That we ought to tell the truth is one of the most basic ethics, universally understood. Often a child’s first pangs of conscience are about telling a lie. The Bible is explicit in man’s moral obligation to be truthful. Ephesians 4:25 commands, “Therefore, putting away lying, ‘Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,’ for we are members of one another.”
Humans lie (Num. 23:19), but God “never lies” (Titus 1:2). Biblical commands against lying are rooted in the character of God. God “cannot lie” (Titus 1:2). It is against His nature. The Bible does not just say God will not lie, but that He cannot. Lying is contrary to His being; thus, it is impossible for Him (Heb. 6:18). God’s word is truth (Prov. 30:5; John 17:17). If we are image-bearers of God, then we should not lie, as Paul wrote, “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Col. 3:9, 10).
Enemies of God have deceitful tongues and lying lips (Ps. 120:2-4; Prov. 12:22). Thus, liars are followers of the devil. Jesus noted this in response to those who maligned Him as one born of fornication, saying they were of their father the devil (John 8:44). The devil is “the father of lies” in that he spoke the first lie, “You will not surely die” (Gen. 3:4). Satan not only lied, but also slandered God’s character, as if God had only given the prohibition of eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to hold humans back, instead of operating in their best interest (Gen. 3:5). False religion involves deceitful spirits and hypocritical men who speak lies (1 Tim. 4:1, 2). Lying tends to accompany other sins. The murderer, the adulterer, and the thief all lie to conceal their wrongdoing. Consider how Cain tried to lie to God in response in Genesis 4:9 regarding the whereabouts of his brother Abel. The first homicide was intertwined with the sin of lying.
The Lord not only hates “a lying tongue,” (Prov. 6:17) but also “a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers” (Prov. 6:19). The law God spoke from Sinai proscribed bearing false witness (Exod. 20:16). Such was serious because it perverted judgment. Thus, the warning: “You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit. Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked. And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right” (Exod. 23:6-8). Lying impairs the judge’s ability to render a fair judgment. In Deuteronomy 19:15-21, the Lord enacted laws to prevent false witnesses from condemning the innocent. At least two witnesses were required; additionally, if one was found to have borne false witness, then whatever penalty would have been executed on the accused would be exacted on the false witness.
While the focus of passages proscribing bearing false witness (such as Exodus 20:16; Deut. 19:18; Ps. 27:12; Prov. 14:5; 25:18) is a courtroom situation, God’s prohibition of lying is not limited to judicial testimony, but to everything we affirm. False charges and insinuations made in private conversations still harm others. Slander robs a man of his good name, which is more valuable than great riches of silver and gold (Prov. 22:1). The cowardly spread falsehoods in private about an individual they dislike but will never confront the individual nor make the same accusations in public under judicial oath. Let us determine to be honest people who speak the truth and thus be more like God.
Leave a Reply