Deuteronomy 19:15

This subject has already come before us. It cannot be too strongly insisted upon. We can judge its importance by who insists on it. Moses presses it on Israel again and again. So does our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. So does the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul, in two of his letters. All of them hold to the principle of "two or three witnesses" in every case. One witness, however trustworthy, is not enough to decide a case. If we weighed this plain fact more carefully and took it to heart, a vast amount of strife and quarrelling would end.

"The testimony of two men is true," says Scripture. But how is it "true"? May not the testimony of one be true too? Undoubtedly. The meaning is that it can be taken as true; it is valid as evidence. But why can't one man's testimony count as true? Well, the witness may be mistaken, of course... but how often, even so, may a real mistake be due to something worse than this! How often it comes from prejudice, passion, enmity and things like that! And the moral reason is really the main one why we distrust a single witness so much, or even refuse him: evil has come in. That is where the main need for a second witness comes from — to confirm the first.

From verse 15 onwards the subject is what we may call the law of evidence. The command is express: no man is ever to be condemned on the word of one witness. No one may accept an accusation against another unless at least two witnesses back it up. The apostle Paul refers to this and confirms the principle (2 Cor. 13); and how much sorrow and confusion believers everywhere would have escaped if they had accepted it and acted on it. We are so quick to take up false reports and accusations and pass them on. That calls loudly on us to humble ourselves before God... From Matthew 18 we learn that when someone wrongs us personally and we cannot settle it privately, the church is the final court of appeal.

To establish any charge of wrongdoing there must be two or three witnesses — or the person charged must confess his guilt. One witness will not do. Scripture does not say the witnesses must be Christians, though some insist on that. The word of any reliable, upright person should count.

A single witness might bring a charge against a Christian, as against an Israelite. But it took confirmation to convict him with serious result. An elder could not even have a charge properly brought against him except on the testimony of two or more... No one is so open to attacks from those who resent them. So divine wisdom holds back the urge to take up such charges unless they have serious support. Otherwise oversight would become a dreaded work instead of a good work.

It was an admitted principle that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word should be established. To this the Lord here appeals: "In your law too it is written that the witness of two men is true." How much more, then, the testimony of the Father and the Son!

God will acknowledge it, for "at the mouth of two or three witnesses every matter shall be established" (Deut. 19:15)... These two witnesses will also be the two olive trees (Rev. 11:4).