Liar

My pastor today preached on the ten commandments. It was a banger but sometimes there’s a quick aside, a word of explanation that is aside from the main point that is wrong. Obviously, I’m not going to be asinine and point it out to him, after the fact. I don’t want him to know I actually listen.

But what is this commandment? Is it it lying?

I don’t think so.

Do not bear false witness would be lying.

Do not bear false witness against your neighbor (emphasis mine, duh they didn’t have italics in Hebrew) is to degrade your neighbor. Let’s look at examples

The Bible

So did John lie when the pharisees asked him if he was Elijah or if they should wait for someone else? ⊕ John 1, Matthew 11, Malichi 4

Did David sin when he pretended to be insane? Or did Nathan sin when he deceived David that he was talking about someone else? ⊕ 1 Samuel 21, 2 Samuel 12

Did the left handed assassin sin when he killed the king of Judah? ⊕ Judges 3-4

Did Joseph sin when he deceived his brothers and wrongly accused his youngest brother Benjamin of stealing?

Did the Midwives in Egypt sin when they told Pharoah that they couldn’t kill the Jewish babies? ⊕ Exodus 1

Did Rahab sin when she lied for the spies?

History

⊕  The underground railroad was a network of safe spaces to transport people who were enslaved to a safer home. It existed roughly from 1780 to 1865  Did Christians sin by hiding people who were enslaved in America in the 18th and 19th century?

Christians in China under Mao

⊕ Military zones were created in California, Washington and Oregon—states with a large population of Japanese Americans. Then Roosevelt’s executive order forcibly removed Americans of Japanese ancestry from their homes. Executive Order 9066 affected the lives about 120,000 people—the majority of whom were American citizens. If Christians hid their neighbors because of their Asian descent. Would that have been a sin? There’s some evidence that this did happen, especially among the Quakers.

So We Can Lie Whenever We Want?

Absolutely not. What we can do is protect our negihbors, love our neighbors with a charity that surpasses boundaries of my tribe and “other.”