You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor

This is the ninth post in a series of ten dealing with The Ten Commandments. The content comes from “Basic Christianity”written by John Stott.

The last five commandments express that respect for the rights of others which is implicit in true love. To break these commandments is to rob a man of the things most precious to him, his life (“you shall not kill”) , his home or honor (“you shall not commit adultery”) , his property (you shall not steal”) , and now his reputation (” you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor”).
This commandment is not only application to the courts of law. It does include perjury. But it also includes all forms of scandal, slander, idle talk and tittle-tattle, all lies and deliberate exaggerations or distortions of the truth. We can bear false witness by listing to unkind rumors as by passing them on, by making jokes at somebody else’s expense, by creating false impressions, by not correcting untrue statements, and by our silence as well as by our speech.