False Witnesses

Daily Reading: Genesis 50, Psalm 50, Acts 6, Proverbs 19

Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia—who began to argue with Stephen. But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke.

Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.”

So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. They produced false witnesses, who testified, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.”

Acts 6:8-14

They produced false witnesses…

I can only imagine how easy it must have been for the religious leaders of the day to convince the Sanhedrin that Stephen must be stoned to death for blaspheming the Jewish faith. After all, these witnesses were coming from the elders and the teachers of the law. If they can’t be trusted, who can?

I have been thinking about this exact topic quite a bit recently, with the state of our world.

We desperately want to believe that we are being told the truth by the leaders of our tribe.

Whether it is our church leaders, political leaders, podcast hosts we enjoy, or media personalities we are drawn to; there is a natural human tendency to look for people we can feel we can totally trust.

In the time of Acts, this undoubtedly would have been the elders and teachers of the law.

Who is that for you?

We live in an unbelievably challenging time to parse out truth from lies. We have entire media ecosystems that will stick to a lie fully regardless of how easily it can be proven false. We have big tech companies feeding us more of what they think we want to see. We have AI videos and images that are increasingly hard to decipher from the real thing.

This is all coming at us at a dizzying pace.

Our world is filled with false witnesses. It has become an entire industry.

However, we also read the following today in Proverbs:

A false witness will not go unpunished, and whoever pours out lies will not go free.

Proverbs 19:5

On a long enough timeline, truth will win out in the end. There may be short term gains here on earth for people that seek to lie, cheat, steal, and manipulate.

Eternity lasts forever.

One of the things that has been weighing heavier and heavier on my heart each day is the need to unplug more often. When we are constantly tethered to the online world, it can be very easy to lose our grip on reality and our judgement can become quickly impaired by false witnesses.

As Christians, we are living through a time where it is more important than ever that we spend time out there in the real world.

Less time on social media, more time with friends.

Less time watching the news, more time giving back in our community.

Less time consuming content in all of the various forms, more time in fellowship with other believers.

The world is filled with false witnesses, and they will eventually pay for their sins.

As Christians, we need to do our best to seek truth, and unplug from sources that seek to pull us away from living out God’s greatest two commandments.

So, next time you are consuming content, ask yourself this:

Does this content draw me closer to God and give me a deeper desire to serve all of God’s flock here on earth regardless of their background, social status, race, or country of origin? Or does this content drive a wedge between me and segments of God’s people?

We are called to love. We are called to serve. We are called to be on mission for Jesus.

The world is full of false witnesses that would love to keep us from it!

Daily Reflection & Dialogue

Are there any voices I allow in my life that may have become “false witnesses” in my life when I think about the position of my heart whenever I consume their content?