Day 9 - You Shall Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor

The age old question of “who is my neighbor?” was addressed by Yeshua in the famous story of The Good Samaritan.

When we encounter the command "You shall not bear false witness", our first instinct might be to interpret it simply as a prohibition against lying. However, this commandment contains far more depth, as it extends to how we speak about others and portray their and our character.

As a refresher, here’s a very rough TLDR: a man gets robbed and left for dead in the desert. A priest walks by and ignores him, too busy to stop and offer assistance. Finally an innkeeper and a Samaritan, the one least likely to offer assistance, shows an outpouring of compassion, caring for the man, sacrificing his own time and expense. In the classic conclusion, Yeshua poses the question back to the original inquirer in a rhetorical manner, with the answer of now abundantly clear:

You can almost hear the tone of the sheepish response:

It is well known by now and perhaps over-examined that we live in an age plagued by “cancel culture”. Bearing false witness is easier than ever. If you have a wifi connection and a Twitter account, you don’t even have to identify yourself.

In every example of this social malady, we have an opportunity to be the robber, the priest or the Samaritan:

It requires an investment of time, effort and even risk of social status to go out of our way to defend the character of a neighbor who is being virtually mugged and stripped of their good name.

It takes almost zero effort to keep to ourselves and scroll on past what we perceive to be clear injustice and false witness being levied against a neighbor of ours.

And ironically, it takes not only time and effort, but also requires us to sacrifice a piece of our soul to be in the position of the robber who is participating in the virtual bearing of false witness on our neighbor.

Reflection:

What benefit is it to obsess over the affairs of your neighbor? What do you gain by indulging in the latest tabloids about celebrities and scandals?

Practice:

Clock how much time you spend mindlessly scrolling or watching things not in your best interest.