Truth and Love – The Ninth Commandment

Truth and Love

Exodus 20:16

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

Truth hurts, or, at least, it can. But that doesn’t mean that telling people the truth is somehow unloving. It may hurt us to hear God say that we’re dead in our trespasses and sin; that our best works are a stench in His nostrils; and that we don’t have the righteousness it takes to enter His presence for even a moment.

But it is loving of God to tell us this so that, as the truth in Jesus Christ sets us free from these truthful but awful realities, we may know true life, eternal life in God. So we must not withhold truth from our neighbors because we’re afraid we might hurt their feelings or cause them to be upset with us.

But how, you may ask, am I withholding truth from my neighbor? When was the last time you talked with a neighbor about the Truth (and the Way and Life) that can set him free?

We are ambassadors of truth; it is not loving for us to keep the truth to ourselves. Do you have a strategy for sharing the truth of Jesus with your neighbors? How’s it going?

Daily meditation in the Law of God helps us along the path of holiness, righteousness, and goodness (Rom. 7:12). Order your copy of The Law of God, a compilation of the Mosaic Law for contemporary believers, by going to www.MyParuchia.com, point your browser to “Publications,” then click on the drop-down option, “Waxed Tablet Publications.”

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore.

T.M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.