The ninth commandment is “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

Bearing false witness is giving a false or misleading testimony against someone.

God is a God of truth, and truth-telling is essential to justice, community, and trust. Slander and perjury are therefore acts of rebellion against God.

Gossip, slander, lies, exaggeration, misleading half-truths, tale-bearing, and other forms of deception are all violations of this commandment. False witness includes misrepresenting another’s actions, character, or motives.

Some forms of deception—such as hiding fugitives from unjust oppressors, or playing games that involve bluffing—are not forbidden by this commandment. The commandment forbids deception that harms or destroys others.

I keep this commandment by speaking the truth in love, being careful to know the truth of a matter before speaking, maintaining a charitable judgment of others’ actions and intentions, acknowledging my own faults, and defending others against false accusations.

Jesus—who is “the way, and the truth, and the life”—spoke the truth even when it was unwelcome, defended the innocent from unjust condemnation, confronted hypocrisy and false religion, and refused to condemn those who were truly repentant.

The tenth commandment is “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Covetousness is a strong and sinful desire to have what God has given to another. It is a sin of the heart.

God calls me to love my neighbor as myself, not to envy or begrudge his blessings. Covetousness is a rejection of God’s good provision and an attack on my neighbor’s prosperity and security.

When covetousness rules the heart, it leads to breaking all the other commandments: theft, adultery, murder, and false witness are all rooted in a desire to have what God has given to another. It also leads to ingratitude, anxiety, and discontent.

The remedy for covetousness is to trust in God’s love and provision, to be content with what he has given me, and to rejoice in my neighbor’s blessings as a reflection of God’s goodness.

This commandment reveals that God’s Law governs not just our outward actions but the desires and intentions of our hearts. The Law ultimately demands perfect holiness of heart as well as of life.

This commandment reveals that I cannot keep God’s Law by outward conformity alone; I need a transformed heart. Only Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, can purify my desires and make me capable of true obedience.

They require me to love God with all my heart and soul and mind and strength, and to love my neighbor as myself.

My neighbor is anyone whom I encounter, including those who are different from me, hostile to me, or in need of my help.

By the grace of God and the power of his Spirit, I can pray for my enemies, seek their good, and forgive those who sin against me, even as God in Christ has forgiven me.

The fulfillment of all the commandments is Jesus Christ himself, who perfectly kept God’s Law in our place, whose Spirit enables us to walk in the way of the commandments, and who will one day make us perfectly holy at the last day.