Commandment 9 - What Is Truth?

COMMANDMENT 9 - WHAT IS TRUTH?

How appropriate it is on this Passion Sunday, when our hearts and minds are focused upon the suffering and death of Jesus, that we should find ourselves looking at the ninth commandment, namely, "You shall not bear false witness."

It is appropriate because it was on the testimony of false witnesses (who incidentally did not agree) that Jesus was eventually put to death. It was on trumped up religious and political charges that Jesus was eventually crucified.

No wonder that Pilate, when faced with such charges, found himself looking at Jesus and asking himself "What is Truth?"

And we too, as we contemplate that ninth commandment, find ourselves asking that same question, "What is Truth?"

I think most of us would agree that not telling the truth is a bad thing. Lying strikes at the root of all personal and social relationships. It breeds distrust, it imperils friendships, it makes honest commercial transactions impossible, and it creates a miasma of falsity which clouds the fairest day.

It still remains one of the curiosities of English public life that a Member of Parliament can get away with almost anything provided he does not lie about it in the House. That, in parliamentary terms, is the unforgivable sin. A man's political career will seldom survive it, as John Profumo and others like him, will bear testimony.

Similarly, our whole legal system is built upon the premise that under oath one will always tell the truth, and to do otherwise, leads to a charge of perjury.

Whilst we would all uphold 'truth' and condemn 'falsehood', the line of separation is not always that easy to define.

As regards libel and slander, which involve writing or saying something which can be demonstrated to have damaged a person's reputation, the line is defined by law.

However, what about those little 'white lies' which we tell, either out of cowardice or because we may hurt the person whom we are addressing. Is that "bearing false witness"?

Or what about those times when we have heard or read about things that were untrue, or only partly true, and have failed to correct them.

Alas, it is always so much easier to remain quiet and avoid upsetting a person with the facts. But in keeping quiet, are we in fact colluding with the lie and also being a "false witness"?

Then there is the charmer who can charm the birds from the trees. We often say he has kissed the 'Blarney stone' because he is so plausible. Now there is nothing wrong in being charming or plausible. The trouble comes when it becomes misleading and one is led astray and left wondering "What is truth?"

Then there are those occasions when one might even consider it may be right to lie.

I was delighted to watch on the TV recently that very old war-time film called "The Man Who Never Was." Those of you who have seen it, will recall that it is the story of how a dead man was dressed in a uniform, given a documentary history, provided with a passport, and launched from a submarine in the Mediterranean, with documents which ultimately led to the German High Command to moving powerful forces from the front which was under attack to a front against which no attack was contemplated. I suspect most of us would concede that it was right to lie in such a situation; lying being the lesser of two evils.

But what about advertising - to what extent is that lying?

Or what about 'spin doctoring'? Is that lying? After all, it is the job of Public Relations Officers to put a product, an event, a person or a policy in the most favourable light by carefully selecting material which will promote the case whilst suppressing other material which may not help the case.

As I said earlier, whilst we would all uphold 'truth' and condemn 'falsehood', the line of separation is not always easy to define, not least because we are seldom in possession of all the facts.

However, the one area where we are in possession of all the facts is that concerning our own lives.

The biggest lie which you and I can promote is to pretend to be what we are not. We are all capable of presenting a variety of faces and playing many parts, depending upon the situation in which we find ourselves and who we are trying to impress.

But Jesus, who described himself as "The Way, the Truth and the Life" never did that.

He was unchanging in His devotion to God and His compassion for men, without pretence or affectation, neither currying favour, nor deliberately provoking confrontation; the same man at a party or at a funeral, the same man on the hills of His beloved Galilee or in the Garden of Gethsemane, the same man on the Mount of Transfiguration and lifted on the Cross of Calvary, the same man whom Mary Magdalene loved on earth and whom she continued to love in Heaven, the same man whom Peter trusted in his ministry to the Galileans and in his subsequent ministry to the Samaritans, to the Gentiles and to the nations of the earth. This man was the Truth.

So the Old Testament says, "You shall not bear false witness"; the New Testament says, "Let everyone speak the truth".