87. IN PROPORTION AS ANY ONE SHUNS FALSE WITNESS OF EVERY KIND AS SIN, IN THE SAME PROPORTION HE LOVES THE TRUTH.
To "bear false witness," in the natural sense, means not only to play the false witness, but also to lie, and to defame. In the spiritual sense, to "bear false witness" means to declare some false thing to be true or some evil thing good, and to persuade others that it is so; and the converse. And in the highest sense, to "bear false witness" means to blaspheme the Lord and the Word.
These are the three senses of "bearing false witness." That these make a one in the man who bears false witness, utters a lie, or defames, is evident from what has been shown respecting the three senses of all things of the Word, in the Doctrine of the Holy Scripture (n. 5-7, etc. and n. 57).
