The Eighth Commandment

Beyond the sacredness of a person's body, marriage, and property, there is yet another treasure that no one can do without: his honor and reputation. Public shame and contempt are simply unbearable. God intends to guard our neighbor's honor and character just as He guards his other possessions, so that every person may be respected by his wife, children, servants, and neighbors. The most immediate and obvious meaning of the command "Thou shalt not bear false witness" concerns legal injustice, specifically the case of a poor and innocent person being wronged by false testimony for the purpose of punishing him in body, property, or good name.

This application of the commandment may seem largely irrelevant to us today, but in the Jewish courts it was highly valued and regularly practiced. The Israelites were a well-governed people, and wherever similar governance exists, this sin still appears. Here is why: when judges, mayors, princes, or other officials sit in judgment, people tend to follow the ways of the world and are reluctant to offend anyone. For the sake of political convenience, they give dishonest testimony in exchange for money, favors, or friendship. As a result, the poor man's case collapses, and he is left to suffer. It is one of the world's most persistent failures that judges are rarely godly people, yet godliness should be the first qualification for the office. A judge should also be wise and measured, courageous and unafraid. The same fearlessness is required of a witness, and beyond that, genuine godliness. Anyone who intends to administer justice fairly will frequently have to disappoint close friends, relatives, neighbors, and powerful people who could either help or harm him significantly. He must therefore shut his eyes and ears to everything except the evidence, and render his decision on that basis alone.

The first requirement of this commandment, then, is that each person must help his neighbor secure and maintain his rights. He must not stand by while those rights are violated; he must actively work to protect them in ways that God approves, whether he serves as judge or witness, regardless of the consequences. This is the standard to which every jurist should aspire: perfect justice in every case. What is right must remain right, never twisted, buried, or silenced for the sake of profit, honor, or power. This is one meaning of the commandment, and the most straightforward one, pertaining specifically to the court of justice.

This commandment carries a deeper meaning when applied to spiritual judgment and governance. In that context, everyone bears false witness against their neighbor in one way or another. Godly preachers and faithful Christians are condemned by the world as heretics and apostates, even as troublemakers and dangerous criminals. The Word of God is shamelessly and maliciously attacked and blasphemed, subjected to distortion, misrepresentation, and deliberate misreading. But let that pass. The blind world has always made a habit of denouncing and persecuting the truth and God's children, and sees nothing sinful in doing so.

The third teaching applies to everyone without exception. Any use of the tongue that harms or offends our neighbor is forbidden. False witness is, after all, clearly a sin of the tongue, and so God forbids everything done with the tongue to the injury of our fellow human beings. This harm can come through the false doctrines and blasphemies of corrupt teachers, through the injustice of dishonest judges and witnesses, or through the lies and malicious words of ordinary people who hold no official position. Especially included here is that contemptible vice of slanderous gossip, through which Satan corrupts us so effectively. Much could be said about it. It reflects a common weakness of human nature that people would sooner hear something bad about their neighbor than something good. Wicked as we ourselves are, we cannot stand to have anyone speak ill of us; we want the whole world to sing our praises. And yet we are perfectly unwilling to extend that same courtesy to others.

To avoid sins of the tongue, we need to understand that publicly judging or rebuking a neighbor is forbidden, even when you have personally witnessed the sin, unless you hold the authority to judge and rebuke. There is a vast difference between knowing about a sin and having the right to pass judgment on it. Simply being aware of someone's sin does not give you the right to adjudicate it. Even if I see or hear my neighbor sin, I am not obligated to report it. If I rashly pronounce a verdict against him, I commit a greater sin than he did. When you become aware of a sin, you must keep it to yourself in silence until proper authority to judge and punish has been granted to you.

Slanderers are those who, not satisfied with merely knowing about a sin, presume to judge it themselves. They catch wind of some minor offense committed by another person and broadcast it everywhere, taking the same kind of pleasure in that person's wrongdoing as pigs take in wallowing and rooting through mud. This behavior amounts to seizing the prerogatives of God's own office and judgment, condemning and sentencing others with full severity. After all, the harshest verdict any earthly judge can deliver is to declare someone a thief, a murderer, or a traitor. When a person presumptuously accuses his neighbor of such crimes, he is effectively claiming the authority of an emperor or a governing body. Instead of a sword, he uses his poisonous tongue to bring his neighbor to disgrace and ruin.

God therefore wants to keep us from speaking evil of another person, even when that person is genuinely guilty and we know it for certain. This command carries even greater force when we're working from rumor alone. But perhaps you ask, "Can't I say what I know to be true?" My answer is this: why not bring it before the proper authorities? "Because I don't have the evidence to prove it, and I risk being punished for making a false accusation." So that's the real problem. If you're not willing to file a formal charge and stand behind it, then stay silent. Keep what you know to yourself. If you spread a story you can't prove, you'll come across as a liar. Worse than that, you're acting wrongly, because you have no right to damage the reputation of someone who hasn't been condemned by any legitimate authority.

Any report that can't be legally proven is, in effect, false witness. What hasn't been publicly established, no one should present as fact. Simply put, what is private should either stay private or be addressed through a quiet, personal conversation. When someone comes to you with a loose tongue, eager to expose and slander another person, shame them by calling it out directly to their face. In doing so, you'll silence many who would otherwise heap disgrace on some poor individual who would struggle to clear his name. It's far easier to destroy a good reputation than to rebuild one.

In short, we must not speak evil of our neighbor under any circumstances. The exception applies to civil authorities, pastors, and parents, since the commandment should not be read as allowing wrongdoing to go unchallenged. Consider how the fifth commandment forbids us to harm anyone physically, yet makes an exception for the executioner. By virtue of his office, he does nothing but inflict bodily harm on his neighbor, yet he does so without sin, because his office is established by God, who in the first commandment reserves the right of punishment for Himself. No one has the right, on his own authority, to condemn another person. But those who hold an official position and fail to carry out their duty sin just as surely as those who overstep their authority. It is necessary that wrongdoing be formally charged, that investigation and testimony be brought to bear. The situation is similar to that of a physician, who must sometimes be required to conduct a thorough and private examination of his patient. In the same way, civil authorities, parents, close relatives, and friends are mutually obligated to confront sin when doing so is both necessary and likely to do some good.

The right approach in this matter is to follow the instruction Christ gives in the Gospel: "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you" (Matt 18:15). Here you have an exceptionally valuable lesson in governing your tongue, and you must take it seriously, avoiding every misuse of it. Let it shape your conduct so that you don't rush to defame or slander your neighbor behind his back. Instead, quietly address him in private, so that you may bring about his correction. Follow the same principle when someone comes to you with a report of another person's wrongdoing: tell him to handle the matter himself if he witnessed it firsthand, and otherwise to keep silent.

You can learn this lesson from the everyday management of a household. When the master of the house sees a servant making a mistake, he addresses the servant directly. If he were foolish enough to leave the servant at home, go out into the street, and complain to the neighbors instead, he would undoubtedly hear back: "Fool! What does this have to do with us? Why don't you speak to the servant yourself?" That is the brotherly way to handle it, because it stops the problem at its source and protects your neighbor's reputation. As Christ himself says in that same passage: "If he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother" (Matt 18:15). Then you will have accomplished something truly significant. Do you think winning your brother back is a small thing? Let all the monks and religious orders pile up their good works and see if they can claim any merit equal to having "gained a brother."

Christ goes on to teach: "But if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three every word may be established" (Matt 18:16). So we are always to deal with the person directly, rather than speaking ill of him behind his back to others. And if that approach still fails, we are to bring the matter before a proper authority, whether civil or ecclesiastical. At that point, we are no longer standing alone; we have witnesses who can testify against the offender, and on their testimony the judge can render a verdict and impose a penalty. This is lawful procedure, and the offender will either be restrained or reformed. But when people go around gossiping about others everywhere, spreading their faults and failures, no one is made better by it. When those same gossips are later called to testify, they deny having said anything at all. It would be entirely fitting, then, if they were severely punished for their slander, as a warning to everyone else. Anyone who genuinely wanted to help a neighbor improve, or who cared about bringing the truth to light, would not go about it in secret, skulking in the shadows and avoiding the open.

All of this applies to wrongdoing that is hidden. But when the wrong is so public that the judge and the entire world can see it, you may, without sin, distance yourself from the wrongdoer and let justice take its course; he has disgraced himself, and you are free to testify openly against him. When something is plainly evident, there is no slander, no injustice, and no false witness involved. This is why, for example, we criticize the pope for his doctrines, which are publicly proclaimed in books and condemned before the whole world. When a sin is committed in public, the correction should be equally public, so that others learn to guard themselves against it.

The heart of this commandment, then, is this: no one should use their tongue to harm their neighbor, whether friend or foe. You must not speak evil of another person, whether what you say is true or false, unless you are required to do so by authority or are genuinely trying to bring about that person's correction. We are called to use our tongues to speak well of everyone, to cover our neighbor's sins and weaknesses, to look past their failings, and to honor them as they deserve. Our greatest motivation for doing this should be to fulfill Christ's command in the Gospel, which gathers up everything we owe our neighbor into a single principle: "In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you" (Matt 7:12).

Nature itself teaches us this same truth through our own bodies. As Paul writes, "those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary; and those parts of the body which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness" (1 Cor 12:22-23). We never cover our faces. We don't need to, because our facial features are our most honorable members. Our most shameful parts, however, we carefully conceal, with our hands, eyes, and entire body working together to hide them. In the same way, when it comes to how we treat one another, we should speak well of whatever is dishonorable or unflattering in our neighbor's character, do everything we can to help and serve him, and actively promote his reputation. Equally, we should prevent anything that would bring him dishonor. It is a particularly fine and noble virtue to interpret charitably everything we hear about our neighbor (provided it is not a matter of public wrongdoing), and to defend him against the poisonous tongues of gossips who spend their time digging up accusations, twisting facts, and distorting the truth. This kind of defense is especially needed today for the precious Word of God and for God's ministers, who are so often the targets of such treatment.

This commandment, then, encompasses many great and worthy works that are exceptionally pleasing to God and bring abundant blessings, if only the blind world and the self-righteous could recognize them. For there is nothing about a person, inside or out, that can do greater good or greater harm in spiritual or earthly matters than this smallest and weakest of his members: the tongue.