16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
This applies when you go to court, a legal setting, or when you are called upon to give your testimony in a non-legal setting. We should always tell the truth, even if it means we are the one who will get in trouble. Telling a lie so that someone else gets in trouble is just not nice. This often happens when smaller issues were not resolved. Then one party gets the opportunity to get the other back for all the small things that didn’t get resolved earlier. We are to be people of integrity. We are to be people who are willing to work through difficulties with others and even take the loss if necessary. We are to be peacemakers. So if we enter a legal setting and give false testimony we are being anything but peacemakers. We are spreading lies and hatred. We are just fanning the flames of future conflicts. Tell the truth, even when it hurts. When you scrape the bumper of your car, don’t call the insurance company and tell them someone else did the bumping. Take responsibility for your actions. When we give false testimony we are doing damage to ourselves, our character, and to another. If our word cannot be trusted, we have lost everything. In the short run giving true testimony might cost us more. But we can never underestimate the worth of character that honest testimony will bring. It can be tempting to make those small compromises, but the long term cost is not worth it. Besides, your neighbor (or big corporation) doesn’t deserve it. Our court system is filled with people who are bending the truth in order to get something they don’t deserve. They give false testimony because they believe they deserve something for nothing. Don’t get caught in this trap.
The Arnold Journey 