A Biblical View of Lying

Jim ButlerExodus 20:16

The ninth commandment — 'You shall not bear false witness' — reaches far beyond the courtroom to govern every form of speech: perjury, slander, backbiting, gossip, tailbearing, and religious hypocrisy. The command is grounded in the character of God as the Lord of truth and in the practical necessity of social order, which collapses when confidence between persons is destroyed. The sermon closes by directing the hearer not to resolve moral reformation but to flee to Christ, whose sinless tongue and atoning death are the only ground on which the tongue-defiled sinner may stand.