Proverbs 21:28 commentary; Are you a false witness?

28 ¶ A false witness shall perish: but the man that heareth speaketh constantly.

From Exodus 20:16 from the Ten Commandments and onward the false witness, the person who testifies falsely against another person, who lies to get them in trouble, is condemned. Here the false witness is lined up in contrast with the man who hears God and by hearing we have an assumption in the Bible that he obeys. This man speaks the truth consistently and without fail.

False witnesses gossip maliciously about other people. They make up stories to underscore their points or merely embellish the truth. False witnesses and gossips, if you notice, rarely lie to say something good about someone. Usually when they lie about someone it is to impugn their actions, their character, and their motives. They are always eager to believe and to get others to believe that someone has the worst possible intentions.

False witnesses on a larger scale help start wars like the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador who testified falsely before Congress that she was a volunteer in a Kuwaiti hospital who witnessed Iraqi soldiers killing babies as part of the government’s public relations campaign to get us into the First Gulf War.

False witnesses come on the news shows and convict people of crimes before they even come to trial. They slant the news so as to make someone who has made an unpopular decision appear to be part of a cabal that conspiratorialy has decided to do evil. History books are written with just enough slant to make an historical person look like a villain instead of a hero or simply a leader with only such much information to make a decision on.

False witnesses are all around us. I receive emails from the right and the left regularly that are full of lies and innuendo. The president is a Muslim extremist sleeper agent. The Republicans hate America and their politicians are paid hacks of a secret council of the superwealthy. No one knows if either of these are true or not but they are most certainly willing to pass them on as the truth. In fact, if you question them as to how they know this it even makes them angry that you even question the story.

So, false witnesses are false either by intent where they know what they are saying is a lie or by deceit where they are willingly led to lie because it fits their own bigotry and assumptions. God has something to say about false witnesses. Here, it is said they will perish. Notice what is said in the following verse;

Revelation 22:15 For without are dogs (male false teachers), and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

It would appear that God doesn’t want false things in the New Jerusalem.

There are false witnesses with regard to the Bible, God’s word. There are those who tell the naive and simple that 1John 5:7 should not be in the Bible as it was added in the 7th century when it was quoted or alluded to in every century before that as part of the Bible. There are those that would tell you that the last 12 verses of the Gospel According to Mark shouldn’t be in the Bible when of 620 of the ancient Uncial manuscripts (large block letters) containing Mark 618 have them, with only the two darlings of the modern apostate scholar, Codices Vaticanus and Sinaiticus, not having them.

There are false witnesses who deny God’s word, telling you that Moses did not pen the first five books of the Bible, that there were two or three writers of Isaiah, that when God said “let there be light” the sun was just hidden by clouds, that angels have wings and are not merely an appearance of someone or something that is somewhere else but actual creatures that fly around delivering messages and doing good and make nifty charms to wear around your neck, that the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are the same thing, that the virgin Mary was sinless and ascended to heaven and that she can petition God for you, that there is a holding tank called purgatory where you can be absolved of sins before going to heaven, and that Christians can bring in God’s physical kingdom on earth without Christ present to rule it in person, and that in doing so God calls so called “Christian nations” to kill and maim others to establish it.

There are false witnesses who say that a preacher is exempt from sin that the rest of us have to deal with daily and that if the “man of God” does it, it must be okay. These false witnesses will countenance sexual and physical abuse in churches across the land and stand by the “man of God” even if he confesses to his crimes in a court of law. There are false witnesses who say that if you are going through a trial or a tribulation then you must be experiencing punishment for sin, that God wants you to be wealthy, that getting sprinkled or dunked in water or eating a cracker blessed by a priest imparts salvation or some kind of grace to you, and that if you are sick its because you don’t have enough faith.

There are false witnesses who will tell you that being filled with the Holy Spirit means you do things that please them or that you go along with their own convictions or plans. There are false witnesses who consider what they believe God has laid on their hearts as the standard for everyone, if those “everyones” are actually saved.

Hear what God has said in His word. Preach what can be confirmed and supported by Scripture. Tell others what you know is true and what they can verify is true. Do not lie about others, either within the camp of Christ or without, and don’t misrepresent God or His word in order to gain an advantage or look superior. Be consistent and constant in your speech and actions.