Procedure, Polity, and Defending Sin
How the Ninth Commandment Teaches Us About Truth-Telling
Howdy!
Man, out of all the catechism questions we’ve gone through over the past year and a half I am pretty sure not only is this the longest one, but it is the one that highlights every single problem we experience in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The length of today’s essay cannot do the totality of the Q/A justice. Part of me wants to do about twelve posts on each of the clauses contained herein. However, I don’t figure you particularly want that level of minutiae. That all being said I highly recommend slowly reading through each of them and imbibe deeply into your soul the stuff listed. It is convicting, at least it is for me. As we get into the WLC this morning I will try and do justice to the thought of our forefathers in the faith, for it is definitely all-encompassing in regards to what the ninth requires of God’s covenant people.
To ignore what is below is to do real damage to your soul and walk with the Lord.
Read the Q/A:
Q. 145: What are the sins forbidden in the ninth commandment?
A. The sins forbidden in the ninth commandment are, all prejudicing the truth, and the good name of our neighbours, as well as our own, especially in public judicature; giving false evidence, suborning false witnesses, wittingly appearing and pleading for an evil cause, out-facing and over-bearing the truth; passing unjust sentence, calling evil good, and good evil; rewarding the wicked according to the work of the righteous, and the righteous according to the work of the wicked; forgery, concealing the truth, undue silence in a just cause, and holding our peace when iniquity calleth for either a reproof from ourselves, or complaint to others; speaking the truth unseasonably, or maliciously to a wrong end, or perverting it to a wrong meaning, or in doubtful and equivocal expressions, to the prejudice of truth or justice; speaking untruth, lying, slandering, backbiting, detracting, talebearing, whispering, scoffing, reviling, rash, harsh, and partial censuring; misconstructing intentions, words, and actions; flattering, vain-glorious boasting, thinking or speaking too highly or too meanly of ourselves or others; denying the gifts and graces of God; aggravating smaller faults; hiding, excusing, or extenuating of sins, when called to a free confession; unnecessary discovering of infirmities; raising false rumours, receiving and countenancing evil reports, and stopping our ears against just defence; evil suspicion; envying or grieving at the deserved credit of any, endeavouring or desiring to impair it, rejoicing in their disgrace and infamy; scornful contempt, fond admiration; breach of lawful promises; neglecting such things as are of good report, and practicing, or not avoiding ourselves, or not hindering what we can in others, such things as procure an ill name.
As noted above picking out which to talk about is kind of hard. Yet the first line is the foundation for what comes after. Prejudicing the truth means malice aforethought. It means calling evil good in order that good may come. It means the ends justifying the means. Nothing in the Christian life is more antithetical to the way our sinful hearts operate and how the world judges truth than to sin that grace might abound. We have a tendency to reduce the commandments to simple aphorisms, like the ninth being about lying in court, in order that we might not need to wrestle with the implications of the law for other areas of life. If adultery is just about not cheating on your wife and stealing is just about not taking what doesn’t belong to you then we can sidestep questions like nudity in movies or usury. We don’t want to be Pharisees after all.
But ironically the Ninth Commandment is about just that. Prejudicing the truth can mean not teaching the whole counsel of God because you are afraid of the consequences if you do. If the contemporary Church can be charged with violating the witness of the Bible on any point it is most certainly this one. Another way to understand the idea is that if we see something wrong and do not speak up we are not only hurting the person being harmed, but we are allowing the harmer to get away from the right justice of God due unto them. To not point out the transgression of another because it is “not the right time” or “it was a long time ago” is to violate the spirit and the letter of the Ninth Commandment. To protect an individual from the consequences of their own sin due to their or your position of authority or personal effect/their other good works is to treat sin as a moving scale which can be offset by other considerations. The Scriptures tell us that we are not to use dishonest weights and measures. (Prov. 11:1). Sin is sin no matter who is doing it or for what reason it was done. While confession is to be taken into account that does not change the temporal penalties which arise from it. Failure to act in justice is to harm both parties. If you have witnessed evil it is sin to not report it, and it is an even greater wickedness to hide it, or use parliamentary or other procedure to sweep it under the rug. Using the excuse of the rules to get out of doing the work of rebuke is cowardice, which breaks the Sixth Commandment.
As we wind down I want to skip down towards the end of the list above and talk a little bit about . . . and stopping our ears against just defence. Nothing is more painful to our ego than learning that someone we dislike is actually innocent of the charges we or others have made against them. Husbands and wives struggle with this probably more than any other. When it turns out your spouse did in fact turn off the oven we can have a hard time both apologizing for the false charge and receiving a positive report. Surely there must be a mistake in communication! However, to jump back into what we were discussing in the last paragraph when it comes to the question of friends and relations there can be a great difficulty in our heart as we listen to evidence that turns out that what we heard about them from someone else actually is true. We have a choice at that point. We can ignore, deflect, and obfuscate or we can rest and trust in the honesty of the report. To do the former and not the latter is to commit sin. There is a meme online about the “worst person you know” saying something correct. The truth is the truth no matter the source or its speaker. We make judgments about witness not on the outward things, but concerning the words themselves. To ignore reality for whatever “good” reason you can come up with is damaging to the witness of Christ. Consider that for a moment today.
Here is a last word:
https://gospelcenteredmusings.com/2008/08/05/should-you-pass-on-bad-reports/
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church