The Law of God by E. J. Hibbard

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 29, 1902

The Law of God

By E. J. Hibbard

The Ninth Commandment.

“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” The devil “was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar and the father of it.” “All liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Says Jesus, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” “Sanctify them [My disciples] through Thy truth; Thy Word is truth.” “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice.” But to those who were not “of the truth,” but “of their father” (the father of lies), Christ said, “Because I tell you the truth, ye believe Me not.” People who have mingled with liars, who have heard lies, believed lies, and lived lies, until they hold them to be truth, will of course reject truth when they hear it, because it is opposite to the lies which they hold to be truth. “I said in my haste, All men are liars.” What a forbidding field for the truth to enter!

For what reasons do people bear false witness against one another? What lies at the base of it all?—In one word it may be told, and that is the root of all sin, namely, “selfishness.” Witness the case of Ahab, who desired the vineyard of Naboth. That vineyard was the inheritance of Naboth’s fathers; the one apportioned to them when the land was divided among the tribes. And the Lord had commanded that the “land should not be sold.” It was a gift of God, a type of the everlasting inheritance. Yet in order to procure the prize they coveted, Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, secured two men, the “sons of Belial,” to testify in court that they had heard Naboth blaspheme God and the king. As this crime was by law punishable by death, Naboth was stoned, and Ahab secured the vineyard. Covetousness, false witnessing, murder, and then robbery; and high heaven noted it all. Swift came the verdict from the King of kings, and was delivered by that fearless prophet, Elijah: “Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will cut off thy posterity.”

Why were false witnesses secured to testify against the Son of God?—Because His life and words of purity and truth were condemnatory to the false-hearted teachers of that day; because the truth was winning the admiration and support of the multitudes; because these things lessened the influence of those who had a form of godliness without the power thereof. In their desperation they cried, “If we let Him thus alone, all men will believe on Him; and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.” Yes, and “our place,” in the eyes of such men, meant, first of all, the office and influence we are holding among the people. And this is a sample of what has cursed the earth from that day until this.

False witnesses against Stephen; false witnesses against Paul; false witnesses against the martyrs of Christ through all the ages which have followed. Heaven knows that in no other sphere of life, have men so wilfully, so persistently, so violently, trodden under foot the ninth commandment, as where false-headed and false-hearted professors of Christianity have sought a way to get rid of the testimony of the truth.

Note the contemptible falsity of those Jews who came to accuse Paul before Felix. Ananias the high priest was at the bottom of it all. He secured an orator by the name of Tertullus. This orator represented Paul as a “mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world.” He said they had found him in the act of profaning the temple. “Whom,” said he, “we took, and would have judged according to our law. But the chief captain Lysias came upon us, and with great violence took him away out of our hands.” Now the facts were that they were the ones using the “great violence.” They were not intending to examine or judge him at all; but would have torn Paul limb from limb, had it not been for the interposition of the chief captain. Nor was he a mover of sedition; nor had they found him profaning the temple. The whole accusation, from first to last, was a fabrication inspired by the devil. To such lengths will men go, who, having rejected the Word and Spirit of God, still hold a form of godliness.

Rumors of this kind of doing have reached our ears, even in these latter days. At least the writer has heard them. If the reader has not, he soon will, if he keeps an account of the daily happenings.

In political life, in military life, in social life, in commercial life, what bold-faced and blasphemous transgression of this ninth command is daily committed!

Is some one a candidate for a political office? His friends overstate his virtues, and his foes his vices. Are they rival candidates? Each one, together with his constituency, endeavors to smirch the character of the other. Has some general or admiral won a famous battle? He who did it is not found out so quickly as was the one who killed “cock robin.” Is some one called handsome or brilliant? What rival is not ready to say, “The ugly, stupid thing.” But as to the commercial world, let us be delivered. Their ways are past finding out. O, that false hair, false eyes, false teeth, false limbs, would sum up the matter; but they are not a beginning. False hearts, false mouths, false minds, false characters, are the rule and not the exception here below. Men and women have become a living negative to the ninth commandment of Jehovah’s law.

What is the crying need of the hour? Is it that false-hearted professors of the religion of Christ secure the co-operation of the civil arm to enforce the form of godliness upon that class of sinners who are open in their transgressions? That would only be to create a class of hypocrites not superior to themselves. Is not hypocrisy the worst form of false witnessing? “Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.” But if my life denies my profession, am I not a false witness? In heaven there is no need of witnesses to the fact that the Lord is God. Where, then, are witnesses needed?—On earth, to be sure. And why are they needed so much here?—Because the world does not know God. To the Christians it is said, “Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men.” Ungodly men do not read their Bibles; they read professing Christians. Have they not a right to do so? But if while I “profess” that I know Christ, I in works deny Him, before whom

and among whom is that denial?—My neighbors, of course—the ones nearest me. Is not this the worst possible form of false witnessing against my neighbor? A godly life might have won him. The other kind has driven him away.

But what is the need of the hour?—The same that has been since sin obscured the glory of God—that men might behold Him; not a picture of Him; not a description of Him; but Him, Himself, as He is indeed. This, men saw in Christ. He was a true witness of the Father. He could truthfully say, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” “The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself; but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.” And to His disciples He said, “As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.” Did He not therefore send us in order that the world, seeing us, would see Him? Were not our lives intended to be a reflection only of His? This demands conversion. This demands the birth from above. This demands the anointing and abiding of the Holy Spirit. This means entire harmony with the Word of God. This IS the ninth commandment. E. J. Hibbard.