Law Homily (9th Commandment)

Now, as we would come before the law of God this week, we do come today to the ninth commandment, which we read in Exodus chapter 20 at verse 16.

And we read, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. The ninth commandment forbids bearing false witness.

At its most basic level, this means that we must not lie about our neighbor, particularly in formal settings like a court of law where someone's life, property, or reputation is at stake.

But the commandment reaches much deeper than that. It governs all our speech about one another.

It requires us to be truthful, fair, and charitable when we speak of others, especially when we speak of our brothers and sisters in the faith.

And yet, we live in an age where this commandment is violated constantly, even among Christians.

We've imported the world's habits of polarization and denunciation into the church. And we've become like the culture around us, a culture where every disagreement is treated as a capital offense, where nuance is weakness, and where anyone who differs from consensus on anything must be publicly condemned and cast out.

And this is the world's way, right? The world says that if you're not with me on everything, then you're against me on everything.

If you disagree with me on this issue, then you're dangerous, you're compromised, you're a sellout, you're a heretic.

And tragically, this spirit, again, has infected the Christian church. And we see it all the time, right? A pastor takes a different view on a political issue, right, a matter of prudence, or a historical or cultural question, and suddenly he's not just wrong, he's wicked.

He's not just mistaken, he's a false teacher. He's not just someone that you disagree with, he's someone that you must publicly denounce and separate from entirely.

But the point is that there's a massive difference between disagreeing over matters of Christian orthodoxy and disagreeing over topical, prudential, or secondary issues.

When we fail to make that distinction, we bear false witness against our neighbor.

Christian orthodoxy, obviously, is a non -negotiable, right? The deity of Christ, the authority of Scripture, the

Trinity, the bodily resurrection, these are essentials. And if someone denies these, and that's only to name a few, obviously, if someone denies these, they have left the faith, right?

We must mark them, we should warn the church, separate from them, if they will not repent, because that is faithlessness, right, from their perspective, and it is faithfulness on our part.

But topical disagreements, right, prudential judgments, matters of perhaps liberty or cultural issues of the day, depending on what they are, again, these are not grounds for total denunciation.

A brother who disagrees with you about the best way to engage the culture, about a particular political strategy, about how to apply a biblical principle in a complex situation, he's still your brother.

And you can disagree, right, you can debate the issues, you can even think that he's badly mistaken, but you do not have the right to bear false witness by overbearing the truth, right, strawmanning positions to win arguments, and effectively casting people, again,

Christian brothers and sisters in particular, aside. When we do that, when we denounce faithful Christians over secondary matters, we're acting like the world.

We're treating the body of Christ like a political faction that demands absolute conformity, and we're violating the ninth commandment by misrepresenting our brothers and assassinating their character over disputes that do not touch the heart of the gospel.

And so we must ask ourselves, have we borne false witness against a brother or sister by treating a prudential disagreement as if it were a betrayal of the faith?

Have we slandered someone's character because they didn't align with our position on a non -essential matter?

Have we allowed the spirit of the age, the spirit of total polarization, to govern our speech about fellow believers?

Now, many in this room maybe have not done this, right, but if you are on social media at all and follow

Christian pastors on social media, then you know that it happens all the time, right?

And so we need to be weary of those whom we would follow after in that respect, who we would align with, even in their denunciations of others.

We have to be careful, and you know I use that word sparingly, to not participate in such foolishness in joining with mass denunciations against fellow

Christians. And if we have done these things, again, many in here, I don't know that we have,

I can't say specifically or definitively, but we do see it happen within the church on a more macro level, but if we have done so, then repent, right?

Ask God for the grace to speak truthfully and charitably about others. Ask him to give you the wisdom to distinguish between real heresy and mere disagreement.

And ask him to make you the kind of Christian who is known not for tearing down brothers over secondary matters, but for bearing faithful, gracious, and truthful witness in all things.

Now, as you're able, I would invite you to join me in kneeling in prayer as we would confess our sin before God.

Father, we do thank you for your word. We thank you for your law. Lord, in the perfect righteousness that you have not only handed down to us,

Lord, but that you have even exemplified in the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask that you would help us to be a people in our love for you, that we would love one another, or that we would be a people who speak truth and goodness and beauty over one another and about one another, not only those represented here in this room, but of all your people in all of your church about all the time even.

Help us, Lord, to be a people who, again, love righteousness and love truth.

And that is what flows from our mouths, made from the overflow of our hearts, hearts that love you, love, again, truth, goodness, and beauty.

May we speak in those ways as well. Lord, forgive us for the ways that we've borne false witness against our neighbors for treating brothers and sisters in Christ as enemies.

Lord, may you even heal your church and the divide that exists within it. Not, again, not in this room, but even just in the church on a more macro level, particularly even in our nation,

Lord, that the divide that exists within American Christians, you would heal those things, Lord, that you would bring unity and peace to your people, or that they would, that you would give to us,

Lord, wisdom to discern what's essential, what's secondary, and give us courage, Lord, to stand firm on orthodoxy and charity, to extend grace on matters of prudence.

And by your grace, Lord, may you unite us in this, that our confession of Jesus Christ as Lord is what binds your people together.

And Lord, may our total dependence be on him and his finished work. It's in his name that we pray.

And amen. Amen. If you would please stand with me in the forgiveness that God has not only purchased for you in his son,

Jesus Christ, but that he has declared over you in his word. From Isaiah chapter nine, verses one through four, we see the

Lord's disposition once again towards his people in our assurance of pardon this morning.

Nevertheless, the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea beyond Jordan and Galilee of the nations.

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shine.

Thou hast multiplied the nation and not increased the joy, the joy before thee according to the joy and harvest.

And as men rejoice and they divide the spoil, for thou hast broken the yoke of his burden and the staff off his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.

The Lord God has broken the yoke of sin that would seek in the enemy, that would seek to bind us and hold us in the misery of that estate.

And he has brought us into an estate of salvation through his son, the only redeemer of God's elect, the