Are You Living A Lie?

 "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." (cf. 2 John 4). 

"For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie," (cf. 2 Thess. 2:11). 

"Gently instruct those who oppose the truth.  Perhaps God will change those people's hearts, and they will learn the truth," (cf. 2 Tim. 2:25). 

"I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth," (cf. 1 John 2:21).  

"But those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger," (cf. Romans 2:8). 

If we are deceived by the devil, we believe his lies (the father of lies) and do not live according to the truth but walk in darkness.  This means we are not in touch with reality, which is according to the truth.  In the last days, many shall "believe the great lie" and fall prey to Satan and his deceptions.  "They refuse to love the truth and so be saved, (cf. 2 Thess. 2:10).   Satan has held them "captive to do his will" and has blinded them (cf. 2 Cor. 4:4).  But "those who know their God shall be strong and resist him," (cf. Dan 11:32).  We can be capable of many crazy things once we practice deception and do not admit or acknowledge the truth and follow the way of lies.  

We can be deceived by conspiracy theories and any such lie of the devil that the ignorant, naive, and foolish are subject to. It may be traced to when a person only believes what his leader tells him or his tribe says: this is a phenomenon of today in our tribalistic society. In the Jim Jones cult of the Peoples Temple, the cult of death that committed mass suicide, they boasted that they needed no Bibles because they had Jim Jones!  No one Bible was found at Georgetown. 

We must realize that God the God of truth and Jesus is the personification of truth itself coming to bear witness of the truth.  Science is a gift of  God to know things but not the only way to know truth! Also, the opposite to deny science can know anything is a lie and not according to the truth. Ultimate trust in anyone but God is idolatry and God is jealous!  Prayer is our first call for help!   We don't ignore science nor act recklessly or dangerously but our first resort in healing through prayer is to call upon the LORD as Asa refused to do in his foot disease he sought not the aid of the LORD but only the physicians (cf. 2 Chron 16:12). 

CAVEAT:  We become like those we admire and believe; trusting or believing liars will eventually make you one; a child of liars.   People see themselves in others and forget that God is the one to emulate, not mankind; Jesus is our Exemplar and Role Model of truth and truth-speaking even to power when it takes courage.   

When we don't put God first and make Him our priority, we invite idolatry and worship of a lie; exchanging the truth of God for a lie and suppressing the truth. Then we become all the more susceptible to lies!  We must all have our allegiance tested.  We will never be satisfied with a false god or faux deity.  Only the truth can set us free(cf. John 8:32)! We can know it and the truth is in Jesus (cf. Eph. 4:21).   If your foundation isn't in the truth you will be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine and taken in by the wiles of the devil.  If you only believe what your leader says or approves, what happens when he is gone; you will search for another authority figure to believe. 

The whole idea of the heart of Protestantism is to be able to have the right to dissent, disagree, and protest.  We are not slaves to church dogma and especially to state propaganda, that deals in misinformation. Only a framework or truth and sold Christian worldview will prevent brainwashing and giving into what the devil wants you to believe. We must repeatedly ask ourselves to whom we owe our allegiance; is it God alone?    In sum, we can see deception and lies as the motive and source of idolatry from the God of truth.   Soli Deo Gloria! 

Ethical, Or True Lies?

My premise is that there may be times when one has no choice but to lie because the person doesn't deserve the truth and the truth does more damage in the final result.  Numbers 23:19 says God is not a man that He should lie--implying men lie!   Note that even Paul was apologetic and insisted he wasn't lying in Rom. 9:1 and Gal. 1:20.  In Col. 3:9, where it forbids lying to each other, this is referencing the body of Christ in context.  We ought to be in sync with the Holy Spirit and walking in the light so as not to lie to the Holy Spirit per Acts 5 when Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead. The warning in Revelation is to those who "love and practice lies."  Job interestingly denies lying to his comforters' faces.   We ought to be in the habit of practicing the truth not lies, but there are always exceptions to the rules.  God cannot lie (cf. Heb. 6:18; Titus1:2) but it's impossible for man not to lie!

Eph. 4:15 does say to "speak the truth in love" (and speak "lies" in love too!), but sometimes the truth often hurts and should be shirked--it's never warranted to insult or use hate speech.  We never have the prerogative to be judgmental, divisive, critical, argumentative, nor contentious in our speech or conversation. Don't ever cast a slur on your fellow man.  Note that when the Bible speaks of "truth," it's mainly specifying Scripture (cf. John 17:17)--i.e., speak the Word of God in love, not to stir hatred.  Many believers become legalists; but it is written: "do not go beyond that which is written" (1 Cor. 4:6).  What does this mean?

We can interpret the Ninth Commandment as prohibiting and forbidding false testimony in court that would damage some one's reputation and change the verdict, what is verboten here is meant to apply to that but it is elaborated further in Scripture and people have generally believed all lying, even nonintentional ones or white lies, which only are made to keep from hurting one's feelings, are patently, unequivocally wrong.  We ought never blatantly to tell falsehoods to our neighbors but what about our enemies--do they deserve the truth?  "Do not be overrighteous ... why destroy yourself?" (Eccl. 7:16, NIV).

We as believers in Christ are not "under the law" (cf. Rom. 6:14) and operate or function under a higher law at work--the law of love, and if it serves to love our neighbor better by covering up the truth or letting a misrepresentation go, then the higher law overrules.  What if telling the truth would lead to the death of your wife?  Even Abraham lied about his wife being his sister, which technically was a half-truth!  What if it meant compromising the safety of thousands of persecuted Jews during the Holocaust--when papers were counterfeited?  What if a Nazi asks you if you are harboring Jews or know their whereabouts like Corrie ten Boom did?  What if you are undercover as a mole or counterespionage agent and your concealed identity and falsehoods must be secretive?  What about the pleasantries of greetings when we cover up our malady and say, "I'm fine," when we're not in a good mood and you want to avoid pity or attention.  You may feel you don't owe them the truth concerning your privacy--it's none of their business.  There are many ethical dilemmas that one may have and the best advice is to pray that you enter not into temptation. (Plead the Fifth!). For instance, either you tell a lie, or your daughter gets raped?  We are not culpable for coerced acts done non-voluntarily.

The moment of truth is not when we are challenged to admit the truth to an adversary but when we are honest to God at the time it would cost us something if we are honest, e.g., reveal some secret fact about yourself or others.  We need to get away from making such high ethical standards for our selves that we can never achieve and end up falling into a rut of self-defeat and failure, resulting in low self-image or esteem, ultimately leading defeated lives spiritually.  I know that God abhors a (habitual, uncontrollable, pathological) lying tongue (per Prov. 6:16f), but everyone is a liar according to Romans 3:4.  Technically anyone who ever told a lie is a liar then and that includes believers, for there is one God of truth.

Technically, you could say Jesus "lied" when He was on the road to Emmaus and he led on or "pretended" or made like He was going on farther ahead or playing along with their notion of the situation.  If you want to get technical, this is one sin that there are literally dozens of ways to commit it and we all do unbeknownst to ourselves. The truth is that we are only judged according to our awareness of truth and knowledge, and anything done in faith is not sin, and only if we know the right thing to do and fail to do it, is it sin.  The kind of liar that God says is an abomination and He abhors is deliberate and habitual and even pathological, not occasional or necessitated.

Any man that claims he's never lied or doesn't do it is a liar by definition--he's self-condemned and doesn't know his own nature. A real liar is one who commits to lying as a way of life like a con artist, not a person who has found it necessary to lie.  George Washington said he couldn't tell a lie, which was a lie!  Mark Twain was more honest in saying he could tell a lie, but wouldn't!  In determining the morality of a "lie" one must examine the motive (cf. Prov. 16:2), the desired effect, and any fallout, byproduct, or unintended consequences and results (cf. Deut. 32:29), which we are held accountable for--we don't believe just because a person's motives were pure or he did it in love, that he is justified.

What is the real crime, is not just telling a little lie, but living a big one?   It's not a contest to see who can be the most honest or reveal the most secrets, sort of like comedians do when they joke about themselves--be relevant and appropriate!   What matters in the long run, is that you are on the side of the truth and don't suppress it, namely ("true truth," as Francis Schaeffer called it) and listen to the truth--God's Word is Truth! (Cf. John 18:27; Rom. 1:18).  So, who do you want as your confidant? (Cf. Psalm 25:14).  Soli Deo Gloria!