10 Commandments: Do not lie

Yesterday was the second in our series on the 10 Commandments, as we looked together at No. 9: Do not Lie. Based on J.John's book, Just 10, this series is designed to help us with our daily lives, the times spent on our frontline.
 I said less this week, and instead we spent time in small groups, discussing the issues raised by this ancient but bang up to date commandment.

Introduction 

As we go out onto our frontlines, we want to go out in God's name, representing Jesus in all that we do and say. And the point of this series on the 10 commandments is to help us to be distinctive, to be a breath of fresh air to those around us.

Do not lie 

We live in a society of truth decay. And it's rotting not just our mouths, but our personal lives and relationships.

Why do we tell lies? 

One of the reasons we tell lies is that we don't want to take responsibility for the things we do. The disease of BSE is widespread – Blame Someone Else. It really shows the state of our hearts.
James 3:7-12
When we think about the way that politicians, newspapers and advertisers tell us things that aren't true, but are what they think we need to hear, the way God conducts himself is in stark contrast.
God is the one who is always true. He never lies. He is never unfaithful. God never acts out of character. He not only speaks truth, he is truth. So consider Jesus. A man who practised what he preached, who lived truthfully and spoke of a faithful, trustworthy God who proved himself to be true in his own life by raising him from the dead.
Not only is God invariably true, everything that we do or say, think or hear happens before him. Nothing is hidden from his sight.
On the cross, Jesus paid the price for our lies and untruth. He took responsibility for the sins we tried to dodge owning up to. And because of his death, resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit, we can be offered a new start: forgiveness, transformation and the power to live a different life.
In this new life things have got to be different.
Ephesians 4:29,31
Colossians 3:8-9
We are called to be truthful in our speech, to be aware of just how powerful our words are, and to try and tame the tongue. So I've got a few tips to help us.

Avoid lies 

We need to be on our guard all the time to resist that very human tendency to cover up and not take responsibility. Adam and Eve knew they were naked. That's a metaphor for the shame we all feel – we all want to cover up aspects of ourselves, we all want to present the best possible face to the world. But not by lying.

Avoid gossip 

Part of bearing false witness is gossiping. The book of Proverbs talks about gossip being like delicious food, like choice morsels. Tempting, appetising though it is, we have to be different. The truthful people of God should never take pleasure in someone else's misfortune, nor spread rumour behind someone's back. If we are tempted to pass on gossip, we need to ask, “Am I prepared to put my name to this?” If we are concerned about something we hear, we need to go straight to the person concerned. Muck spreaders belong on farms, not in churches.

Be encouragers 

There's a modern day proverb which puts it nicely: “Lord, may my words be sweet and tender, for tomorrow I may have to eat them.”

Be true to your word 

Jesus encourages us to let our yes be yesm ,and our no, no. We should say what we mean and mean what we say, and be careful before making promises and commitments we might struggle to keep. Whatever else people may say about us, at least let them not be able to say we are hypocrites.

Be a listener 

One of the best ways of avoiding lies is not to say anything. Practise listening instead, be someone who can be trusted with important truth.

Be accountable 

We must have relationships where we have a commitment to openness and honesty. We need to find people who we can share weaknesses with and who will ask us the difficult questions and to whom we have promised to tell the truth.

 Before God let us pledge ourselves to faithfulness in all the different ways we speak.

Then we split into groups to discuss the following three questions:

1. In what ways does our society encourage us to lie? 
2. How can we resist the temptation to lie, especially on our frontline? 
3. What can we do as a body, to help us individually to keep this commandment?

Afterwards, we collected feedback from the groups which Judith turned into this wonderful mindmap.