Precepts for Living: Intentionally False Testimony

Never lie when you testify about your neighbor.

To testify is to provide evidence of the reality, the actuality, of something.   

To lie is to knowingly provide evidence of something with intent to deceive.  Lying is seen as a fundamental rejection of reality, a disruption of community, and spiritual corruption.

The primary purpose of creation, in various theological perspectives, is for the Creator to express love, glory and nature resulting in a relationship between the creator and humanity.  

Humanity was created to learn about, know, love and glorify the Divine, acting as caretakers or stewards of the Earth.

Spiritual corruption is a missing of the mark of this purpose.  It is the degradation of moral integrity and is characterized by a departure from spiritual truths, inner decay of character, and a shift towards selfishness, unfaithfulness to reality, or apathy.  Like a spiritual cancer its spread may be undetectable until it has propagated to the point of destruction.

To knowingly provide evidence against your neighbor with intent to deceive is NOT anywhere near the purpose for which we were created. It is a poor precept for living and leads to destruction.

Seek rather to FOCUS on Divine purposes and the exercise of spiritual truths.