False Witness

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” Exodus 20:16

My commentary mentions that “suppressing the truth when known, by which a person may be defrauded of his property or his good name, or lie under injuries or disabilities which a discovery of the truth would have prevented” is the same as “bearing false witness.” For some reason, it seems we’ve made it acceptable to simply choose “not to get involved” to avoid having to take a stand for the truth when the truth might negatively impact a business or social relationship. The way I see it, if we know the truth and refuse to speak it, we are just as guilty as the person who is perpetuating the untruth. We don’t get to excuse ourselves because it’s a difficult situation.