“Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

You shall not murder.

Neither shall you commit adultery.

Neither shall you steal.

Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.

Neither shall you covet your neighbor’s wife.

Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor” Deuteronomy 5:16-21

{“A man called, furious about an Orlando, Florida, vacation package we had booked for him: He was expecting an ocean-view hotel room. I explained that was not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state. “Don’t lie to me,” he said. “I looked on the map, and Florida is a very thin state.”}

“Don’t lie to me”. I heard that statement from my mother more than once in my life. But, to tell the truth, telling the truth all of the time is truly a challenge. Some will say that there are certain situations where the lie is more appropriate than the truth – for the truth will create a situation that is worse than the lie. And, as much as we all hate to admit it, this instruction has merit. Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania academic Maurice Schweitzer…suggests lying can be ethical at times. Schweitzer’s colleague at Wharton, Emma Levine, advises people to lie sometimes. “The key takeaway is to understand when we should lie, when does honesty actually harm trust, and when can deception actually breed trust and be seen as moral.”

In truth, anyone who says “I never lie” is, well, lying. And yet we have the commandment, number eight in fact, which says we are not to “bear false witness against our neighbor”. Yes, this does teach us not to lie. But it does more than that. According to Martin Luther: the eighth Commandment says:

“We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.”

If you thought always telling the truth was hard, well, there is a lot more to obeying the commandments than meets the…….lie.

Pastor Dave