“The Ninth Commandment: Tell the Truth” (Exodus 20:16)

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The Ninth Commandment: Tell the Truth We often times think of telling the truth as a basic regurgitation of the facts. Truth tellers are honest and forthright. They don’t sugarcoat the unsavory details. They don’t downplay anything problematic about an event or belief. But, do we really appreciate such unfiltered truth? I love courtroom dramas. To Kill A Mockingbird, A Time to Kill. But, one of my favorite movies in this genre is “A Few Good Men”. Jack Nicholson as Colonel Nathan Jessup, defending himself on the stand. “You can’t handle the truth!” American Film Institute ranked this #29 on their list of 100 most memorable movie quotes. It’s an excellent scene, and it may be truer than ever before. T. S. Eliot wrote, “Human kind cannot bear very much reality.” In 1987, Allen Bloom criticized higher education in his book The Closing of the American Mind. As a philosophy professor Bloom saw how the pursuit of truth had been replaced by the prevalence of relativism, which teaches that truth is not absolute. Instead of seeking objective evidence to determine ultimate truth, students were content to define their own personal preferences. Today, an appreciation for relativism does not just challenge the existence of absolute truth, but encourages the protection of personal preferences against any alternative theories. In The Coddling of the American Mind, Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff explain how students are provided safe spaces to learn without fear of their worldview ever being challenged. The students focus on their feelings and professors are taught about “microaggressions”. The average college student probably thinks telling the truth is the same as speaking your own truth. If 2020 has taught us anything it is that Christians are not exempt from these dangerous slides into moral compromise either. The Ten Commandments are divided into two tables. The primary focus of the first table, commandments one through four, is our duty to love God. The primary focus of the second table, commandments five through ten, is our duty to love our neighbors. In the ninth commandment, the way we love our neighbor is by speaking truthfully to them and about them. Read Exodus 20:16 Speak Truthfully To Your Neighbor In order to understand the importance of the subject, we must think about it in terms of our vertical relationship with God. As with each of the commandments we want to think both vertically as well as horizontally. The vertical aspects ground the horizontal aspects. Truth is important because it reflects the nature of God. The honesty of God is one thing that makes him unique from mankind. God always tells the truth. He cannot lie. Since we are all made in the image of God, we depend upon honesty in our relationships with one another. Any relationship that is based upon fraudulent claims is bound to be short-lived if not disastrous. We oftentimes depend on the testimony of someone we know in order to verify good character. 3 John 12 Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true. Notice the connection John makes between testimony and truth. Internal commitments impact the way we treat others. So after recognizing the connection of truth to the nature of God, we need to consider our own commitment to truth. “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches” (Proverbs 22:1). We build our reputation by preserving and promoting whatever is true. We are careful about making commitments, but when we do we keep our word. We speak truth in comfortable and uncomfortable situations. We don’t seek conflict, but we are not afraid of it. We listen to others sincerely and we speak freely because we have nothing to hide. Through consistent communication and behavior we develop that good name. And once we have a good name, it is more valuable than riches. Therefore, we need to defend our name whene

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