-law of the High Priest, Annas. (Caiaphas was the High Priest that year, and it was he who advised the Jewish authorities that it was better that one man should die for all the Jewish people [LK 3: 2; JN 18: 13-24]. Of course the main issue here is the unbelief of those who didn’t recognize Christ as the Messiah. However, another underlying issue is Christ’s perfection in the matter of taking vows. He vowed under oath to tell the truth and He did, setting an example that applies to each of us today. If we go back to EX 23: 1 once again God is making His will clear in this matter. “Do not spread false rumors and do not help a guilty man by giving false testimony.” Imagine what our life would be like if no one ever did this, either in ordinary conversation or under oath in court. I believe it would be quite different than it is in reality. Considering what was done to me in my own past, I can surely relate that I wouldn’t have lost six precious years with my son if others had told the truth in court.
The story of the rich young man which Matthew tells in MT 19: 16-22 comes to mind. This young man of great material wealth came to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to receive eternal life?” This is a question each of us has wondered when we were new in the faith. Christ rehearsed the Ten Commandments in His answer, which He told the young man to always keep-including the one about not bearing false witness. Then Christ went on to say, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow Me.” How many of us are really willing to do that? Rather than make false promises to Christ, the rich man became very sad and went away. This is not the only place in the Bible where God makes His will clear about materialism or any of the Commandments, including the toughest one of all, “Thou shalt not covet” [EX 20: 17]-the basis for breaking any of the other Commandments, including “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Look at LK 9: 23, “And He said to them all, ‘If anyone want to come with Me, he must forget himself, take up His cross every day, and follow Me.”
This issue of lying whether on the witness stand or not is like a cancer that sits under the surface of much of what goes wrong in human society. One need only look at how the Nazi regime in Germany kept the secret of the extermination of the Jews going on in concentration camps long enough to wipe out six millions of our numbers before it was uncovered and stopped by the Allies. In today’s world, we can still see evil secrets to cover up atrocities like the concentration camps that Milosevic had before he was deposed in the former Yugoslavia, the drug trafficking that Manuel Noriega was engaged in, or the suppression of women by the Talibans in Afghanistan. One of the malevolent secrets that still needs uncovering is the location of Osama bin Laden, his Al Qaeda leadership, and their monetary support. They had to nerve to send tapes of insurgents bombing Coalition forces in convoys and at a dining tent in Iraq to Al Jazier, the Arab news service, to be shown to supporters of the Coalition trying to establish a democratic government in that country. In EPH 4: 22-25 , Paul writes, “So get rid of your old self which made you live as you used to-the old self that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires. Your hearts and minds must be made completely new, and you must put on the new self, which is created in God’s likeness and reveals itself in the true life that is upright and holy. No more lying then! Everyone must tell the truth to His fellow believer, because we are all members together in the Body of Christ.” And how can I not be reminded to end this message with COL 3: 9-10? “Do not lie to one another for you have put off the old self with its habits and have put on the new self. This is the new being which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in His own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of Himself.”
PRAYER: O Lord, the question I just asked is a reminder to all of us of the love You have for those who believe in Your Son (and of course, in You). We live in a world that is, as You have prophesied repeatedly in the Scriptures, becoming polarized with Your sheep [the believers] being placed on Your right and the goats [those mired in unbelief] on the left [MT 25: 32]. You tell the truth, and the truth is like the light of successful research being shown on an evil cancer, lies. We need only look at LV 19: 11, “Do not steal or cheat or lie,” to know Your will. We come before Your throne to confess our imperfections in the area of bearing false witness. When Paul wrote in 1 COR 6 about lawsuits against fellow Christians, we were surely convicted of our wrongdoing. 1 COR 6: 7a, 9-11, “The very fact that you have legal disputes among yourselves shows that you have failed completely…Surely you know that the wicked will not possess God’s Kingdom. Do not fool yourselves; people who are immoral or who worship idols or are adulterers or homosexual perverts or who steal or are greedy or are drunkards or who slander others or are thieves-none of these will possess God’s Kingdom. Some of you were like that. But you have been purified from sin; you have been dedicated to God; you have been put right with God by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” Yes, Dearest Abba, there is so much conviction, wisdom, and love in these words from You, via Paul. You love us and want us to uncover the lies and secrets in our lives by confessing them to You with openness and honesty. Today, we dedicate ourselves to doing that in our own lives, and we offer You the rich praise and thanks that You deserve for providing us a way out of the morass of our sins through Your Son, Jesus Christ. By His death on the cross, we are given salvation, renewal, and hope for life eternal with You. We can ask no more than that! In Christ, we pray. Amen.
Next week, I am led to write about Christ’s teaching on the subject of revenge from MT 5: 38-42. This is a sore subject for some people, but Christ discussed it in the Sermon on the Mount and calls me to write about how it affects our lives today and in the future. In concluding today’s devotion, I’m led to recall the cooperation that is necessary in the Covenant of Grace. We need not worry that God is doing His part; our concern is about ourselves. The great promise at the end of COL 3: 10 of God constantly renewing us in His own image in order to bring us to a greater knowledge of Himself is no self-centered posturing on His part. Instead, it is Him doing His part of the effort to lead us down that “hard path through the narrow gate” [MT 7: 13-14] which leads to eternal bliss and fellowship with Him. How many of us love our enemies, even through Christ teaches us pray for those who persecute us [MT 5: 44-45a]? How many of us put our riches in heaven, rather than on Earth [MT 6: 19-21]? And yet, our Lord goes on loving us and being patient with us. We can believe the promise in PS 29:11, “He will give His people strength. He will bless them with peace.” Who are true believers? They are the humble and honest people who will uncover any lies they have told, who will concern themselves with the welfare of others around them, who will obey God’s commands, and who will truly appreciate the great sacrifice of His Son that God has given for us. 2 PET 3: 9 leaves us with illumination of our awesome God’s love for us. “The Lord is not slow to do what he has promised, as some think. Instead He is patent with you, because he does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to turn away from their sins.” Praise be to His mighty name!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn