You Shall Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor
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Resource 1: Secrets of Heaven
Forms of goodness related to the commandment on bearing false witness against your neighbor:
Call what is good, good, and what is true, true.
Say that what is good is good.
Say that what is true is true.
Call the good which is of faith good, and the truth which is of faith true.
Say that what is just is just.
Note: Be willing to see what is just.
In these ways say what is true.
Conversely, call what is evil, evil, and what is false, false.
Say that what is evil is evil.
Say that what is false is false.
Say that what is unjust is unjust.
Be willing to see what is unjust.
In this way say what is true.
Speak in these ways as a support to people who are in good.
Speak these ways as a support to goodness itself.
Be in the truth of faith.
Be in the truth and good of faith.
Confirm the truth of faith.
Confirm what is true, whether it be…
Before a judge.
Before anyone else.
Before yourself within your thought.
Scripture:
Make a covenant with life.
Be willing to hear the law of Jehovah.
Have truth in you.
Stand in the truth.
Make truth your trust.
Seek shelter in truth.
Be full of truth.
Love and tell the truth.
Teach your tongue to speak truth.
Speak the truth.
Speak from the Lord.
Support people by means of the truth.
Be sent by Jehovah.
Have conscience.
Note: Calling what is just, just—for no other reason than because it is just—is part of genuine conscience. It comes from a love of justice.
Love what is just.
Be in love of the Lord and love of your neighbor.
Be willing to acknowledge the Lord.
Resource 2: The Apocalypse Explained
Forms of goodness related to the commandment on bearing false witness against your neighbor:
Let the love of truth and the love of justice flow into you from the Lord through heaven.
Allow truth from the Lord to enter you.
Tell the truth.
Tell the truth about your neighbor.
Act the part of a true witness.
Call what is just, just.
Confirm what it just by means of truth.
Call what is unjust, unjust.
Confirm what is unjust by means of truth.
Uphold what is right.
Make what is right to appear right.
Uphold the truth and goodness of the Word of God.
Prove the truth of doctrine to be true.
Confirm this by means of truth.
Uphold truth—spiritual, moral, and civil—from a good heart.
Love truth.
Love justice.
Love the Lord.
Final notes:
When people love truth and justice, it may be said that truth and justice love them, because the Lord loves them.
As a consequence of this, the things they say become statements of truth, and the things they do become works of justice.
Resource 3: Principles of Life
Forms of goodness related to the commandment on bearing false witness against your neighbor:
In general:
Love the truth.
Desire to know it.
Let yourself be affected at heart when you discover it.
Note: To the extent that people love the truth, they wish to know it, and to the same extent they are affected at heart when the discover it. No one else comes into wisdom.
Love to do what is true.
Note: To the extent that people love to do what is true, they are aware of the pleasantness of the light in which truth exists.
Care about the truth for its own sake, thus interiorly.
Let the truth take root in your spiritual mind.
Love the truths that are in the Word of God, and do them from Him, thus bear fruit.
On the earthly level:
Be a true witness.
Tell the truth.
Uphold the good name and reputation of others.
On the spiritual level:
Declare what is true to be true, and what is good to be good, and confirm it to be so.
On the highest (or deepest) level:
Acknowledge the Lord.
Acknowledge and uphold His Word.
With regard to salvation:
Believe the truth which says that to be saved consists in practicing the commandments (which are, Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, and Do not bear false witness) on both their literal and deeper levels of meaning.
Notes which help explain this:
To the extent that people are in these evils, they have no faith.
Take counsel of reason and observe whether any murderer, adulterer, thief, or false witness is able to have faith as long as he or she desires or lusts for these evils.
Further, take counsel of reason whether a desire or lust for these evils can be shaken off in any other way than by refusing to want (or will) to commit them, for the reason that they are sins, that is, because they are infernal and devilish.
Whoever imagines that being saved consists in believing this or that thing taught by the church, while he or she remains evil in desire and character, is a “foolish person,” in accordance with the words of the Lord in Matthew 7:26.
Such a church is described in Jeremiah:
Stand in the gate of Jehovah’s house, and proclaim there this word: “Thus says Jehovah of Armies, the God of Israel, ‘Amend your ways and your doings. Do not trust in lying words, saying, “The temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, are these.” Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, “We are delivered,” while you do all these abominations? Is this house become a den of robbers? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, says Jehovah.’“
Therefore, as said, believe the truth which says that to be saved consists in practicing the commandments (which are, Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, and Do not bear false witness) on both their literal and deeper levels of meaning.
Resource 4: True Christianity
Forms of goodness related to the commandment on bearing false witness against your neighbor:
On the earthly level:
Act the part of a true witness…
Before a judge.
Before others not in a court of justice.
Be truthful in civic life, looking to a good goal.
Uphold the honor, good name, and good reputation of your neighbor.
Plan and intend what is good toward others from a good heart.
On the spiritual level:
Say that what is false is false and what is evil is evil.
Do this purposefully, after you have learned what is true and good, not before.
Be honest.
Scripture:
Make a covenant with life.
Make a vision with heaven.
Be willing to hear the law of Jehovah.
Be honest.
Dwell in the midst of honesty.
Make truth your trust.
Seek shelter in truth.
Tell the truth.
Teach your tongue to speak truth.
Speak from the Lord.
On the heavenly level:
Acknowledge the Lord.
Notes:
The Lord is the truth itself.
The Lord is the very truth.
The Lord bears witness, and He witnesses of Himself.
Speak the truth itself.
Acknowledge and uphold the Word of God.
Notes:
The Word of God is the truth itself.
Speak the truth itself.
Uphold truth in the church.
Speak what is true from honesty.
Speak it from spiritual affection.