Is it ever okay to lie?

1. 0:00Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 43. What is God's will for you in the ninth commandment? That I never give false testimony against anyone, twist no one's Amen.
2. 0:40and I should do what I can to defend and advance my neighbor's honor and reputation.
3. 0:45God is interested in justice and so he wants our entire social lives organized on the principle of truth. Truth is simply the harmony between our ideas
4. 1:00and what is real. And so in all of our interactions with people we need to be consistent with what is actually happening in God's world. And so because
5. 1:10of this God has built into his law, into the Ten Commandments that summarize his entire will, one commandment that focuses exclusively on the important
6. 1:20of dealing truthfully with one's neighbor. The ninth commandment says you shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. In ancient Israel, accusations
7. 1:33against someone had to be verified by the testimony of one's neighbor. There was no DNA testing or security camera footage or anything like that.
8. 1:44And so it was a testimony of witnesses.
9. 1:46And in certain cases, it could be very serious.
10. 1:49In a capital case, a murder charge, a false witness could bring the death penalty down upon the person who was so charged.
11. 1:57And we see examples of false witnesses in Old Testament trials, such as with Naboth, in New Testament with Jesus and with Paul and Stephen.
12. 2:08And so God says to his people who he wants to live different from the rest of the world, you need to deal truthfully when you're in court so that the society that you're living and can be founded upon the truth.
13. 2:22And obviously that truth can be transferred easily to the whole of our lives.
14. 2:29No relationship is going to work if we aren't honest with one another.
15. 2:33No marriage or friendship or work situation will work if we're slandering one another if we're speaking falsely against one another.
16. 2:43And so as Christians, we're called to love the truth, to honor it, to trust in the truth, to believe that God's truth is going to prevail, no matter how falsely things are twisted in our day and age.
17. 2:57And so we're called to Trust God, trust that what he says is good and true and real.
18. 3:05And if we do, our confidence in the truth that's ultimately revealed in Jesus Christ will deliver us from guilt, from lies, from the heavy burden of trying to create meaning for ourselves.
19. 3:19and from the absurdity of living in a world in such a way that we divorce reality from our ideas. And so God gives us this law that we should not give
20. 3:31false testimony against our neighbors to teach us that the truth and living according to truth is the best way to live. We don't have the responsibility for creating truth and we don't have the power to nullify truth
21. 3:44we're to be confident in the truth to bring the truth to bear in all of our relationships and all of our interactions and to trust that God's truth is best for us you

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