I’m going to go against the grain in my post today, at least in the beginning, by using a quote not from the Bible but from an atheist. Eneasz wrote: “Is not an omission of crucial and possibly life-destroying information as morally reprehensible as a lie?”
Lying is such a fruitless function of our character. Unfortunately it is a flaw that we all seem to share as both Christians and non-Christians alike. Obviously Eneasz as an atheist wondered just as much about lying; choosing in this quote to question the validity (or possibility) that one’s own silence could be construed as a lie.
I will ashamedly admit that I have told my share of lies within my lifetime. I have also been lied to on more than one occasion. At other times still, I have watched others lie when it did not affect me and kept my silence as to the straightforward truth, therefore choosing to sin by omission instead of commission.
I have heard it said along these same lines that lies do not hurt anyone unless the truth comes out later. But they do, don’t they? Because it is Friday, and I’m in a quoting mood today, let me add what Sir Walter Scott Marmion penned many years ago:
Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.
Christians and non-Christians both seem to share the same innate ability to lie to each other or about each other. From the average man on the street all the way up to the leaders of our country; every doctor, lawyer, and Indian chief - lying appears to be a way of life for all of us. I found it odd that the atheist I quoted above chose to describe a lie as something ‘morally reprehensible.’
No one has lied to me lately (that I know of) and I’m not trying to get that particular point into my blog due to a proverbial axe to grind of my own. For some reason it just bothers me today. Maybe because to me it candidly seems as though no one considers lying to be a very big compromise of character these days.
Jesus said in John 8 (here it comes, finally!) “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”
Simply put, no lie that has ever been told can be rationalized in any way as to have descended to us from God. Satan is the father of lies, and each one told comes straight from him. Those two facts alone should give us pause when we find ourselves in a situation where we may be tempted to be less than truthful.
Lies do hurt, even if the truth never makes it to the surface. The person I choose to lie to may never know the difference, but I will. And that lie will affect my character, my conscience, and most of all – my relationship with God. I've decided that I am going to strive to not only abide in the truth, but also to have the truth in me at all times as well.
That’s a good goal to pursue.
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