-
Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.
If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!
To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
The truth is sometimes painful, but it is the only right thing to do. What you speak is more about you than the other person. Always be a person of integrity and let God take care of the rest. He is the one who defends his people when they need defending or metes out justice when it is deserved. Just be true to yourself first of all. To speak the truth will only strengthen your character and build wisdom in you.
B
If I had a friend who I downright knew was guilty then yes, I would let them go and deal with the consequences. They may hate me and call me "not a real friend" and it would hurt but I will not lie to cover them. Even if they were my best friend since childhood. I would be with them every step of the way and try to help them if they allowed.
M
Let's see...Spurn the Lord by making a friend higher than him by lying for him when we're told Liars shall not enter the kingdom?
Probably not
God comes before any man
There's also the fact that we must be able to accept any consequences for any wrong action. Not try and get out of things.
Otherwise that very practice of behavior may carry over onto judgement day.
So said friend while I may have compassion and go visit him in jail if convicted for whatever, would still have to endure and reap what has been sown, as we are told to do.
Probably not
God comes before any man
There's also the fact that we must be able to accept any consequences for any wrong action. Not try and get out of things.
Otherwise that very practice of behavior may carry over onto judgement day.
So said friend while I may have compassion and go visit him in jail if convicted for whatever, would still have to endure and reap what has been sown, as we are told to do.
Last edited:
T
There are rare instances where lying is preferable, but they're few and far between. For example during WW2, if you were hiding Jews (ala Corrie Ten Boom and family) and the Nazis asked if you had seen any of them around the neighbourhood, you say NO, thus saving their lives. Life is sacred.
Last edited by a moderator:
T
No, I don't think so. I think a "white lie" is something to save face eg. telling a friend a lie to make them feel better to 'protect' them from the truth. Telling a lie to save a life. Telling a lie to someone who doesn't deserve the truth (Nazis: have you seen any Jews?) is very different.
By the way, I wasn't implying that the Ten Booms were Jews. I think they hid the Jews.
By the way, I wasn't implying that the Ten Booms were Jews. I think they hid the Jews.
B
[h=1]Why is "You shall not give false testimony" in the Ten Commandments?[/h]
Question: "Why is 'You shall not give false testimony' in the Ten Commandments?"
Answer: Part of the Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue, this 9th commandment forbids the Israelites from bearing false witness or giving false testimony against one another (Exodus 20:16; Deuteronomy 5:20). To bear false witness against others is to lie about them, especially for personal gain. The Hebrew word translated “neighbor” in this commandment can mean an associate, a brother, companion, fellow, friend, husband, lover, or neighbor. In other words, the Israelites were commanded to be truthful in all things, but especially when speaking about another person. The people were not to lie publicly, as in a court of law by laying at another’s feet any false charge that could injure him, nor were they to lie privately by whispering, talebearing, backbiting, slandering, or destroying his character by innuendos, sly insinuations, and evil suggestions.
The reasons for God’s prohibiting lying and testifying falsely against one’s neighbor are three-fold. First, God’s people are to reflect God’s character. Jehovah is a truthful God who does not and cannot lie. Numbers 23:19 tells us, “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” The people who were called by God’s name and who represented Him in the heathen world were expected to accurately reflect His character. Lying to or about one another brought reproach upon His holy name, and this He would not tolerate. Second, bearing false witness against another was destructive to the individual who was the victim of the lie, and he suffered by it in his character, credibility and reputation, as well as in his trade and business. Leviticus 19:18 makes it clear that the Israelites were to love their neighbors as themselves, a command reiterated by both Jesus and Paul (Matthew 22:39; Romans 13:9). Loving our neighbors precludes lying about them.
Third, false witness was seen as so destructive to society that courts of law, both in the days of the Israelites and today, could function only if the witnesses who were called to testify could be trusted to tell the truth. Without a trustworthy judicial system, based on eyewitness testimony from reliable, truthful witnesses, societies are at risk of the breakdown of law and order. When this happens, chaos ensues and the innocent suffer.
As noted before, the New Testament is equally condemning of false witness. Colossians 3:9-10 explains the reason for the continued prohibition against lying. Christians are new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) and as such, we reflect His nature. We have been released from our “old self” with its evil practices such as lying and bearing false witness. As the Israelites were to reflect the character of Jehovah, Christians are to reflect to the world the character of Christ that identifies us as His own
Answer: Part of the Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue, this 9th commandment forbids the Israelites from bearing false witness or giving false testimony against one another (Exodus 20:16; Deuteronomy 5:20). To bear false witness against others is to lie about them, especially for personal gain. The Hebrew word translated “neighbor” in this commandment can mean an associate, a brother, companion, fellow, friend, husband, lover, or neighbor. In other words, the Israelites were commanded to be truthful in all things, but especially when speaking about another person. The people were not to lie publicly, as in a court of law by laying at another’s feet any false charge that could injure him, nor were they to lie privately by whispering, talebearing, backbiting, slandering, or destroying his character by innuendos, sly insinuations, and evil suggestions.
The reasons for God’s prohibiting lying and testifying falsely against one’s neighbor are three-fold. First, God’s people are to reflect God’s character. Jehovah is a truthful God who does not and cannot lie. Numbers 23:19 tells us, “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” The people who were called by God’s name and who represented Him in the heathen world were expected to accurately reflect His character. Lying to or about one another brought reproach upon His holy name, and this He would not tolerate. Second, bearing false witness against another was destructive to the individual who was the victim of the lie, and he suffered by it in his character, credibility and reputation, as well as in his trade and business. Leviticus 19:18 makes it clear that the Israelites were to love their neighbors as themselves, a command reiterated by both Jesus and Paul (Matthew 22:39; Romans 13:9). Loving our neighbors precludes lying about them.
Third, false witness was seen as so destructive to society that courts of law, both in the days of the Israelites and today, could function only if the witnesses who were called to testify could be trusted to tell the truth. Without a trustworthy judicial system, based on eyewitness testimony from reliable, truthful witnesses, societies are at risk of the breakdown of law and order. When this happens, chaos ensues and the innocent suffer.
As noted before, the New Testament is equally condemning of false witness. Colossians 3:9-10 explains the reason for the continued prohibition against lying. Christians are new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) and as such, we reflect His nature. We have been released from our “old self” with its evil practices such as lying and bearing false witness. As the Israelites were to reflect the character of Jehovah, Christians are to reflect to the world the character of Christ that identifies us as His own
