The Ninth and Tenth Commandments
Exodus 20: 16 - 17
What is the substance of the ninth commandment “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour? The narrow context is in the courtroom, but we can talk about it in a wider context. One can bear false witness against one’s neighbour not only in the courtroom. What happens when one bears false witness against one’s neighbour? It will ruin the reputation of the neighbour. This has some connection with the third commandment “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain”, which talks about the reputation of God. Today we will talk about the reputation of man.
Of course it is clear that man is not God, but we are also called to keep the reputation of our neighbour. Fretheim says “corporate structures of justice depend on truthfulness.”. If man is not truthful and carries out character assassination, society will become chaotic. However, in a world that is used to competition, bringing someone down and ruining the person’s reputation come as one package. Thus, if we do not break free from the spirit of competition, we likely cannot break free from bad-mouthing others.
One might say this is not absolutely true as a competition does not always have to be an unhealthy one. Actually from the christian perspective, we do not see competition as something biblical, but suppose there is such a thing as healthy competition: even in that case one should show what is better in him/herself instead of bad-mouthing others. However, how come in a competition we often find that one bad-mouths one another? How come we cannot be content with our own results? I think the answer is quite simple. It is because we do not always win. If we always win, there is no need to bad-mouth others. However, if we lose, we are smaller, we are lower, then we start bad-mouthing others. In reality, no one always wins every competition. Thus, do not bring the spirit of competition into your life. It will become chaotic.
Suppose someone is very competitive and loses out in a competition, and then he or she bad-mouths others. You can see here the relationship between bad-mouthing others and being a loser. In the animal world, smaller dogs are the ones who usually bark at bigger dogs. Have you ever seen a big dog barking at a small dog like a poodle? So why do the smaller ones bark at the bigger ones? Because they feel insecure, threatened and ‘losing’. Thus, leave that competitive world. It is anyway the kingdom of the world, not the Kingdom of God. It is more similar to the Olympian ethos, where one competes with one another to obtain a vain crown that will be forgotten.
If not this, then, what is the Kingdom of God? It is about working together. The Kingdom of God is about seeing the goodness in other people. You can see the contrast here. If you do not bear false witness against your neighbour, it does not mean just about bearing the true witness about them. Instead, we should learn to speak about the good things about other people. Even if there are weaknesses in other people, we learn, in love, to cover them. Bearing false witness against our neighbours ruins their reputation. The opposite is not just about not ruining their reputation - this is not enough. Instead, we should contribute to the flourishing of other people’s reputation. This is the Kingdom of God.
Do not misunderstand me: I am not encouraging the culture of bootlicking. We should give sincere praise from the bottom of our hearts when speaking of good things about other people. When you praise God, it should come from admiration of Him. Likewise, when you praise other people, it should also come from admiration of them, not because you desire to obtain something beneficial for yourself. That would be bootlicking. In this life we should concern ourselves not only with our own reputation, but also our neighbours’ reputation.
In the current era of social media (which I do not really understand as I did not grow up in the same era), people could commit suicide because of bullying in social media. You can see how powerful this evil is. People are able not only to ruin others’ reputation, but also to make him or her hate themselves and commit suicides. This does not happen only once or twice. What, then, is the antidote to this, be it in social media or in real life? It is the ninth commandment ‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour’. It means learning to see the goodness of others and talking about it. In the reality of the Kingdom of God, this is possible. However, in the reality of the kingdom of the world that is full of competition and where people rejoice over the downfall of their competitors, this is impossible. The question is, then, are we actually living in the Kingdom of God, or in the kingdom of the world?
The tenth commandment talks about the sin of covetousness. Fretheim observes that this commandment seemingly is the only commandment that is concerned with the offence of the heart or mind. The previous commandments of course deal with the heart and mind as well, but if you only take the apparent sense of the words, the tenth commandment directly points to the heart and mind. When we read ‘You shall not murder’, we immediately think about the act of murder. We know, after reading Jesus’ interpretation of it in the Gospel of Matthew, that it is not only about the literal act of murder, but also about anger and hatred, involving the heart and mind. However, a simple reading of ‘You shall not murder’ will lead people to think only about the act of murder, not about the heart and mind. When you read the tenth commandment ‘You shall not covet’, it directly speaks about the heart.
Somehow this commandment is seemingly more radical. However, as previous commandments seemingly concern only actions but actually concern the heart and mind, in a similar way, while the tenth commandment seemingly concerns only the heart and mind, it actually concerns actions as well. The word ‘coveting’ suggests the impulse of the will, but in real life, we know that the impulse could turn into real actions. The previous commandments invite us to see that behind concrete actions, there is an inclination of the heart to go astray. The tenth commandment invites us to think in the opposite direction: the impulse of the will or the inclination of the heart, usually, if not always, leads to concrete sinful actions. In other words, the tenth commandment actually invites us to see the real core of the problem in the failures of man. It is the desire of the heart, that is covetous, that often desires that which is not his or her portion.
The word ‘covetousness’ brings up many discussions on its meaning. A connection is even made with the story of the fall of man where Eve desired the forbidden fruit. It is not just any kind of desire, like the desire for food like curry wurst or pork knuckle, but it is about the desire for something that is not one’s own portion, or at least not yet theirs. There are some objects addressed in the commandment, which are of course not exhaustive: neighbour’s house, wife, male servant, female servant, donkey, etc. It could include sins of desire such as greed. With respect to coveting a neighbour’s wife, it could include the sin of lust. It could also be the underlying sin of desire, which is envy. These are what should be seen in the sin of covetousness.
In this life, we are provided for by God. However, we are not grateful for God’s providence. Instead, we want more and more, which are not actually entrusted by God to us. Worse still, sometimes we deceive ourselves by saying that one should have ambition and make progress, but actually we have the sin of covetousness. On the other hand, there are people who are lazy and do not like to work hard, but pretend to aspire for contentment before God and deceive themselves as well. However, I am now not talking about contentment, but the sin of covetousness. Many people cannot feel grateful for God’s blessings and cannot become blessings for others. Instead of being grateful for things entrusted by God to them and sharing them with other people, we feel and say that we still lack one thing after another. ‘Before I have this and that in my hands, I cannot serve God and share with other people because I do not have enough yet.’ Again, our concrete actions often reveal the intentions of our heart, especially towards other people.
Let us read Matthew 5:21-27. “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgement. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgement;”. Of course this is about the commandment ‘You shall not murder’, but we see here that the attitude of the heart, filled with anger, leads to the act of murder. Likewise about the sin of lust, in the verse “You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”, you can see why a person commits adultery. It is because they already have a lustful intent in their hearts.
Recently a rather popular servant of God was disciplined for having an inappropriate relationship with a woman much younger than him. His colleague, who is quite close to him and who I believe does not have any intention to ruin his reputation, gives an interesting comment. He reminds his congregation, people whom he teaches. He says it bluntly and clearly that the people should bear in mind that someone would not have sex with a woman who is not his wife, unless he also sets aside some time to go out with the woman and without anyone else. The point is simple: one does not suddenly have sex with a woman that is not his wife or with a man that is not her husband. The pattern is similar as it starts with going out with a woman that is not his wife or a man that is not her husband, without anyone else. I am not saying the servant of God and the woman already have sex, as they testify that they have not had any sexual intimacy. My point is not about this particular incident and not about the person, but about the pattern of the intention of the heart leading to actions. Thus, we must be self-critical and keep our hearts’ inclination checked.
It is therefore important to desire in a holy way. Fighting the sin of desire is not about suppressing the desire. To be human is to desire. However, what do we desire? Do we desire God and His fullness, God and His righteousness? Do we desire the coming of His kingdom? If we do not have holy desires, then sinful desires will take over our lives. It is impossible for us not to desire. There is no one who is without any desire. Thus we do not talk about how not to have any desire because it is unrealistic. Instead, we ask ourselves what we really want from inside our hearts. Jesus says, ‘My food is to do the will of the Father’. Food is something simple that we desire, and we desire to eat delicious food. It is not wrong to desire delicious food, but beware of the sin of gluttony. It is not wrong to be fond of travelling, but beware of the sin of squandering the money and time from God.
What should we then do? You and I have to learn to desire God. Learn to be like Jesus who says ‘My food is to do the will of my Father’ and grasp its meaning. It is talking about spiritual appetite. When you eat, you have an appetite for food. Likewise, Jesus has a spiritual appetite to do the will of God. You and I live in Europe. We can satisfy many human appetites as we may have resources to do so. The temptation is then to replace the spiritual appetite with other appetites which do not lead us anywhere. Instead, they make us want more and more so that we become truly dissatisfied with our lives. Hopefully we learn in our lives about what we truly desire the most.
There is always a spiritual war because the world would not let you go from desiring the world. However, we are christians, we are believers. We should desire God, His kingdom, His righteousness. It is not that we cannot eat, drink or wear clothes. All things, including our basic needs, will be provided by God. Hopefully we can be grateful for God’s providence. If you want to have ambition and desire, then desire the coming of the Kingdom of God. May God bless us all. (S.W.)