Sermon Tone Analysis

Ninth, that we do not lie or deceive, but speak the truth in love.

Tenth, that we are content, not envying anyone or resenting what God has given them or us.

The New City Catechism Devotional (Gospel Coalition) .

Crossway.

Kindle Edition.

What does it mean to love your neighbor according to the Bible?

How does God want us to do this?

The New City Catechism Devotional (Gospel Coalition) .

Crossway.

Kindle Edition.

You should not bear false witness.

We should not lie about a brother or sister in Christ.

That means we may knowingly tell a falsehood.

This could also be exaggerating a truth.

Let’s say you had a disagreement with someone over a direction inside you class or ministry, then you go and talk with others about this disagreement and you exaggerate what really happened.

Maybe it is to get people on your side.

Maybe to justify your actions.

Either way, you have now bore a false witness against your neighbor.

Not bearing false witness protects us from all kinds of slandering, lying, hypocrisy, and untruth.

The New City Catechism Devotional (Gospel Coalition) .

Crossway.

Kindle Edition.

Loving your neighbor is more than just not lying abut them.

This has to do with how we talk about them to.

This has to do with how we talk about them to.

Do I control my tongue with people?

Because, as “members of one body,” God wills that we should “speak truth one to another,” and each of us should be careful to cover others’ infirmity.

With our tongue we should defend the names of others, just as we would want others to defend ours.

When we talk of each other as believers, do we do so to defend or defame them?

If we are too quick to defame, we are bearing false witness about them.

They are redeemed believer in the person of Jesus, are we making that known or are we trying to drag them back to the place of unforgiveness?

In this commandment, God forbids me all kind of evil, perilous, calumnious and untrue speaking, and instead commands me to practice all kind of godly, honest, and true report and talk.

How great and good a thing is this!

If we consider the hurt that comes from lies and untruth, and by words meant to harm rather than build, how easily can we see a wonderful benefit and care of God for us, and others, in this commandment.

The tongue is a restless evil.

It sets the whole person on fire, tells us.

And so the ninth commandment is aimed in part at bridling the tongue.

It’s aimed at bridling the tongue with truth, teaching us to put off falsehood, to put off lying.

The New City Catechism Devotional (Gospel Coalition) .

Crossway.

Kindle Edition.

We should not bear false witness against each other.

Use your tongue to build up, not tear up.

Tenth, that we are content, not envying anyone or resenting what God has given them or us.

Did you know you could covet by resenting what you have?

The New City Catechism Devotional (Gospel Coalition) .

Crossway.

Kindle Edition.

When we are discontent with our things, it usually comes from a heart that covets something more.

We may not even be able to put our finger on it but it is there.

If you can imagine the heart having hands, coveting is like the heart grasping for things, desiring things, laying hold of things that don’t properly belong to it.

What’s remarkable and beautiful about this commandment—​​​about all of Scripture, in fact—​​​is that even though the commandment addresses something inward (that inward grasping of the heart), it also points out the social implications of that interior grasping.

So we have “You shall not covet anything that is thy neighbor’s.”

Not our neighbor’s spouse, not our neighbor’s cattle, not anything that belongs to our neighbor.

The tenth commandment sets for us a kind of boundary that protects against the way covetousness tends to cross lines.

We are tempted to cross the line of desires, longing for things that aren’t properly in our possession.

We cross the line of property, grasping for things that belong to another person (your neighbor’s cattle, your neighbor’s spouse).

So our coveting actually, socially, does injury to our neighbor.

And there’s another line that we cross.

Mark 7:

When we covet, what we’re actually saying is that God has not apportioned his creation properly because he hasn’t given us everything we desire.

The heart wants what it shouldn’t.

The heart, in its fallen, sinful way, grasps for things that don’t belong to it and seeks for things that actually belong on the other side of ownership—​​​to the neighbor or to God.

When we covet, we are saying that God has not given us enough?

Covetousness is born out of a heart of selfishness.

The same type of heart that makes us bear false witness.

These commandments speak to us, and they call us forth to truth-telling.

And not just to truth-telling, but to the truth spoken in love.

They call forth a bridling, a restraining, and a channeling of desire to things that are good and right.

They call us to things that God has legitimately given to us for our enjoyment, and to be content in how God has distributed his blessing, how he rules his creation.

They call us not to go outside of that contentment by taking things, for if we do, we destroy society, culture, and our neighbors.

This is true even if the taking of what doesn’t belong to us is only a taking in heart.

The New City Catechism Devotional (Gospel Coalition) .

Crossway.

Kindle Edition.

The New City Catechism Devotional (Gospel Coalition) .

Crossway.

Kindle Edition.

The New City Catechism Devotional (Gospel Coalition) .

Crossway.

Kindle Edition.