Exodus 23:1
"You shall not give a false report; do not join your hand with a wicked man to be a malicious witness.”
Simply put, we are to tell the truth, in court and in all of life. We are to follow God; not follow, join, conspire or buy into the "crowd in doing evil." We are not to repeat, spread or even listen with interest (as people often do) to a false report but instead we should discourage and reprove the reporter of it. (Proverbs 25:23)
Sometimes however, we cannot avoid hearing a false report but we must not receive it, we must not hear it with pleasure, nor easily give credit to it, for there are consequences for joining yourself to evil.
God's laws for Israel were tailor-made for that nation of 3,500 years ago but, many continue to apply to you and I today.
The Truth
“Now the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation complain against him by bringing a bad report of the land, those very men who brought the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord. But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive, of the men who went to spy out the land.” (Numbers 14:36-38)
