Church of the Holy City

Living Authentically

Living Authentically
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
January 12, 2014

Isaiah 28:14-18a John 9:35-41 Psalm 5

The eighth commandment prohibits false witness. In the strictest sense, this means not to falsely accuse someone in a law court or publicly. In a wider sense it prohibits lying and hypocrisy. And in a still wider sense it prohibits deceitful plots or other means of attack from a motive of revenge or enmity or hatred.
But there is an important consideration in this commandment. The lies and deceits that it prohibits must be motivated by an evil intention. In Swedenborg’s words, the lies must be committed, “with an evil end in view” (TCR 321). This leads me to ponder what we call “little white lies.” Usually when we tell white lies, we are doing so with good intentions. That is we can lie about a person’s weight, or their haircut, or their dress, or some other small matter. When we tell lies about such matters, we usually do so in order to spare our acquaintance’s feelings. We do so from a good motive. We do not lie about such things “with an evil end in view.” So it would appear to me that in Swedenborg’s eyes, these are not what the eighth commandment prohibits. Can I go ahead and say that it appears these little lies are OK?
Let us look at the other side of this subject. Let us consider what I would call being “brutal honesty.” For I think we can be honest to a fault. We can speak the truth without regard to someone’s feelings. And the truth can be hurtful when it is spoken with disregard to the way it comes across. I think of a saying by Ghandi. He said, “Whenever one has a truth, it must be given in love or the message and the messenger will be rejected.” What kind of person would respond to a question about a new dress in this way? “
“Do you like my new dress?”
“No. It makes you look fat.”
This kind of response isn’t being truthful. It is being cruel. We can be cruelly honest when we say things like that.
There are numerous opportunities for us to be cruelly honest or to be truthful in a loving way. There are all kinds of degrees of honesty that can be applied to this type of question. A good friend of my family told me once, “You can’t be sort of honest.” But I disagree. There is a vast spectrum between brutal truth and loving criticism. If it is clear that the other person really likes her dress, we can respond to her affections and encourage her. We can say something like, “Yes, it looks fun.” Or we can find something we like about it. “I like the colors, or the pattern.” If we are a trusted and close friend, and our opinion is genuinely sought as an honest appraisal, our response may be different. If we feel that the dress is unflattering and we think that our friend wears it in jeopardy, we may have to be honest. But honest in a caring way. Our truth needs to be given in love. We may say something like, “It wouldn’t have been my choice.” Or perhaps something like, “I don’t think it is flattering.” And hopefully a gentle discussion would open up about it. My intention here is not so much to give advice as it is to show degrees of honesty that diverge from cruel honesty to gentle truth.
We can also be honest in a neutral, critical manner. I have sent out a few articles for publication to numerous journals. The journals respond and say whether they will print the article or not. When they decline the article, they almost always give criticism. They list sources I may want to include in a revision. They talk about strong and weak points in the article. They talk about flaws in my reasoning that would need to be corrected. In short, they usually tell me how to make my article better. In some cases, I have taken two or three rejection letters and added sources and refined my article according to their helpful criticism. The result has been a later publication in another journal.
There is another matter to consider here. The prohibition against false witness raises the issue of authentic living. How authentic a life are we living? Is the person we project to the world the person we truly are? Do we have the strength of conviction to openly let ourselves be seen? Or do we hide our true feelings and ideas behind a false identity? I remember a talk I had with my older brother long ago. I mentioned how I would exaggerate some parts of my character and hide others and outright lie about still others. He said,
“Then people aren’t meeting you. They are meeting someone you are not. You will not be understood, you will not have friends who are your real friends. They will be friends with someone you are not.”
I took this to heart. And I think that I can say I live fairly honestly now. There are some things that I do not let people see until I know them well. I think we do need an external personality that functions like tree bark. The bark on trees protects the tender centre from insects and other harmful natural threats. So our personalities protect us from social harm and from outright crimes. But when we are in safe emotional environments, we can open up and let our more intimate side be seen. In retrospect, I find that as I age, the more personal conviction I have and the less I fear from others. I am living with even more and more openness and integrity as I see that others pose less and less a threat to my convictions and to who I am.
On a spiritual level, bearing false witness means to teach something false when we know that it is false. It means persuading ourselves and others that evil is good when we know differently. Again, the motive matters here. In Swedenborg’s words, we violate the eighth commandment when we “do these things from design and not from ignorance” (TCR 322). This is where our New Testament reading is applicable. In John 9 we read,
If you were blind, you would not have sin; but now you say “We see;” therefore your sin remains (9:41).
The blindness here refers to spiritual ignorance. If we do not know what is true, we are not responsible for thinking and speaking what is false. But if we know the truth, and choose to cover it or outright speak against what we know to be true, then we sin gravely.
This is the reason why the Bible was written in correspondences. All we need for our salvation is in the literal level of the Bible. It is in the very Ten Commandments we are learning about these weeks. It is in the two great commandments Jesus teaches: to love God and to love the neighbor. It is in the stories about Jesus’ life, the moral stories in the historical parts of the Bible, and it is in the prophets and Psalms. But the deeper levels of spiritual truth are clothed in correspondences. This is because if we knew spiritual truth we would be forced and compelled into a choice. Plain truth would force us either to agree with it or to turn our backs on it. If we weren’t ready in our regeneration to receive a truth, we would be compelled to confront it without the proper spiritual preparation. Then truth would be forced upon us. We might rebel against it, we might angrily and grudgingly accept it, or we might reject it. And neither of these options is what God wants. God wants to be received willingly and happily. Truth is to be seen when we are ready to accept it joyfully. It is not to be seen until we are ready for it. So we have the familiar saying, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” If we reject truth when we see it clearly, it is much worse than if we simply don’t know it. If we are blind, we do not sin. If we see, and then turn our backs on what we see, then it is much worse. So God clothes pure truth in correspondences. This is the meaning of Jesus’ saying in Luke:
And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand” (Luke 8:9,10).
These open up and become transparent as we mature spiritually. The divine poetry enlightens our minds and warms our hearts as it leads us gently to God.
So the eighth commandment is for lies that we do purposefully and from a bad intent. It is not white lies we tell from a good heart. It is not falsities we speak from innocence. The eighth commandment prohibits falsities and deceits we tell knowing full well that they are lies and from a hateful and malevolent purpose.
However, the eighth commandment encourages us to live with integrity. It encourages us to live honestly and to have the courage of our convictions. But living with integrity also includes living a loving life. When we have truth to speak, we will speak it lovingly. Our honesty will not be a hurtful honesty. We will live at peace with ourselves, and in harmony with our neighbors. Living honestly will render us trustworthy to others. And an honest life will also make us fitting witnesses to the life and love of Jesus. They will know we are Christians by our life.

PRAYER

Lord, we ask for you to reveal your truth to us day by day. We know that your Word is written in symbols that can be opened to ever deeper levels of meaning–yes, even into the wisdom of angels. As we grow spiritually in our journey, we ask that you guide us into insights and understanding when we approach your word. And as we learn more and more about your kingdom, we ask for the strength and courage to live openly according to our faith. Give us, we pray, the confidence to let our light shine before the world, so we may bear faithful witness to you and your way.

And Lord, we pray for this church, where we come to worship you and to learn the ways of your kingdom. Join with us this morning as we come together in your name. Guide and protect us when we depart into the world, carrying today’s message which you have given to us. And Lord, be with the members of this online ministry as we seek your kingdom together.

And Lord, we pray for peace in this troubled world. May conflict be absorbed in your loving kindness. May warring factions see that they are like in their desires for love and the good things of this world.

And Lord, we pray that you heal those who are suffering with illness. Lord, send your healing love to all who are in need.