[Steve Myers] We’ve been talking about the commandments found in the New Testament. And we’ve zeroed in on Ephesians in the last few. And I’d like to have you notice, the Ninth Commandment also referenced in Ephesians. And in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 25, the apostle Paul wrote to Ephesus, “Put away lying. Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.” Now, what we find here is the apostle Paul is getting down to the fact that it’s not just avoiding lying. And all too often I think we fall into that aspect in our lives, that we think if we just avoid evil that we’re doing okay.

And yeah, of course, that’s good. But that’s not what we’re shooting for. It’s more than just avoiding evil. We must do good. And that’s where Paul zeroes in on our responsibility. It’s not just about not lying. We have to be truth-tellers. That’s God’s honest desire for every one of us, that we tell the truth.

And in fact, there is an amazing Hebrew word for “truth” – this is a variation of it, “emet” – that encapsulates something that’s kind of interesting when you think about truth-telling, being one who is truthful.

This word for “truth” in Hebrew – they have an interesting aspect to it. It has what would be the first letter, which is the very first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The “m” as it’s transliterated is the middle letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And you’ll never guess what is transliterated as a “t” for us is in the Hebrew alphabet – it’s the last letter. And so it’s been noted that the word for “truth” should be something that we take to heart at the beginning, at the middle, and at the end.

It encompasses the first things we do, the middle things that we do, and the last things that we do. Kind of realizing that everything we do in our life must be wrapped around the truth. That gets to the real spiritual intent behind “Don’t bear false witness”.

All right, that’s BT Daily. We’ll see you next time.