We continue in our series on the Ten Commandments. We come to our second consideration of the Ninth Commandment, which is found in Exodus 20, verse 16. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. I want us to consider three passages of Scripture which bear on the sins as well as the duties required in this commandment. The first one is found in Zechariah 8, 8-16 through 19. These are the things that ye shall do. Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor. Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates. And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no false oath. For all these are things that I hate, saith the Lord. And the word of the Lord of hosts came unto me, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth month, and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore, love the truth and peace." And then turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians 4 verse 15. I'll read through the end of the chapter. But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things which is the head, even Christ, from whom the body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edification of itself in love. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ. If so, be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. that ye put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And that ye put on the new man, which is after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be not angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." And then turn with me to James 3. I'll read verses 1-12. Be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which, though they be great and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and is on fire of hell. For every kind of beast, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind. But the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith we bless God, even the Father, and therewith cursely men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth the fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries, either of vine figs? So can no fountain both yield soft water and fresh." This ends the reading of God's holy and infallible Word. This morning as we consider again the ninth commandment, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, I wanted to remind us that last Lord's Day we looked at the sins forbidden in this commandment. We listed many of them, but in summary, I want us to remember that liars go to hell. Liars go to hell. Pretty sobering words. If we consider Revelation 21.8 and 22.15, we have a list of people that will be in hell. And liars are amongst them. The sin of lying is a serious sin. And yet, when we say that liars go to hell, we recognize that when God says that in His Word, in so many words, what it means is those with that kind of character Just as adulterers go to hell, but not everyone that violates the seventh commandment or the ninth commandment is necessarily an adulterer or a liar in their character. Consider 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 11. Paul in 1 Corinthians 6 gives a list, another list of those that will be cast into hell, and one of those types of individuals is a reviler. He speaks also of sodomites in that section and other heinous sins. He speaks of those that are revilers. But he goes on in verse 11 and says, these shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But he goes on and says, and such were some of you. But ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified. In other words, outside of Christ, these people in Corinth could be described by their dominant characteristic traits. And Paul gives a sample of them. He says, you're not these anymore. It's not that you don't violate the Ten Commandments anymore, but you're not practicing these things. You're not getting better at these sins anymore. You are now putting them off and you are putting on, by God's grace, holy habits. So we need to remember that. We need to remember, as I said last week, that Christ never sinned with His lips. There was never any guile on His lips. He was full of grace and truth, and Christ is our substitute. The Father made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, His people, that we might be righteous in His sight, that we might have our sins pardoned. And yet, in Isaiah 6-5, we find when Isaiah comes to see the Lord in His holiness, in His calling to the ministry, not in His conversion, He still can say, I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell amongst a people with unclean lips. And so though if we've been converted, we are no longer liars in our character, we still lie. And we still ought to know something of the conviction of sin that Isaiah felt that we can say with hatred for our sin that I'm a man, I'm a woman, I'm a child of unclean lips. to be cleansed from my sins, sins of the tongue." Now, I think Ephesians 4.25 is a helpful passage for us to consider as a transition from last week's lecture to this. And that is, in 4.25 of Ephesians, we find these words, "...Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another." Here, Paul gives us this put-off, put-on motif. Stop lying, put away lying, but do something positive, and that is speak truth every man with his neighbor. And then he also gives a rationale. And we often find that in Scripture, don't we? There's either a reason before the command, or there's a reason after the command, because God has created us as intellectual beings. We're to love Him with our minds, and so He gives us reasons for obedience most of the time. Put off, put on, and then here's the rationale. or were members one of another. So we need to take mind and consideration of the fact that we are members one of another as the body of Christ and we need to recognize that as we consider the motives for not lying but then speaking The truth. Now this morning I want us to consider the duties required in this commandment. I want to say there are two in general and then a number in particular. The first two that are general duties are the love of the truth and the speaking the truth. We should love the truth, we should speak the truth. We saw in Zechariah 8.19, love the truth and peace. Here God says through the prophet Zechariah that when truth is spoken, peace is a by-product. Where truth is, peace will be. Yes, there will be division. Yes, there will be persecution. But that's not contrary to peace amongst God's people. So we're to love the truth. And out of a love for the truth, we should speak the truth. Zechariah 8.16, Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor. Nobody's exempt. from speaking the truth. Ephesians 4.25, speak every man truth with his neighbor. Ephesians 4.15, speaking the truth in love. Speak the truth and speak it at the right time for the right reason. At the right end in view. So those are two general duties. Love the truth. Speak the truth. But let's think of some particular duties. And again, I think they are in two categories. One is we're to preserve our own good name. And secondly, we're to preserve the good name of others. This commandment is dealing with the sanctity of a good name or of credibility. And so we have a duty to preserve our own good name as well as the good name of others. In Proverbs 22.1, if a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, then we have a responsibility to behave in a way that we might maintain our good name. It's very interesting if you look at 1 Peter 3, 15 and 16 where we are told that we are to be ready to give a defense, to give an apology for the hope that is within us. That is set in the context of us being slandered for our good behaviors. In the context of a Christian living in the world and being slandered by the world regarding their behavior. Peter goes on to say it's not good if you're being persecuted for sinfulness. But if it's through godliness, you need to be prepared to explain what you believe and how you live consistently in light of what you believe. Clearly, Paul, throughout the epistles, does defend himself, not so much in his person, but his office, because he recognizes that he must do so, so that the message that he brings will take hold amongst the people of God. And so we are to preserve our own good name. Secondly, we're to preserve others' good name. Now, how do we do that? And I think there are a number of ways that we do that. The first is through thorough investigation or thoroughly investigate and righteously judge. And when I say we're to thoroughly investigate and righteously judge, I want us to understand that that means when we fill the place in which we're to investigate and to judge. I'm speaking now only to those that have that authority in the civil sphere, in the family sphere, in the church sphere, or in industry. But if you have that, then that's what you're to do. You're not to go with a little bit of information because you are torqued at somebody to take information that's not full and evaluate it or judge someone with limited information. You're also to judge righteously. Zechariah again, 8.16, execute the judgment of truth and peace in your days. You might think that you can bring about peace by a quick decision Because you assume that someone's guilty. You've known them to be guilty in the past. It's very easy as a father to do that. You have a child that is prone to a certain sin. So one child then tells you that that child's committed that sin again. It's very easy to believe the story without any other evidence, without seeking to investigate the evidence first. And so we need to judge righteously, as Jesus says in John 7.24. Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment. Things aren't always as they first appear. Remember Job in Job 29.16. He could say, under inspiration, the cause which I knew not, I searched out. He did diligent search before he made judgments in the gate. We need to remember Those of us that are called to make these kinds of judgments, this principle, there are many principles of judging, but I think this one is a very important one to remember. Proverbs 18, 17, He that is first in his own cause seemeth just, but his neighbor cometh and searcheth him out. It's real easy when you hear one witness to think you have the whole story. And then as soon as someone else is brought in, things radically change. Again, this is for those that are called to that in the various spheres or institutions that God has established. Now, the rest of these, I think, apply to all of us, whether we hold a place of authority in these various institutions or not. The next one is we're to have an inward esteem of all that is good in them, and that's referring to others. Paul could say in Philippians 2.3, that in lowliness of mind we are to let each esteem the other better than themselves. He goes on in Philippians 2. He recognizes that there is a dispute between two women in the church and he gets very specific in applying that principle to them. He says, I beseech Euodicus and Syntyche that they be of the same mind in the Lord. He's not calling for them to have perfect theological or doctrinal agreement at this point. He's saying you ought to have the same mind. In other words, you ought to care more about the other and you ought to care more about her. And then it's likely things can be worked out when they can be worked out on the foundation of trust and humility. So we're to have an inward esteem of all that is good in others. Next, we're to encourage and commence. Paul does this in many places, but in Romans 1.8 he says, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Now, could Paul have very early on in the letter of Romans dictated many various deflections from full-orbed biblical church life in Rome? I'm sure he could. I'm sure he could have. He does, really, through the book, even though it's predominantly a systematic theology that's not focusing on particular problems, there are, as you read the book, some overall overarching problems that Paul is clearly addressing in that book. But he doesn't begin there. He talks about the glass being half full first. He's going to get around to talking about the glass being half empty later. But he's still glad that they have a testimony in the world. It might not be all that it should be. It clearly wasn't. But it was something that Paul could be thankful to God for, and he could tell them that he was thankful to God for, for their edification. So, command and encourage. We also should be ready to receive good reports. We should be ready to receive good reports. 3 John 3, For I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. John was somewhere and some people from this church or churches that he writes to comes to him and they tell him about how things are going in that church. He's glad to hear how things are going well, and he again rejoices in the fact that it is so. 3 John, again, is a letter where it is critical. He doesn't have everything to say good about what's going on. He is going to exhort them about how they ought to be behaving, and it suggests that they're currently not doing that. They've got to understand how to deal with deatrophies and how they ought to treat Demetrius. They ought to honor Demetrius. They ought to see Demetrius as a man who is a servant. They ought to see that this deatrophies as a spirit of preeminence. And John's going to deal with them on that regard. And yet at the same time, these people came and testified to him that the people of God in general were walking in the truth. And he could be happy to receive that good report and then again commend them for it. Consider the opposite principle in Proverbs 29, 12. If a ruler hearkens to lies, all his servants are wicked. You see, if you have a leader that's willing to listen to lies and act on lies, it won't be long before most of the people under him are lying for their own good. They're not being punished for lying. He's willing to hear it and act on it. He's willing not to search out the truth and then deal with those that have brought the lies, but in fact, he's willing to act on the lies in a hasty way so it's not surprising that then those under him will predominantly be given to the habit of lying because it's profitable. or at least it appears to be, on the surface. Another duty, as we consider speaking the truth to one another, is that we should discountenance malicious reports. The larger catechism uses this term, discountenance, and I considered revising it for 21st century hearers. But when I consider Proverbs 25-23, I thought it would be appropriate to leave the word. Proverbs 25-23 says, The north wind driveth away the rain, so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue. You see, in the Middle East, if there was a north wind, it would keep the rain from coming pouring out its water upon the land, that just as the north wind kind of keeps the rain from coming, so an angry countenance, so a look that says, I don't want to hear this and you shouldn't be saying it, keeps somebody from saying what they ought not to say. And so that's why I think discountenance is an appropriate word to consider. That our countenance should be such that it's not welcoming. for people to continue to tell us things they ought not to. Remember Psalm 15.3, the one that will be in God's presence is one that does not take up a reproach against his neighbor. He's not the one that originates a reproach, but he's also not the one that takes up the reproach. He doesn't begin it, and he doesn't continue the reproach. Now, another duty as we consider this sin of bearing false witness is that we ought to cover over the multitude of sin. Cover over the multitude of sin. We read in Proverbs 10-12, hatred stirreth up stripes, but love covereth all sin. Proverbs 17.9, He that covereth the transgression seeketh love, but he that repeateth the matter separateth very friends. You see, you can see someone commit a sin that ought to be covered out of a desire to love them and to love others. But to repeat it is the opposite of covering it. You see, something covered is not something that we bring up to ourselves or bring up to others or bring up to the individual. God's Word says that there are many sins, the multitude of sins as Peter describes it in 1 Peter 4.8. There He says, "...and above all things, have fervent charity or love among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins." God says that there's a whole multitude, section of sins that are committed against us and against others that ought to just be covered. We ought not to repeat them to the individual. We ought not to repeat them to the authorities. He's not saying that all the sins are that way, but there's a multitude of them that ought to be. We'd forever be in Matthew 16 or Matthew 18 if we sought to come and address every brother on a perceived sin that's been committed against us or against the church. We would never get to work tomorrow. And so, God says we're to cover over the multitude of sins. But then, There's also the requirement, the duty to rebuke our brother or sister when required. That there are some sins that are not of the multitude of sins, they're so blatant that they ought to be confronted. Leviticus 19.17, Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart, thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon him. There's a time when sin arises to a level that we know someone is going to be hurt. They're not going to succeed. They're going to be hindered if they don't deal with this sin in their life. And at that time, we are to go to them. It's very interesting in the Leviticus 19 context, God had just said through Moses, don't go from house to house being a tail bearer. Go rebuke them. In other words, okay, most of the times you cover, But when you don't cover, you go to them, you don't go to house to house about it. Cover most of them, but when you can't cover, when it's going to hinder that person, and you'd be suffering sin, you'd be culpable of being an accomplice to their crime, then you should go to them. Matthew 18, 15 and 20, Jesus deals with a sin that's against us. In Luke 17, 1 through 5, Jesus, when He considers those that lead little ones astray, then says that we ought to watch for ourselves and we ought to confront those that sin. The context suggests that it might not be a sin against us individually, but it might be a sin where someone is leading people astray. There's a sin that is dangerous in terms of the people of God and for the one committing it. So, in that sense, we ought to go and deal with it. And as we go, we ought to remember Proverbs 27, 5 and 6. Open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. You see, quite often it's the enemy that's buttering us up. It's the true friend that, when necessary, will bring the rod of reproof to us and will do so in love so that he suffers not sin upon us. So, we're to cover the multitude, but then there are times when we are to bring it to the individual. In addition, we are to defend the righteous and those that cannot speak for themselves. In 1 Samuel 19.4, we have the example of Jonathan speaking good of David unto his father, Saul, even though he recognized that that was probably going to lead to persecution of himself. He didn't consider the consequences of standing up for David. He didn't stand up for David just because he was his friend. He stood up for him because David was a faithful servant of Saul. So did Abimelech do the same thing in 1 Samuel 22.14. We read there, Then Abimelech answered the king and said, And who is so faithful among all thy servants as David? He who Saul had become suspicious of David, If he considered what was likely the consequence of these things, he recognized that it was unlikely Saul was going to turn from that suspicion. And yet he wasn't afraid to speak up the truth regarding David. Who's been more faithful than him? In other words, why are you behaving this way? Why do you have this disposition towards him? Again, Proverbs 31, 8 and 9, "...open thy mouth for the dumb and the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy." We're to stand up for those that can't stand up for themselves. We're also to be faithful, or not to tell secrets. Proverbs 11.13, a tailbearer revealeth secrets, but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter. There are things that we know that are not common knowledge and are not meant to be common knowledge. There are things that friends of ours might tell us or we might be in a position to know things because of the profession we're in and the vocation that God's called us to that is not common knowledge and doesn't need to be common knowledge. God says a tailbearer will reveal the secrets. He fails to recognize there are things that are not common knowledge. They're not to be broadcast. But in contrast, there is a faithful spirit that conceals a matter. This proverb isn't speaking about truthfulness or not truthfulness. It's really assuming truthfulness. Even if it's true, there are some things that you know that you're not supposed to tell everybody. Some of them you explicitly know you're not supposed to tell anybody, and there are others that it ought to be obvious. And so we ought not to tell secrets. Also, we ought to speak things that are profitable. Paul says in Ephesians 4.29, we're to speak that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers. The things that we do say are to profit the hearers. I think that's why truth and peace are so integrally related. If we're speaking the truth in love, and we're speaking the truth to edify, what can it do but produce peace? When people know that our words are coming out of love, and they're coming to help them, even though they might hurt them at first, even though they might seem pretty firm, they'll recognize We ought to pray that they would, so there would be peace. We ought to promote peace and harmony in the church as we speak the truth in love unto edification. And then lastly, I think we ought to delight in good thoughts. This is somewhat related to what I've already said concerning loving the truth and thinking and delighting in the good things that we see in individuals. But this is somewhat more generic, and I'm thinking about Philippians 4.8. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. Focus on these things. Paul doesn't say ignore the other things. Pretend like they don't exist. But he says your focus should be on these things. You know, it's our focus on those things. It will affect the way we live if we delight in these good thoughts and we discipline ourselves to the habit of thinking these kinds of things. And when we find ourselves not thinking these things, to deal with it, to resolve it, to cover those things we should cover. And when we seem to be uncovering it, to cover it back up again. When a sin is committed, to make that judgment. in our own heart of hearts. Is this a thing to cover? Is this a thing to go to the end of it? But make the decision and then resolve to keep it until other information is made available. Question 144 of the larger catechism asks the question, what are the duties required in the ninth commandment? The answer's pretty full, it covers a lot of the things that we've said, but I want to read it. The duties required in the ninth commandment are the preserving and promoting of truth between man and man, and the good name of our neighbor as well as our own, appearing and standing for the truth, and from the heart, sincerely, freely, clearly, and fully, speaking the truth and only the truth in matters of judgment and justice, and in all other things, whatsoever, a charitable esteem of our neighbors, loving, desiring, and rejoicing in their good name, sorrowing for and covering their infirmities, freely acknowledging of their gifts and graces, defending their innocency, a ready receiving of a good report and an unwillingness to admit of an evil report, discouraging tailbearers, flatterers, and slanderers, love and care for our own good name and defending it when need requires, keeping of lawful promises, studying and practicing of whatsoever things are true, honest, lovely, and of good report." You know where that verse, where those words come from. Very full-orbed explanation of the duties that are ours. We're to put off lying and we're to speak the truth. It's not enough to just stop lying. Paul says that there's something we should do instead of lying, and that is speaking the truth to promote peace and the edification of our brethren. In closing, and in application, you see the implications of James 1 through 12. We are called to tame our tongue or to bridle our tongue. Maurice Roberts said that to master your tongue is to master your temper. And isn't that what James is getting at? He says, you know, men can tame all kinds of things, but to tame their tongue can't be done. If you can tame the tongue, you can tame everything else. And if the tongue was tamed, would our tempers not be significantly tamed? Yes, there might be some rising of fury in our inner man, but if we kept from spewing it out verbally, could we then not deal with that internally and lower it much quicker and bring ourselves back into tranquility and peace in our soul. How do we do this? First, we resolve to tame our tongue. The psalmist says in Psalm 39.1, I said, I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me. The psalmist committed to do it. We have to commit to bridle our tongue, if we're ever going to bridle our tongue. It won't happen without commitment. It won't happen without resolve. Second, we have to pray for the Lord to tame our tongue. Without me, Jesus said, ye can do nothing. We can't do it in our own strength. Again, the psalmist says in Psalm 1914, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord. The psalmist is not saying, let me think the most horrible thoughts and say the most horrible things and please just get over it. He's saying, I want my thoughts and my words to conform to your will. Psalm 171-41-3, "...set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, keep the door of my lips." The psalmist could resolve to bridle his own tongue and at the same time he could ask God to bridle his tongue. And so must we. Thirdly, we have to be humbled for the sins of the tongue and particularly the sins of the tongue related to the truth, lack thereof. We ought to have that hatred for our sins. We ought to acknowledge with Isaiah that we have unclean lips and we ought to hate that sin. And the more we hate it, the more we'll flee from the sins of the tongue. We also need to rein in our tongue in our own experiences. We need to think about what we're going to say before we say it. Proverbs 15-28, "...the heart of the righteous studieth to answer, but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things." You better think about your response. And the contrast is those that don't think about their response pour out evil things. You better think about before you open the spigot what you're going to let out. Is it going to be edifying? Is it going to be evil? We should spare our words. Proverbs 17, 27, He that hath knowledge spareth his words, and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit. Again, a synthetic parallelism. He that hath knowledge is compared with a man of understanding. He that spareth his words is the same as the man that's of an excellent spirit. It's the inner man that's demonstrated in the words. And he that hath knowledge, not he that wants to appear like he has knowledge, that's not the one that spares his words. But the one that has knowledge doesn't feel obligated to let it all out when it's not appropriate, when it's not needed, when it's not edified. Proverbs 10.19, in the multitude of words, there one does not sin, but he that refraineth his lips is wise, Proverbs 29.20, "...see'st thou a man that is hasty in his words, there is more hope of a fool than of him." Things aren't going to go well if you're hasty with your words. And lastly, in seeking to tame the tongue, we have to deal with the heart. To get to the tongue, yes, we can bridle the tongue at the moment of considering our responses, And what we will say, but we will not make significant headway if we don't go to the heart. Because the heart and the tongue are intimately connected. Think of Proverbs 4.23, Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. How we behave and what we say. Solomon goes on to say, Put away from thee a froward mouth and perverse lips, put far In the very context of dealing with words, he says you better keep your heart with all diligence. Because it's a fountain. Think of the words of Jesus in Matthew 12, 34. Again, he enunciates the same principle. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speak. What you think on is what's going to come out of your mouth. And so we have to keep our hearts with all diligence. We have to take the time to think about what we're thinking about. We have to stop and say, what am I thinking about at this moment? Is it good? Is it evil? Is it good report? Is it bad report? And then we need to change our behavior based on our own evaluation, our own thinking about what we're thinking. That's what God calls us to do, to discipline our hearts so that we can begin to discipline and bridle our tongues to His glory so that we can stop speaking lies and begin to speak truth one to another. For we're brothers and we're to speak the truth in love. We're to ask ourselves, is it true? Is what I'm about to say not only true, is it necessary and is it loving? And then to speak the truth the necessary truth in love, to the edification of God's people, the peace of God's people, and to the glory of God.