Proverbs 6:16-19 These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: (17) A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, (18) An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, (19) A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
The wise king now lists the things that God hates. Today we are appalled by random murder, sexual perversions and generally ungodly lifestyles. Most of us are not guilty of these things, but what we find on this list is a litany of attitudes that we tolerate in our lives whether at home, in the work place or in Church. Let us now elaborate on each of them.
A false witness that speaketh lies: This element of God’s disdain can be found in the Ten Commandments. Through Moses, one of God’s instructions at Mt. Horeb was to not bear false witness, or not to lie.
In other places in this Book of Proverbs, our author and others reiterate the fate of the liar: rejection from God, and/or death. Lying is no small matter. I do not kill my children for lying but I tell them that each time they do, some of their trust capital in the bank of my heart dies. That is the consequential reward of the liar; he is not believed even when he tells the truth. Truth is pure. It is not cream color or off-white. If it is ‘off’, it is a lie.
The Bible always required at least two witnesses for every statement of truth. God Himself stays with that plan in His contractual Word to us. There were two witnesses at the transfiguration, and for every important events, there have always been at least two witnesses if not more. Even at Mt Horeb, Moses went up with Joshua, Caleb and the seventy elders whom the text tells us ate with God. At the end of our time, the book of Revelation tells us that there will be two witnesses in Jerusalem.
When bigoted religious leaders wanted to convict Jesus and even Steven in the Bible, the Bible tells us that they hired ‘lewed fellows of the baser sorts’ as false witnesses. To lie is to give a false or distorted account of a true event. This is the crowd we associate with when we lie; the ‘lewd fellows of the baser sort’ crowd.
We do not have to utter words in order to lie. God counts on us, those who proclaim to be His children, to be witnesses to the rest of the world of what it is to be a Child of the Most-High El-Shaddai. When we publicly claim that title, we bind ourselves to represent Him. If we don’t, or if we agree in our lives to ungodly standards, we make false witnesses of ourselves. In a way, if we are truly born-again the family of God, our lives should naturally demonstrate the fruits of the Spirit of God. When we don’t, while still claiming spiritual rebirth, we lie on two accounts: our citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven, and in misrepresenting ourselves to others.
Let us think about this today. Are our lives accurate witnesses of what we proclaim to be?
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