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The Baptist Catechism

Question 83

    What is forbidden in the ninth commandment?

    The ninth commandment forbiddeth whatsoever is prejudicial to the truth, or injurious to our own or our neighbour’s good name.a

    1. a1 Samuel 17:28; Leviticus 19:16; Psalm 15:2-3
    Beddome's Scriptural Exposition 19 questions answered from Scripture

    1. Is lying a great sin? Yes.

      “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord” Proverbs 12:22

    2. Is it a sin that makes us like the devil? Yes.

      “For when he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own” John 8:44

    3. Is it an unprofitable sin? Yes.

      “The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death” Proverbs 21:6

    4. Is it a sin that will be detected? Yes.

      “For a lying tongue is but fora moment” Proverbs 12:19

    5. And severely punished? Yes.

      “For without are dogs, and whoso loveth and maketh a lie” Revelation 22:15

    6. Should we therefore hate it? Yes.

      “I abhor lying” Psalm 119:163

    7. And pray against it? Yes.

      “Remove from me the way of lying” Psalm 119:29

    1. May we tell lies to make sport? No.

      “They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies” Hosea 7:3

    2. Or to excuse a fault? No.

      “As Gehazi, who said, thy servant went no whither” 2 Kings 5:25

    3. Or with an intention to do good? No.

      “We must not do evil that good may come” Romans 3:8

    1. Is detraction and slander a sin? Yes.

      “Thou sittest and slanderest thine own mother’s” Psalm 50:20

    2. But may we not return slander for slander? No.

      “Render not railing for railing” 1 Peter 3:9

    3. Is flattery also a sin? Yes.

      “They speak vanity every one with his neighbour, with flattering lips and a double heart do they speak” Psalm 12:2

    4. Is self detraction a sin? Yes.

      “There is that maketh himself poor and yet hath great riches” Proverbs 13:7

    5. And self-flattery? Yes.

      “There is that maketh himself rich, and yet hath nothing” Proverbs 13:7

    1. Doth this commandment forbid perjury? Yes.

      “I will be a swift witness against false swearers” Malachi 3:5

    2. And subornation? Yes.

      “Thus the Jews set up false witnesses against Stephen” Acts 6:11, 13

    3. And backbiting and talebearing? Yes.

      “Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people” Leviticus 19:16

    4. And all censorious and uncharitable reflections? Yes.

      “For he that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaks evil of the law, and judgeth the law” James 4:11

    Benjamin Beddome (1717–1795), pastor at Bourton-on-the-Water. Verses from the King James Version.

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