Proverbs 24:28 · World English Bible
Proverbs 24:28 Meaning Don’t Be a Witness Against Your Neighbor
Don’t be a witness against your neighbor without cause. Don’t deceive with your lips.
What does Proverbs 24:28 mean?
To witness against a brother is to testify to his guilt, and the mind does this without cause because the guilt it would swear to was never real. Every accusation is an attempt to see in another the darkness a mind fears in itself, and to give that testimony voice is to deceive, since it speaks of a wrong that exists only in the dream.
From the Christian Psychology reading below.
Proverbs 24:28 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Christian Psychology
CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY
Christian Psychology
To witness against a brother is to testify to his guilt, and the mind does this without cause because the guilt it would swear to was never real. Every accusation is an attempt to see in another the darkness a mind fears in itself, and to give that testimony voice is to deceive, since it speaks of a wrong that exists only in the dream.
The lie is not merely told to the neighbor; the mind tells it first to itself. The correction is to become a witness for innocence instead, for when a mind stops accusing others it stops condemning itself in the same breath.
Thy neighbour: the brother the mind is tempted to accuse, seen as guilty only because the mind has cast its own fear onto him. Thy lips: the mind's power to testify, which can bear false witness to guilt or speak instead for the innocence that is real.
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Live Proverbs 24:28 today
- Catch one unkind story you have been telling yourself about someone and ask honestly whether you actually know it is true. Most of the time the evidence is thin.
- When a conversation turns to picking apart someone who is not there, let it pass without your contribution. You can say one fair thing about them instead.
- When you are stressed and the easiest move is to shift the blame to a coworker, say what happened plainly instead. Accuracy costs less in the long run than a story you have to keep up.
What am I accusing someone of that I have never actually checked?
The same truth in other traditions
Buddhism · right speech
Avoid words that divide or slander, since they plant harm in listeners who had no stake in it. Silence is better than a true sounding accusation.
Judaism · lashon hara
Speaking badly of someone who is not present damages three people at once: the one spoken of, the one listening, and the one speaking.
Sufism · Rumi
The fault you are so sure you see in another is often your own, reflected back from a wall you mistook for a window.
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