The Good Life | Episode 9

The Ten Commandments aren’t laws so much as they are lenses. They are lenses that force us to stop looking only at ourselves and to consider the needs of our neighbor. They are the lenses that help us to not only see the good life, but to step into it. More importantly, they are lenses that pull our focus off the temporary things of this world and onto the eternal God. When we struggle to find our way in the darkness of this world, the Ten Commandments offer us a vision of who we were meant to be.
The ninth commandment reminds us that a culture built on lies is bound to crumble. Lying about your neighbors makes for a lousy neighborhood. It’s hard to live in community when everyone disagrees about what’s true. Communities only function - relationships only flourish - with a shared vision of reality and a common perception of the good. As Jesus will later remind us, lies are more that simple distortions of the truth; they are the very language and currency of the Enemy. In the end, we will either live by truth or die by lies.
Lies have a cost that extend beyond our neighbor; they also affect our neighborhoods. Lies have a way of eroding the trust within a community. We can’t live in harmony with each other if we can’t believe one another. We can’t begin to work on solutions without a shared view of the problems. Lies are the termites of a society. Once they get into the beams, it’s just a matter of time before the whole thing falls apart. The ninth commandment reminds us that truth forms the trusses that hold our communities together.
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