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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: one of his honor or good name unless it be first taken away from him
publicly.
False witness, then, is everything which cannot be properly proved.
Therefore, what is not manifest upon sufficient evidence no one shall
make public or declare for truth; and in short, whatever is secret
should be allowed to remain secret, or, at any rate, should be secretly
reproved, as we shall hear. Therefore, if you encounter an idle tongue
which betrays and slanders some one, contradict such a one promptly to
his face, that he may blush thus many a one will hold his tongue who
else would bring some poor man into bad repute from which he would not
easily extricate himself. For honor and a good name are easily taken
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