Don’t Bear False Witness
“A man that beareth false witness against his neighbour is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow.” (Proverbs 25:18 KJV)
To bear false witness against one’s neighbor is to lie in such a was as to implicate them in wrong-doing or as an assault on their character. It is to slander or libel against someone with a desire to destroy them. Sometimes motivated by greed or envy and sometimes as a means of covering one’s own tracks. The Ten Commandments forbade this type of assault on the character of another person.
The writer of Proverbs, clearly has in view the bearing of false witness as an attack employing three avenues. A “maul” is a club or a “war hammer” used to smash an opponent with great violence. It is a weapon of brute force and requires only great physical strength to wield, but little actual skill. Bearing false witness is like wielding a club in that it can be indiscriminate and the wielder keeps swinging until he hits something. It is similar to the idea of, “Throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks.” Bearing false witness can sometimes take a form similar to swordsmanship. This type of false witness is as a swordsman who wields his weapon with the precision and skill of an expert character assassin – they wait for the right moment and go straight for the heart. A man bearing false witness can also be like an archer. He shoots from long distance and, if possible, from behind. Those who bear false witness rarely do so where the one whose character they are seeking to destroy can see them. They shoot their false accusations, talking behind their victim’s back employing rumor, gossip, and insinuation as their arrows.
False witness was responsible for Joseph’s imprisonment and for Daniel’s visit to the lions’ den. When the Jewish leaders could find nothing in Jesus as a legitimate legal excuse to have Him crucified, they had to resort to hiring false witnesses. The false witness suborns justice, perverts the truth, and destroys character. The child of God must not be a false witness, even inadvertently. Similar to President Truman’s motto, “The Buck Stops Here,” the child of God who hears rumor, gossip, or insinuation must not pass it on.
Read Exodus 20:16; Matthew 15:19; Mark 14:53-65; Romans 13:8-10