The Truth about Lies!
In our list of major sins lying has no place. Some feel lying is not a sin or is a minor sin. Such people tend to lie a lot. We must understand in the first place that one of the stark contrasts between God and satan is that God is no liar and is truth personified whereas satan is a liar and the father of lies (Num 23:19; Jn 8:44). God constantly reminds us to speak the truth and be like Him. But satan fills the hearts of believers to lie to men, to the Holy Spirit and to God (Acts 5:3,4).
I remember a defining incident in my career. It happened when I was working in a village government hospital. I had to do the postmortem in a murder case. I was a raw graduate, naive, with no seniors to help. Since the body was recovered from a pond, three days after the murder, the attendant said there was no need to open the skull as the brain matter would have liquefied. I nodded my head and after the postmortem the body was disposed off, the head untouched.
It was when I was filling the column, “Any fracture in the skull?” my hand stood still. I realized my grave error and felt a pang of guilt. I ran to my colleague who laughed and
said, “Write, ‘No.’ We all do it.”
At the inadmissible advice, I took a bus and went to the Assistant District Medical Officer 60 km away. He counselled me to be sensible and quoted a doctor who lost his registration in a similar situation. It was the kind of thing that scares the hell out of any astute doctor. Was I going to jeopardize my career? When I narrated the whole thing to my husband he replied matter-of-factly, “Let’s fast and pray.” I prayed my hardest. I felt as if the lawsuit was hanging over my own head. After a nerve-racking ten days I appeared in the court and took the stand, drenched in perspiration.
The bushy-browed man started without preamble:
“Any injury in the foot?”
“No Sir.” The words spluttered out of my mouth.
“Legs?”
“No Sir.”
“Thighs, hip? Any contusion?”
“No Sir.”
“Abdomen, chest? Any fractures?”
“No Sir.”
All eyes in the room were focused on me. I wanted to slink away and hide myself.
“Any strangulation mark in the neck?”
Many have fallen by the wayside in their pursuit of God, by choosing to speak lies.
“No Sir.” I felt the noose tighten around my neck. Next question was head. My knees were knocking. My blood went chill. Adrenaline rushed through my veins. Only half my brain was listening to him. The other half was busy handling a blizzard of thoughts: “He’s going to punish me... I am going to be put to shame... I may lose my licence... My God...” I framed the words in my throat, “Sir, I am extremely sorry. I failed to open the skull. It’s a mistake.” As I awaited his next question—
He said, “Please sit down.” Suddenly the bespectacled man looked genial and gentle. I was awash with relief. The noose became loose and I breathed freely. I could not believe it. It was too good to be true. It took my heart a few minutes to return to its normal rhythm. Every cell in my body was buzzing with wonder and amazement at what God did. May be the man who questioned me could not sleep that night because he failed to probe about the skull, but that was his problem.
From that day onwards I picked up more courage to speak the truth. I knew if I lean towards God’s side, under any circumstances He would be there for me. Forty years down the road I am stronger in my commitment to speak the truth.
When Jesus questioned the chief priests and elders about the baptism of John they trickily answered, “We do not know.” Logically Jesus should have replied, “I also do not know by what authority I do these things.” But He answered, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things”(Mt 21:23-27). He was very careful with His words. He cornered the Samaritan woman when she lied to Him. Jesus gave His disciples a street-smart advice: Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one” (Mt 5:37). If we take to heart that anything more than truth or less is from the evil one.
We’ll go on red-alert before uttering a lie. If not, it may become a habit, hard to root out. After the first lies, others can tumble out of our mouth more easily. It requires true grit to lead a straightforward life speaking Yes and No in this world of fuzzy values. But if we make a decision not to pronounce a lie we will find solutions and courage in all the difficult situations. And it can do a world of preventive good.
Little white lies have become ubiquitous. Why, even green lies and black lies are not uncommon. We are experts in telling the half truth and half truth is usually less than half! We are masters in speaking the ‘truth’ yet giving a different impression. We ought to unlearn all that. Charles Finney’s definition of lying is: “Any form of designed deception is lying. If your purpose is to make an impression other than the naked truth, you lie.” Even by altering the tone you can lie. It is not what you say, it is what your audience understands by what you say matters.
Even though Solomon teaches about lying, it is in the life of David that we see a frail human being struggling to overcome the bad habit of lying. His first step in the temptation to lie was prayer. He sincerely pleaded to God, “Remove lying from me” (Psa 119:29). The answer came marvelously.
God put hatred in his heart for lying (Psa 119:163). The teaching starts as early as Leviticus: “You shall not... lie to one another” (19:11). The New Testament emphasizes the same. “Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbour for we are members of one another” (Eph 4:25; Col 3:9). God not just hates a lying tongue, it’s an abomination to Him. “These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: a lying tongue... a false witness who speaks lies” (Prov 6:16-19). Joseph’s brothers were the Patriarchs. They called themselves “honest men” (Gen 42:11). But in truth they lied to their father and to Joseph. We can see ourselves in them. We think we are honest folk. Actually we can spot many lies in us if we search our hearts.
Jesus was known for speaking the truth. The disciples of the Pharisees, though His enemies, said, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth” (Mt 22:16). Paul repeatedly says, “I speak the truth, I lie not.” Do people believe in every word we speak? Are we known as people who speak the truth? Even among God’s children there are two groups—children who will not lie and lying children (Isa 63:8; 30:9). The verses following ‘Children who will not lie’ are uplifting—“So He became their Saviour. In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them and carried them all the days of old.” When God saves the remnant they will be known for their honesty. “The remnant of Israel... speak no lies, nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth” (Zeph 3:13). Even the Christian world is replete with lies. Leadership requires absolute honesty and truthfulness. It’s a shame that even spiritual leaders tell blatant untruth. It is a sad thing that many at the top do not take truthfulness seriously. No wonder these days, “truth is fallen in the street” (Isa 59:14). Even in the church, lying is prevalent (Rev 2:2). There is a lot about lying prophets in the Bible who disappointed the truthful heart of God. Let us, who make tall claims about our ministry realize that lying is a serious weakness of character and appraise our soul’s condition. Husbands to wives and wives to husbands, parents to children and children to parents, workers to bosses and vice-versa, should take a pledge to speak the truth to one another.
We speak lies to ourselves too and deceive ourselves. Especially when we are in the wrong we convince ourselves that we are right. We can see David’s sincerity in speaking the truth when he wrote Psalm 15. “Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who... speaks the truth in his heart.” When David sinned with Bathsheba, maybe for a year he was deceiving himself by speaking lies to himself. May be he told himself, “God has created me a man and surely He understands. Is it not my privilege as a king? She tempted me. He died in the war and I was only trying to help her” etc. But when Nathan confronted him, he fell flat. He had no defence. He repented of his deceiving himself. He understood that he could not cheat God who looks into the depth of a person for truth.
Hence he said, “Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts” (Psa 51:6). How often we deceive ourselves saying, “I was just joking,” “It is part of business (or profession),” “He/she made me sin; so I am not responsible” and such things! The lies that we tell ourselves are more pernicious than the lies we tell others.
Some of the common lies we speak are “I have forgotten,” “I don’t know,” “I didn’t do it,” “I pray for you,” “I have no money; I cannot afford to pay,” “I have no sin.” Other lies we sing. If like Pinochhio our noses grew by an inch everytime we lied, how long will our noses be now? Most of us tell fibs now and then. Why do we lie? We lie because we are worried, afraid, to gain something, to escape a situation, to defame others or the like. Often we appreciate someone without meaning it, as a necessary social lubricant. Why do we speak lies? Because we are afraid what man will do to us; because we want cheap gains in business; to be in the good books of everyone; to cover up the hatred in our hearts; to please people by flattering them. Caught in a tight corner the easiest way out for us is a fib. Oh, how much we forfeit for a small profit!
We should also understand that we don’t owe the truth to everyone. When someone asks you a question you don’t want to answer, reply with a good natured smile, “Why do you want to know?”
It is not just our relationship with our loved ones within the family and others that is affected by lying, our relationship with God also will be broken. Lying leads to loss of trust. Someone said “What upsets me is not that you lied to me, but from now on I can no longer believe you.” Truer words were never spoken. “What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive” said Sir Walter Scott. Even seemingly harmless falsehoods can have unforeseen consequences, kicking off a nasty chain of reaction. Then we need nine lies to cover up one.
If you lie in haste and then bite your tongue, feeling sorry for what you have uttered, you have hope. But if you lie and feel happy that you have made someone believe something else you better remind yourself of what the Bible warns as the punishment for liars.
If we can cooly lie today and lie down peacefully to sleep, we’ll lie on hot coals and burning brimstone tomorrow. If we lie and toss and turn in bed like a worm thrown in fire today, tomorrow we’ll escape the worms and lie in the bosom of Jesus. For the Bible says, “All liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Rev 21:8). “There shall by no means enter it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life” (Rev 21:27). It goes without saying that the names of liars will be scratched out of the Book. If you peep outside the holy city, “Outside are dogs... and whoever loves and practices a lie” (Rev 22:15). The fear of speaking the truth is dwarfed in the face of spending eternity in a lake of burning sulfur.
Make a decision today never to speak the untruth but to face the consequences of honesty. God will honour you. It may be difficult in the beginning. But all things are difficult before they are easy. Don’t worry when you err. Do your best to correct it. Big lessons of life are learnt from small mistakes.
When we speak the truth we may lose something or suffer. But in the longer run truth prevails. “A lie has speed, but truth has endurance” said Edgar Mohn. “When in doubt tell the truth. It will confound you r enemies and astound your friends” said Mark Twain. One reason we should avoid lying is that it spreads. As the saying goes, “A lie travels half way around the world before truth gets its boots on.” Truth can never be bad, though bitter. A lie can never be good, though sweet.
I am happy when someone tells me, “I told you... But actually it is... I am sorry.” I respect that person for her courage and integrity. About Jesus it is written that there was no guile found in His mouth. Those who want to be like Jesus must remove untruth far from their mouth. David sings, “Who is the man who desires life and loves many days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit” (Psa 34:12,13).
Do you think God would have allowed Isaac to get killed if he had told people that Rebekah was his wife? Certainly not. If he had spoken the truth he would have experienced God’s divine power. So take an enthusiastic approach instead of shoving the idea of speaking the truth. Have a meticulous tracking of your experiences of lying, setting it right, fighting the temptation, overcoming, joys, problems and testimonies in your diary. There’s nothing more powerful than truth!
Dr. Lilian Stanley
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
+91 9843511943
lilianstanley@gmail.com
Blessing Youth Mission
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
+91-416-2242943, +91-416-2248943
hq@bymonline.org
www.bymonline.org
Click here for more options
To buy books written by Dr. Lilian Stanley, kindly reach to us in the follwing address
Blessing Literature Centre
21/11 West Coovam River Road,
Chintadripet,
Chennai 600 002, India.
+91-44-28450411, 8806270699
blc@bymonline.org
The Truth about Lies!
In our list of major sins lying has no place. Some feel lying is not a sin or is a minor sin. Such people tend to lie a lot. We must understand in the first place that one of the stark contrasts between God and satan is that God is no liar and is truth personified whereas satan is a liar and the father of lies (Num 23:19; Jn 8:44). God constantly reminds us to speak the truth and be like Him. But satan fills the hearts of believers to lie to men, to the Holy Spirit and to God (Acts 5:3,4).
I remember a defining incident in my career. It happened when I was working in a village government hospital. I had to do the postmortem in a murder case. I was a raw graduate, naive, with no seniors to help. Since the body was recovered from a pond, three days after the murder, the attendant said there was no need to open the skull as the brain matter would have liquefied. I nodded my head and after the postmortem the body was disposed off, the head untouched.
It was when I was filling the column, “Any fracture in the skull?” my hand stood still. I realized my grave error and felt a pang of guilt. I ran to my colleague who laughed and
said, “Write, ‘No.’ We all do it.”
At the inadmissible advice, I took a bus and went to the Assistant District Medical Officer 60 km away. He counselled me to be sensible and quoted a doctor who lost his registration in a similar situation. It was the kind of thing that scares the hell out of any astute doctor. Was I going to jeopardize my career? When I narrated the whole thing to my husband he replied matter-of-factly, “Let’s fast and pray.” I prayed my hardest. I felt as if the lawsuit was hanging over my own head. After a nerve-racking ten days I appeared in the court and took the stand, drenched in perspiration.
The bushy-browed man started without preamble:
“Any injury in the foot?”
“No Sir.” The words spluttered out of my mouth.
“Legs?”
“No Sir.”
“Thighs, hip? Any contusion?”
“No Sir.”
“Abdomen, chest? Any fractures?”
“No Sir.”
All eyes in the room were focused on me. I wanted to slink away and hide myself.
“Any strangulation mark in the neck?”
Many have fallen by the wayside in their pursuit of God, by choosing to speak lies.
“No Sir.” I felt the noose tighten around my neck. Next question was head. My knees were knocking. My blood went chill. Adrenaline rushed through my veins. Only half my brain was listening to him. The other half was busy handling a blizzard of thoughts: “He’s going to punish me... I am going to be put to shame... I may lose my licence... My God...” I framed the words in my throat, “Sir, I am extremely sorry. I failed to open the skull. It’s a mistake.” As I awaited his next question—
He said, “Please sit down.” Suddenly the bespectacled man looked genial and gentle. I was awash with relief. The noose became loose and I breathed freely. I could not believe it. It was too good to be true. It took my heart a few minutes to return to its normal rhythm. Every cell in my body was buzzing with wonder and amazement at what God did. May be the man who questioned me could not sleep that night because he failed to probe about the skull, but that was his problem.
From that day onwards I picked up more courage to speak the truth. I knew if I lean towards God’s side, under any circumstances He would be there for me. Forty years down the road I am stronger in my commitment to speak the truth.
When Jesus questioned the chief priests and elders about the baptism of John they trickily answered, “We do not know.” Logically Jesus should have replied, “I also do not know by what authority I do these things.” But He answered, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things”(Mt 21:23-27). He was very careful with His words. He cornered the Samaritan woman when she lied to Him. Jesus gave His disciples a street-smart advice: Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one” (Mt 5:37). If we take to heart that anything more than truth or less is from the evil one.
We’ll go on red-alert before uttering a lie. If not, it may become a habit, hard to root out. After the first lies, others can tumble out of our mouth more easily. It requires true grit to lead a straightforward life speaking Yes and No in this world of fuzzy values. But if we make a decision not to pronounce a lie we will find solutions and courage in all the difficult situations. And it can do a world of preventive good.
Little white lies have become ubiquitous. Why, even green lies and black lies are not uncommon. We are experts in telling the half truth and half truth is usually less than half! We are masters in speaking the ‘truth’ yet giving a different impression. We ought to unlearn all that. Charles Finney’s definition of lying is: “Any form of designed deception is lying. If your purpose is to make an impression other than the naked truth, you lie.” Even by altering the tone you can lie. It is not what you say, it is what your audience understands by what you say matters.
Even though Solomon teaches about lying, it is in the life of David that we see a frail human being struggling to overcome the bad habit of lying. His first step in the temptation to lie was prayer. He sincerely pleaded to God, “Remove lying from me” (Psa 119:29). The answer came marvelously.
God put hatred in his heart for lying (Psa 119:163). The teaching starts as early as Leviticus: “You shall not... lie to one another” (19:11). The New Testament emphasizes the same. “Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbour for we are members of one another” (Eph 4:25; Col 3:9). God not just hates a lying tongue, it’s an abomination to Him. “These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: a lying tongue... a false witness who speaks lies” (Prov 6:16-19). Joseph’s brothers were the Patriarchs. They called themselves “honest men” (Gen 42:11). But in truth they lied to their father and to Joseph. We can see ourselves in them. We think we are honest folk. Actually we can spot many lies in us if we search our hearts.
Jesus was known for speaking the truth. The disciples of the Pharisees, though His enemies, said, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth” (Mt 22:16). Paul repeatedly says, “I speak the truth, I lie not.” Do people believe in every word we speak? Are we known as people who speak the truth? Even among God’s children there are two groups—children who will not lie and lying children (Isa 63:8; 30:9). The verses following ‘Children who will not lie’ are uplifting—“So He became their Saviour. In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them and carried them all the days of old.” When God saves the remnant they will be known for their honesty. “The remnant of Israel... speak no lies, nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth” (Zeph 3:13). Even the Christian world is replete with lies. Leadership requires absolute honesty and truthfulness. It’s a shame that even spiritual leaders tell blatant untruth. It is a sad thing that many at the top do not take truthfulness seriously. No wonder these days, “truth is fallen in the street” (Isa 59:14). Even in the church, lying is prevalent (Rev 2:2). There is a lot about lying prophets in the Bible who disappointed the truthful heart of God. Let us, who make tall claims about our ministry realize that lying is a serious weakness of character and appraise our soul’s condition. Husbands to wives and wives to husbands, parents to children and children to parents, workers to bosses and vice-versa, should take a pledge to speak the truth to one another.
We speak lies to ourselves too and deceive ourselves. Especially when we are in the wrong we convince ourselves that we are right. We can see David’s sincerity in speaking the truth when he wrote Psalm 15. “Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who... speaks the truth in his heart.” When David sinned with Bathsheba, maybe for a year he was deceiving himself by speaking lies to himself. May be he told himself, “God has created me a man and surely He understands. Is it not my privilege as a king? She tempted me. He died in the war and I was only trying to help her” etc. But when Nathan confronted him, he fell flat. He had no defence. He repented of his deceiving himself. He understood that he could not cheat God who looks into the depth of a person for truth.
Hence he said, “Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts” (Psa 51:6). How often we deceive ourselves saying, “I was just joking,” “It is part of business (or profession),” “He/she made me sin; so I am not responsible” and such things! The lies that we tell ourselves are more pernicious than the lies we tell others.
Some of the common lies we speak are “I have forgotten,” “I don’t know,” “I didn’t do it,” “I pray for you,” “I have no money; I cannot afford to pay,” “I have no sin.” Other lies we sing. If like Pinochhio our noses grew by an inch everytime we lied, how long will our noses be now? Most of us tell fibs now and then. Why do we lie? We lie because we are worried, afraid, to gain something, to escape a situation, to defame others or the like. Often we appreciate someone without meaning it, as a necessary social lubricant. Why do we speak lies? Because we are afraid what man will do to us; because we want cheap gains in business; to be in the good books of everyone; to cover up the hatred in our hearts; to please people by flattering them. Caught in a tight corner the easiest way out for us is a fib. Oh, how much we forfeit for a small profit!
We should also understand that we don’t owe the truth to everyone. When someone asks you a question you don’t want to answer, reply with a good natured smile, “Why do you want to know?”
It is not just our relationship with our loved ones within the family and others that is affected by lying, our relationship with God also will be broken. Lying leads to loss of trust. Someone said “What upsets me is not that you lied to me, but from now on I can no longer believe you.” Truer words were never spoken. “What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive” said Sir Walter Scott. Even seemingly harmless falsehoods can have unforeseen consequences, kicking off a nasty chain of reaction. Then we need nine lies to cover up one.
If you lie in haste and then bite your tongue, feeling sorry for what you have uttered, you have hope. But if you lie and feel happy that you have made someone believe something else you better remind yourself of what the Bible warns as the punishment for liars.
If we can cooly lie today and lie down peacefully to sleep, we’ll lie on hot coals and burning brimstone tomorrow. If we lie and toss and turn in bed like a worm thrown in fire today, tomorrow we’ll escape the worms and lie in the bosom of Jesus. For the Bible says, “All liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Rev 21:8). “There shall by no means enter it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life” (Rev 21:27). It goes without saying that the names of liars will be scratched out of the Book. If you peep outside the holy city, “Outside are dogs... and whoever loves and practices a lie” (Rev 22:15). The fear of speaking the truth is dwarfed in the face of spending eternity in a lake of burning sulfur.
Make a decision today never to speak the untruth but to face the consequences of honesty. God will honour you. It may be difficult in the beginning. But all things are difficult before they are easy. Don’t worry when you err. Do your best to correct it. Big lessons of life are learnt from small mistakes.
When we speak the truth we may lose something or suffer. But in the longer run truth prevails. “A lie has speed, but truth has endurance” said Edgar Mohn. “When in doubt tell the truth. It will confound you r enemies and astound your friends” said Mark Twain. One reason we should avoid lying is that it spreads. As the saying goes, “A lie travels half way around the world before truth gets its boots on.” Truth can never be bad, though bitter. A lie can never be good, though sweet.
I am happy when someone tells me, “I told you... But actually it is... I am sorry.” I respect that person for her courage and integrity. About Jesus it is written that there was no guile found in His mouth. Those who want to be like Jesus must remove untruth far from their mouth. David sings, “Who is the man who desires life and loves many days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit” (Psa 34:12,13).
Do you think God would have allowed Isaac to get killed if he had told people that Rebekah was his wife? Certainly not. If he had spoken the truth he would have experienced God’s divine power. So take an enthusiastic approach instead of shoving the idea of speaking the truth. Have a meticulous tracking of your experiences of lying, setting it right, fighting the temptation, overcoming, joys, problems and testimonies in your diary. There’s nothing more powerful than truth!
Dr. Lilian Stanley
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
+91 9843511943
lilianstanley@gmail.com
Blessing Youth Mission
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
+91-416-2242943, +91-416-2248943
hq@bymonline.org
www.bymonline.org
Click here for more options
To buy books written by Dr. Lilian Stanley, kindly reach to us in the follwing address
Blessing Literature Centre
21/11 West Coovam River Road,
Chintadripet,
Chennai 600 002, India.
+91-44-28450411, Mob:8806270699
blc@bymonline.org
