Jon Collins

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The way we normally summarize the meaning of the ninth commandment is we flatten it out.

Don't lie.

But instead, it's you will not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Do not bear false witness.

What does that mean?

This is a fixed little phrase used to refer specifically to legally or publicly making a declaration.

The biblical authors have this conviction that when truth is misrepresented in the one place where the truth is the most at stake in a public way, it results in violence towards the most vulnerable.

Because who tends to suffer, get the most taken advantage of when people bend the truth in legal settings?

Often it's people who are in vulnerable social and economic positions.

Hold up and celebrate and reinforce the value of truth telling in our public setting.

That is what's at stake in the ninth command.

Do not bear false witness.

Hello, John Collins.

Hello.

We are looking at the Ten Commandments.

We are nearing almost the end.