“‘These are the things that you people should do: Speak truthfully with one another. With truth and the judgment of peace do your judging in your gates.

Zechariah 8:16, 17.

28. Hence, how were truth and justice to be upheld in their “gates” or law courts, and what was the object of judging with the “judgment of peace”?

²⁸ The things that Jehovah of armies hates the restored remnant must not do, in order to remain in His favor. Justice must be executed in their gates or law courts. There no false oath should be resorted to in order to bring undeserved calamity upon one’s fellowman. One should be honest in what one says to a fellowman or swears to in court, always speaking the truth and not saying one thing with one’s mouth but having another thing in one’s deceptive heart. In settling any matter of dispute in a judicial way, the aim should be to bring about peace among those going to law; and this peace objective can be reached only if truth and justice are upheld in the court. We should love what God loves, not what he hates.

29. How did the apostle Paul show that Zechariah 8:16 applies to the Christian remnant, and how do they thus speak the truth?

²⁹ Does this apply to the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel? Most certainly it does. When writing to the believers in Ephesus, Asia Minor, in behalf of Christian unity, the apostle Paul said: “Speaking the truth, let us by love grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ. Wherefore, now that you have put away falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, because we are members belonging to one another.” (Ephesians 4:15, 25) Evidently the apostle was here quoting part of Zechariah 8:16 and was properly applying it to Christians who were the “Israel of God.” (Galatians 6:15, 16) Speaking truthfully or speaking the truth with one another would also mean telling the Bible truths to one another, and not the religious falsehoods of Babylon the Great. In that way we promote pure worship of God at his spiritual temple.