Lying about others in our own minds …

We are always talking to ourselves.

We may not do so aloud, or even consciously, but we’re always talking to ourselves, if in our own minds or subconsciously.

Given that, we can do a lot of harm to other people in the secret place of our own minds.

Because we are always talking to ourselves, a great many of those thoughts flittering through our minds are irrational because they are unthethered to truth. The problem comes when we take a fleeting thought, a sliver of an observation or idea, and without investigating whether it’s true or not, we begin to play it over and over in our minds, amplifying it’s message until it becomes our perspective about someone, whether it’s true or not.

That’s how we wreck the reputation of others within ourselves.

We may take the slightest expression made by someone else and, without any understanding or pursuit of truth, make assumptions or jump to wrong conclusions, yet embrace that irrational and incorrect thinking and permanently attach it to the one we’re thinking about. The outcome is that we’ve just crafted a “false witness” about someone from our thoughts alone.

A great danger of creating false witnesses in our own minds is what we think usually is the direct source of what we say to or about someone, and usually the source of how we decide to treat someone.

There’s nothing godly about this kind of thinking, and it’s something that is soundly condemned in the Bible …

“You must not testify falsely against your neighbor,” Exodus 20:16.

“There are six things the Lord hates — no, seven things he detests: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows discord in a family,” Proverbs 6:16-19.

“A false witness will not go unpunished, nor will a liar escape … A false witness will not go unpunished, and a liar will be destroyed” Proverbs 19:5, 9.

Some would argue this idea of false witness is something we do, something we tell others. But Jesus taught that lusting after a woman in our hearts is the equivalent of committing adultery; likewise, crafting a false witness in our minds about someone, then thinking of them and treating them from that false view is just as wrong as telling a false witness about someone to others.

As Christians, Jesus Christ is the very foundation upon which we live and have our being — and Jesus Christ IS truth! Thus, our lives must be based upon, and lived out of, truth, and that includes thinking and telling the truth about others. The Apostle Paul stated this truth like this:

“Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God — truly righteous and holy. So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body,” Ephesians 4:21-25.

To mature as a disciple of Jesus means we no longer play over and over in our minds assumptions and conjectures about others, but that we seek the truth and live out our lives from it — and make the truth (with love!) the basis for how we think about, feel about, and treat others.

Do you have a mind full of false witnesses you need to rid yourself of? Are you still stuck in an old habit of jumping to conclusions about others? Or have you let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes, which includes how you think about others?

Scotty