SO FAR AS ANY ONE SHUNS ALL KINDS OF FALSE WITNESS AS SINS, SO FAR HE LOVES WHAT IS TRUE (veritas)

By bearing false witness, in the natural sense, is meant not only to act as a false witness, but also to practise lying and defamation. By bearing false witness, in the spiritual sense, is meant to say and to persuade others that what is false is true, and that what is evil is good, and conversely. But in the supreme sense, by bearing false witness is meant to blaspheme the Lord and the Word. These are what constitute bearing false witness in the threefold sense. That they make one in the man who testifies falsely, who tells a lie, and who defames another, may be evident from what was shown in THE DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE, Nos. 5-7 and following numbers, and No. 57, regarding the threefold sense of all that is contained in the Word.