Different Life: 8th CommandmentNäide

Martin Luther explains the eighth commandment like this: “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” (Small Catechism).

The Westminster Larger Catechism gives two giant lists of examples of what it means to follow this. Here’s a sample: promoting the truth; standing for the truth; doing so freely, from the heart, sincerely, clearly, and fully; charitable esteem of our neighbors; loving, desiring, and rejoicing in their good name; defending the innocent; discouraging tale-bearers, flatterers, and slanderers; keeping lawful promises; and studying and practicing whatever things are true, honest, and lovely.

There’s more. It forbids: prejudicing the truth or someone’s good name; wittingly appearing to plea for an evil cause; over-bearing the truth; passing unjust sentence; calling evil good; backbiting; detracting; whispering; scoffing, being rash or harsh; aggravating smaller faults… The list goes on.

It seems there’s lots of ways we can mishandle the truth.

Maybe it can be summed up like this: Live truthfully and charitably. We need to be honest, but we also need to build people up. We need to seek the facts, but also put the best construction on things. We all know people who delight a little too much in “being honest.” We also know people who think they’re being kind by telling us what they think we want to hear.

How about you? In what ways are you mishandling the truth? How can you be a better truth-bearer today?