“Do you routinely seek out and read information that causes you to look at other people with suspicion? Do you spread information (online or offline) about brothers or sisters in Christ that might cause others to look at them suspiciously? Do you spread the kind of information that prejudices people against others?”

In an article I shared a couple of days ago, we began to take a look at the ninth commandment (“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor”) and its relevance in a world in which so much of our communication takes place through social media. Specifically, we considered some of the duties required by the commandment. Today we want to look at the flip side and consider the sins it forbids. As with the first article, I will share in bullet points each phrase of the explanation provided in the Westminster Larger Catechism, then, beneath each one, suggest questions that may foster meditation and application.

The sins forbidden in the ninth commandment are:

• all prejudicing the truth, and the good name of our neighbors, as well as our own, especially in public judicature;
  • Do you routinely seek out and read information that causes you to look at other people with suspicion? Do you spread information (online or offline) about brothers or sisters in Christ that might cause others to look at them suspiciously? Do you spread the kind of information that prejudices people against others?
• giving false evidence, suborning false witnesses, wittingly appearing and pleading for an evil cause, outfacing and overbearing the truth;
  • Do you ensure that every bit of information you share about another person is the whole truth? Do you do your best to verify that information you learn about another person is nothing less than the whole truth? Do you assume damaging information you learn about another person is true or do you demand evidence?
• passing unjust sentence, calling evil good, and good evil;
  • Are you too quick to pass judgment on others, perhaps declaring them heretical with too little evidence or according to a loose definition of the term? Do you call evil good by consuming sites or feeds committed to sharing information that is untrue or unnecessary?
• rewarding the wicked according to the work of the righteous, and the righteous according to the work of the wicked;
  • Do you reward wicked people with your time, attention, clicks, subscriptions, follows, shares, retweets, and ad impressions? Do you treat godly people wickedly by assuming all you have read about them is true?
• forgery, concealing the truth, undue silence in a just cause, and holding our peace when iniquity calleth for either a reproof from ourselves, or complaint to others;
  • Are you unwilling to stand for the truth or defend a brother or sister in Christ when you have evidence that would vindicate them or promote their reputation? Do you conceal truth about them in order to allow their reputation to be more consistently impugned?
• speaking the truth unseasonably, or maliciously to a wrong end, or perverting it to a wrong meaning, or in doubtful and equivocal expressions, to the prejudice of truth or justice;
  • Do you share truth about others in a way that is actually meant to do them harm? Do you weaponize truth, perhaps sharing information that, though true, primarily seeks to damage another person’s reputation? Do you hold facts over another person with the threat of exposure?
• speaking untruth, lying, slandering, backbiting, detracting, talebearing, whispering, scoffing, reviling, rash, harsh, and partial censuring;
  • Do you visit sites that tell full-out lies or that convey half-truths? Do you spend time in the online company of people who slander others, who backbite them, who detract from their reputations, who scoff at them, or who revile them? Do you do any of these things yourself? Are you harsh with others and with your interpretation of the facts about them? Or do you choose to believe the best about them in the absence of undeniable evidence to the contrary?
• misconstructing intentions, words, and actions;
  • Do you interpret intentions and convey them as fact? Do you assume you know the inner motives of other people? Do the sites you read and feeds you follow only convey facts or do they also assume knowledge of intentions and motivations?

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