Lesson 22: God's Holiness Generates a Reminder, part 15

The ninth commandment reminding us that God is Holy and we are not is Exodus 20:16 - "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

The word "false witness" means "to deceive, to do something fraudulent, or to lie." We not only break this commandment all the time, but we do so without even thinking about it. We not only lie all the time, but we even lie about lying. Then, if we cannot lie about lying, we simply resort to making excuses for lying. We call it just a “little white lie. It will not hurt anybody.”

We have a flippant attitude towards this commandment against lying because “everybody does it” or “they cannot handle the truth.”

Deuteronomy 19:18-21 - "The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. And the rest shall hear and fear and shall never again commit any such evil among you. Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot."

We forget what it means for God to be Holy, Holy, Holy. He wants us to be the same.

The tenth commandment reminding us that God is Holy and we are not is Exodus 20:17 - “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."


The word "coveting" means "to eagerly desire what belongs to another, or to wish for it enviously." We not only break this commandment, but most of our world’s economy depends on it! If you do not believe me then listen to commercials. They do not tell you anything about the product anymore. They just tell you that the person has one, and if you want to be as envied as they are, then you need to get one too. Instead of being content with what we have as the Bible says, they manipulate us into coveting what we do not have.

We may be manipulated into coveting, especially at certain times of the year like birthdays or Christmas. But God gives us a valuable lesson regarding our desire to be like others around us: Deuteronomy 7:25-26 - "The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the LORD your God. And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction."

God wants us to learn to be content with what He has provided for us. Why? He really is Holy God, and part of what He wants of us is to be holy too. When we are holy, we are more attached to Him than we are to things of this world. He wants to be God of every part of our life.

* How can you demonstrate with your words and your life that God is Holy?