Collations on the Ten Commandments

Collation VII

Outline of Collation VII I. Theme: “You shall not bear false witness . . . covet the things of your neighbor . . . desire your neighbor’s wife.” (1a) II. Protheme: “Consider, that I have placed in your sight . . .” (1b) III. Review (2) IV. Eighth commandment: kinds of lies (3-5) A. Purposeful lie 1. Defending some temporal thing 2. Guarding life 3. Preserving chastity B. Frivolous lie 1. From the desire to deceive 2. From the desire to be pleasing C. Destructive lie 1. Doctrine of religion against Sacred Scripture 2. Laying a false charge 3. For the sake of another V. Ninth and tenth commandments (6) VI. Concluding remarks on the Commandments as a whole A. What is commanded and what is prohibited (8-9) B. The Commandments in relation to the Ten Plagues (10-14) C. The Commandments in relation to Christ’s ten acts of condescension (15-17) D. Final exhortation (18) [The nos. in parentheses refer to section nos. in the text] VII On the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Commandments Theme 1. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods. Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s wife.”1 Protheme “Consider, that I have placed in your sight life and prosperity, and the opposite death and evil, so that you would love the Lord your God, and walk in his ways and keep his commandments.”2 At the start let us ask God etc. Review 2. In Deuteronomy Moses speaks about the Ten Commandments which the eternal God gave by his own mouth so that the Jews would not despise them, and he shows that life and prosperity are found in the observance of the commandments, while death and evil are found in their transgression. I have said previously that the first distinction of the commandments is in accordance with a twofold justice, one that orders us to God and one that orders us to our neighbor; and so there were two tables given to Moses. On the first table are contained commandments by which we are ordered to God, and they are three. On the second table are contained commandments by which we are ordered to our neighbor, and they are seven, of which one is positive, and the six others are negative. I have spoken of the positive one and of three of the negative ones. Eighth Commandment 3. Now I will speak of the others, of which the first is: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” Here a lie that 1Exodus 20:16-17. 2Deuteronomy 30:15-16. Collation VII / 95 is harmful to your neighbor is prohibited. And in a general sense, every destructive lie is prohibited, and we are given to understand that every lie is evil. Augustine3 distinguishes between lies, and says that a lie can be purposeful, frivolous, or destructive. A lie is called purposeful if it hurts no one and helps someone. A lie is frivolous when it is told not with the intention to injure, but with the desire to deceive. Such a lie is not helpful, and at times it is harmful. A lie is destructive when it is told with the intention to lie and with the intention to do harm. Such a lie helps no one but hurts everyone. Augustine says: “In the first lie the guilt is minimal, in the second it is moderate, and in the third it is grave.” 4. A purposeful lie can be of three types: it may be for the sake of defending some temporal thing, for the sake of guarding life, or for the sake of preserving chastity. A frivolous lie can be of two types: it may come solely from the desire to deceive, or it may come from the desire to please. And a destructive lie can be of three types: it may consist in a religious doctrine contrary to the Sacred Scriptures, or it may consist in placing a false charge. And in these two ways no one is helped but everyone is hurt. In a third way, a destructive lie can be told for the sake of someone else, and so i t helps some and hurts some. 5. So it is clear that there are eight kinds of lies. Augustine says that God is able to bring it about that a theft might not be a sin. But it is not possible...