The Eighth Commandment, In Practice.

My favorite line in Martin Luther’s Small Catechism is his explanation to the 8^th Commandment, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” Under the heading—What does this mean?—he writes, “We are to fear and love God, so that we do not tell lies about our neighbors, betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations.” Fair enough, good start, but here’s the kicker: he concludes, “Instead we are to come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light.”

            That last part is so brilliant and so hard: Interpret everything that others do in the best possible light. The church, by which I mean the people in the church (because what else is the church, really?), is terrible at this. We love our doctrine. We hold tight to the things we believe, and we, no doubt, have good reason for believing these things. Whether informed by scripture, or tradition, or reason, or experience, the things we believe are important. Theology helps us put together a better picture of God for the world to see. It helps us to say, “This is of God,” and “This is not.”

            Furthermore, our practices matter. Ritual matters. Every church has rituals—even the ones who think they don’t. Whether our ritual involves dressing up in funny robes on Sunday morning, candles and incense, potluck meals, long-form prayers, altar calls, communion, testimonials, standing up and sitting down, praise bands, organ, putting our hands in the air, or you name it, these rituals can connect us with God. In fact, anything done mindfully can connect us with God, and especially, those things done mindfully in a community. Pay attention, and you will see the ripples of the Holy Spirit moving in the midst of people gathered in God’s name. Our practices create space for this to happen.

            So, doctrine matters and ritual matters, but it’s obvious to anybody, whether outside or inside the church, that Christians don’t always agree on these things. Sometimes, we even disagree on things that some might consider essential for the faith. This can be difficult. But, let me remind you, we are not the ones saving anybody here. I hope we can agree on that: As Christians, we proclaim that Jesus is our Savior because of what he did on the cross. So, where we disagree on doctrine and practice, let us agree on one thing: Let us love as God loves us.

            Now, having said that, we probably do all agree with that, in principle. The problem comes when we start defining sin, and what is good, and what is bad, etc. We don’t agree on how to love. I’m not naïve to think that all of us agreeing to love means we’ll agree how that looks in practice.

So, rather than agreeing to love the same, can we at least agree to Luther’s explanation to the 8^th commandment? When we don’t agree with our neighbors, can we agree, especially then, to come to their defense? When we don’t understand our neighbors’ beliefs, can we attempt to put them in the best possible light? When we believe our neighbors are dead wrong, can we speak well of them, nonetheless?

            We aren’t the gatekeepers. In fact, I don’t believe there’s a gate for us to keep, but that’s just my belief. Take it as you may. I just hope you might try to see that belief in the best possible light, as I try to do the same with yours.