October 26, 2025 – Reformation Text: Exodus 20:16
Dear Friends in Christ,
One of the challenges in this profession of Pastor, when you have been at it as long as I have, is to take a Church celebration like Reformation, which comes around every year, and find different ways to preach it. Over the years I have given sermons on Luther’s bathroom habits and his love of bowling, while still remembering the message is Jesus. Today, we will do something just a little different. We will focus in on an area of Luther’s teaching. We will use a commandment. A commandment that is so abused in our society, you start to wonder if anybody is capable of being to kind to another in their words. It is the 8th commandment and here it is with Luther’s explanation:
“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” What does this mean? “We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.” Simple enough. Buckle up as we explore . . .
“THE WRONG ENEMY”
It would be interesting, and I think shameful for many, if at the end of the day, somebody played a recording of our speech in a 24-hour period. Where would it fall? Would it be uplifting or demeaning? Would it help or hurt a situation? Many who struggle with this don’t even realize their talk is so hurtful. It becomes a part of who they are.
In the commandment what is the key word? It’s neighbor. Wouldn’t our talk be more Christ like if we saw others as neighbors and not enemies?
Where do we break down? In a marriage it can sound like this: “You never help with the children or in the kitchen. You just think of yourself. Why can’t you be more like that spouse or that parent.” In a church it can sound like this: “Why doesn’t he or she help out around here more. Why did they make that decision about their family. Why does the Pastor do things that way.” It is in our job, our family life, our friend life. Everywhere you look. On top of this we have the ridiculousness of the internet speech. Get off your phone, out of that chat room and just stop it.
We betray, we slander, we hurt reputations. We usually do this to save ours. Sometimes we do it just because we are bored. Who doesn’t love a little gossip? Defending a person, well that’s no fun. Luther wrote this in reflecting on the commandment:
“It is a common, pernicious plague that everyone would rather hear evil rather than good about their neighbor. Even though we ourselves are evil, we cannot tolerate it when anyone speaks evil of us; instead, we want to hear the whole world say golden things of us. Yet, we cannot bear when someone says the best things about others.”
We get hurt, so we think to hurt them back we can use our spiteful words. This is how Satan wants us to see each other. Satan drives the wedge and laughs at the fallout.
Now if we that person as neighbor and not enemy, well things are starting to turn around. A man once asked the famous question: “Who is my neighbor?” Christ answered, “Everyone.” Everyone is your neighbor, and neighbors as Christ shows in the story of the Good Samaritan are to receive mercy and compassion. Luther again: “We should use our tongue to speak only the best about all people, to cover the sins and infirmities of our neighbors, to justify their actions, and to cloak and veil them with our own honor.”
How does Christ speak of you? How does He handle your sin? Is He careless? Of course not. He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. What if as you arrive each Sunday, Jesus has posted on our bulletin board the words you used during the week to slander someone? Prayerfully we would be shamed by what we have done to others. None of us is innocent of breaking this commandment.
Jesus doesn’t see you as enemy, though you have hurt him. You are friend. You are neighbor. You are His child. You are His creation. He died for you. Satan is slandering you. Christ is defending you, speaking well of you, explaining things in the kindest way. Can’t you hear him: “I know they gossiped again. I know they hurt others. I know they found a friend and let people have it. But Father, they know not what they do. They are weak. Forgive them for my sake. They are your children, and I died and rose for them. In Holy Baptism they are your own and You have saved them from sin and death.”
The next time you want to get the tongue wagging at a frustrating person, think of this. God created that person. Christ died and rose for that person. God does not create, nor does Christ die and rise, for worthless people. When you see others this way, when you pray for them, it becomes harder to use your words to hurt.
Through the Spirit, let’s make the world a better place by finding constructive things to speak. Like Luther writes, “defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.” This is after all how Jesus, the friend of sinners, speaks of you.
Amen.