You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor

"There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community." Proverbs 6:16-19

Why do people stir up conflict and shed innocent blood? Because they feel that their race, their tribe, their family and themselves are more important than other people, and deserve better than other people. Many say that “Blood is thicker than water.” They feel free to bear false witness against someone not of their race, tribe, religion, sex or any other group for which they harbor pathological hatred. People use a lot of generalizations which may not be true of any one individual and falsely claim to know “the truth about these people” and harden their hearts against them. Hitler used Jews as a scapegoat for everything that was wrong in his country and was able to convince many of his countrymen on this fiction. Envy of their prosperity and their separateness helped to fuel deep hatred directed against them. The 1994 Rwandan genocide was as a result of concerted propaganda campaign by the Hutu Power Movement that played on land, hunger, lack of education and historical resentment to instill hatred for all Tutsi. The Kenyan political crisis in 2007/2008 also took ethnic dimensions. And in the United States, much of the hatred for Obama is because of his ethnicity.

It is sad that people who call themselves Christians are often the worst culprits of hatred and wicked schemes. For some, their salvation is akin to dirty water colored to look like blood. It can be dispensed with at inconvenient times. It is not the real blood of Christ filling them with love for their fellow man. You cannot love God and not love others. “Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,” 1 John 2:4

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The greatest friend of truth is time, her greatest enemy is prejudice, and her constant companion humility.--Chuck Colson

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