The Eighth Commandment.
Which is the Eighth Commandment?
_Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor._
What does this mean?
_We should fear and love God that we may not deceitfully belie, betray,
slander, nor defame our neighbor, but defend him, speak well, of him,
and put the best construction on everything._
1. _"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor,"_ that is
the command of our heavenly Father in the Eighth Commandment. _False
witness_ is any false statement against our neighbor, anything false and
deceitful that we say against him. A _false_ statement is saying
something that is not true; it is a statement _against_ our neighbor
when it will harm him, or hurt his good name, or deprive him of it
altogether.--False witness comes out of an evil _heart,_ a heart that
is false and insincere against our neighbor. We should not even _think
evil_ of him. _"Let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against your
neighbor."_ Zech. 8,17. If we love God and for His sake our neighbor, we
shall always think well of him, even if he is our enemy.
2. We can bear false witness against our neighbor in many ways. Our
Catechism explains: "We should fear and love God that we may not
deceitfully belie, betray, slander nor defame our neighbor."--_We
should not belie our neighbor. Potiphar's wife_ belied Joseph. She told
her husband a lie about Joseph, saying that he had tried to wrong her.
She did so in order to harm Joseph, to bring him into prison.--_We
should not lie,_ we should never wilfully and knowingly tell an untruth,
or withhold the truth from our neighbor to harm him. Be careful always
to tell the truth. Our Lord tells us that the _devil_ is a liar and the
father of it. John 8,44. If you tell a lie, you do the work of the
devil. Remember that you are a child of God and that a child of God
fears and loves his heavenly Father. God hates all liars and will most
certainly punish them. _"He that telleth lies shall not tarry [remain]
in My sight,"_ says the Lord Ps. 101,7.
3. _We should not betray our neighbor._ We should not reveal his
secrets, not tell others what our neighbor does not want other people to
know. It shows a false and deceitful heart against our brother to reveal
his secret sins. _"A talebearer revealeth secrets; but he that is of a
faithful spirit concealeth the matter."_ Prov. 11,13.
4. _We should not slander nor defame our neighbor._ We are not to speak
evil against our brother behind his back, when he is not present and
therefore not able to defend himself. Even if the evil which we tell of
him be true, we should not tell others of it. Holy Scripture admonishes
us: _"Speak not evil one of another, brethren."_ Jas. 4,11. Because we
are brethren, we should not speak evil, but well, of one another. If we
slander and backbite our neighbor, speak evil of him when he is not
present, we _defame_ him, that is, we harm his good name; it is our
fault if other people will think evil of him. We are all much inclined
to these sins; therefore beware of backbiting and slandering your
neighbor. Honor and a good name are easily taken away, but not easily
restored.
5. We should never speak against our neighbor to harm and injure him,
but we are to speak _for_ him. _We should defend him._ When in our
presence anybody speaks evil of our brother behind his back, so that
this brother cannot speak for himself, we should not remain silent, but
speak for him, defend him against all false statements and lies uttered
against him. We should never allow our neighbor to be slandered in our
presence.
6. _We should speak well of our neighbor._ We are to speak well of his
good works and deeds, to praise them as far as it can be done in keeping
with the truth. Especially when others speak evil of our brother, when
they slander and defame him, we ought to take his part and speak
well of him, so that he may keep his good name. We read of Jonathan,
David's friend: _"And Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul, his father_
[who was David's enemy and wanted to kill him], _and said unto him, Let
not the king sin against his servant, against David, because he hath not
sinned against thee, and because his works have been to thee-ward_
[towards you] _very good."_ 1 Sam. 19,4. And in verse 6 we read that
Saul listened to Jonathan and resolved not to kill David. Owing to
Jonathan's good words, then, David was safe for a while. The Jews who
asked Jesus to heal the servant of the centurion spoke highly of him.
They besought the Lord instantly to hear the prayer of the centurion,
saying, _"That he was worthy for whom He should do this, for he loveth
our nation, and he hath built us a synagog."_ Luke 7,4.5. In the same
way we should speak well of our neighbor and praise him.
7. _We should put the best construction on everything_ that we hear of
our neighbor, or that we see him doing. We should put the best
construction on everything, that is, in love and charity we should cover
his faults and not make too much of them. We should explain all his
words and deeds in his favor as far as this can be done in keeping with
the truth. _"Charity shall cover the multitude of sins."_ 1 Pet 4,9.
True love and charity always thinks the best of the neighbor, always
hopes for the best, and will suffer wrong rather than do wrong.
_"Charity believeth all things, hopeth all things endureth all things."_
1 Cor. 13,7. It is a noble virtue to explain as best you can all you may
hear of your neighbor.
8. In this commandment God demands of us, His children, many good works
which are well-pleasing to Him, if only we would recognize them. There
is nothing which can do both greater good or harm in all matters than
our tongue, though it is such a small and feeble member of our body.