Don't Lie (Exodus 20:16; Proverbs 6:16-19; Acts 5:1-11)
Billy Milton - January 17, 2006
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Proverbs 6:16-19
“There are six things the Lord hates – no, seven things he detests: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows discord among brothers.”
Here’s a strange dichotomy – we expect people to lie to us and, if we’re honest, we probably do lie ourselves on occasions, yet it is something we dislike and despise. We know that its wrong and one of the worst insults you can hurl at someone is, “You’re a liar!” Instinctively we recoil from such a charge. When we are lied to we can understand why God says, “Don’t lie.” It hurts and its breaks down the trust that is so necessary in any relationship or in any community.
Our legal system has at its heart the fact that truth is supreme. For it to function as it should it requires that the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth be told. Do you believe that that always happens? For example, think of the recent trial of the pop singer Michael Jackson. How many of us believe that after 3 months of testimony we now know the truth and that Michael Jackson is truly innocent? How many believe that his accusers were telling the whole truth as well?
So can anyone be trusted? May and I were in holiday in Bath a couple of years ago. Sat on a bench for a rest. Two ladies in their 20’s sat beside us talking intensely. We couldn’t help but listen in! Boyfriend trouble – cheat, liar etc. etc. Closing statement, “Yeah but you know honey that all men are liars!” I nearly began to defend my gender but d’you know – I think she might just be right.
We need a big change in the area of truth telling and Christians have to be at the vanguard of that change. The bit of Proverbs 6 that we read tells us that God hates a false witness. He takes lying seriously even we don’t. But it’s not only in the courts that lying is a problem it’s a problem in everyday life. There are different types of false witness. Here’s a few:
1. The Outright Lie
Some spectacular examples reach the newspapers and allow us all to tut, tut, as if we could never do such a thing. I’m thinking of recent examples such as Charles Kennedy who in December told reporters in no uncertain terms that he did not have a drink problem. He must have had a bad Christmas because by last week he was confessing to be an alcoholic! David Blunkett and his recent affairs. Jeffrey Archer and his blatant lies under oath about sleeping with a prostitute. And sadly we could go on and on.
In the Bible we don’t need to look far to see the blatant lie at work. In the Garden of Eden the serpent approached Eve and said, “If you eat of that fruit you will not surely die!” This is a shameless denial of God’s warning to them and it’s hardly surprising that Jesus says to a hostile crowd that the devil is a liar and indeed the father of lies! The bottom line is this; if we willfully lie we align ourselves with the devil. Truth is important to God.
But there are more subtle forms of lies:
2. The Insinuation
This is not quite an outright lie but it might as well be. We can easily cause people to jump to the wrong conclusions. Of course we can then walk away and pretend that we’ve done nothing wrong. For example – “I’ve just offered Jim that clerks position with my company.” “Oh, that’s good. I hope he sticks at it.” What is being left unsaid here? Is Jim not very stable, etc. etc. Its amazing the harm we can do with an insinuation.
But not all insinuations are negative – for instance, a couple of years ago Bill Hybels said to me to ask big questions. [PAUSE] Sorry, did I give the impression there that Bill and I were having a cosy tête-à-tête over a coffee. No there were another 4500 people present when he made that statement. But do you see how I could have fed my ego by leaving you with the impression that I was best mates with Bill Hybels?
Political spin-doctors are the master of the insinuation but it has along history. In fact once again it goes right back to the Garden of Eden when the serpent says to Eve, “Did God really say, ‘you must not eat of any of the fruit of the garden?’” By insinuation he is causing Eve to doubt. We need to watch out for insinuations both in our own conversation and in the words of others. If you suspect that someone is perhaps insinuating something that is not so nice you can stop them dead in their tracks by saying something like, “Are you telling me that Jim cannot be relied on ….?”
So we’ve got the outright lie, the insinuation and thirdly…
3. The half truth
This is a clever way to achieve the effect of an outright lie but with less risk. In court, only telling part of the truth is still considered a false witness. During the infamous Spycatcher trials a few years ago, Sir Robert Armstrong who was head of the Civil Service said of a letter he wrote that, “It contained a misleading impression, not a lie. It was being economical with the truth.” The judge disagreed and told him that he was wrong – it was a lie. Again we need to be aware of the half-truths that we are tempted to tell. See them for what they are – lies.
4. The Excuse
Now some excuses are genuine but all too often they can be a false witness. We start very early in life with our excuses, “It wasn’t me it was her fault. She made me do it.” As we grow older we progress to blaming our upbringing, our neighbourhood or our genes but they are still just excuses and often not the whole truth. Adam in the Garden was confronted by God and immediately made an excuse. Can you remember what it was? Yes, “It was her fault. She made me do it.”
But making excuses can be doubly harmful: it can harm someone else because the buck has to stop somewhere and it can also damage us badly because by making excuses we are not dealing with the problem. It robs us of the opportunity to repent and put things right. The Bible makes it clear that the only solution to the problem of sin in our lives is not to make excuses but to face up to the truth, repent and seek forgiveness from God.
Let me round off this section by giving you four more ways of abusing the truth. Each can be extremely damaging in their own way but due to lack of time I won’t go into any detail on them. SLOWLY They are gossiping, flattering, exaggerating and, perhaps surprisingly, keeping silent. I’ll let you work out the implications of these by yourself.
Having seen the types of lies that we can tell we have to ask the question, “Why do we do it?” Why is the truth sometimes so threatening that we try to avoid it? Well…
- 1. It’s convenient. The phone rings, “If that’s for me tell them I’m not in.”
- 2. It’s an easy way out. “Your sermon this morning made me think.” …Made you think what?
- 3. Shift the blame and avoid punishment.
- 4. Avoid embarrassment. “No I didn’t forget, your phone was just constantly engaged.”
- 5. To boost our own self-image.
I could go on and on and I’m sure you could add a few reasons as well, but the ultimate reason is quite simply that we put ourselves – and our own interests above everything else, including the truth. In many cultures ‘saving face’ is more important than telling the truth and the basis for answering a question is not ‘what is the right answer?’ but ‘what answer do they want to hear?’ Actually, as our Western Society slips further and further away from its Christian roots, this is becoming more the norm here as well. Do you want to make a difference in your workplace or your neighbourhood? Then become known as a person who takes a stand for the truth and is known as a truthful person.
Finally, How can we hold to the truth?
1. Realize that truth is vital
It’s vital for any sort of community to exist. The Biblical vision of the church is an open community of people who care for each other and who share their lives at the deepest of levels. Once lying, in any of its many guises, creeps in, this goal becomes unworkable and the community disintegrates. In the early church Annanias and Sapphira lied to the church about their giving [EXPAND] and the result was that they both died. God killed them for lying! Now for you that incident might seem scandalous and might suggest that God is some kind of monster but I know that he’s not. So what it tells me is that the truth is so vital to any community that God would allow nothing to get in the way of truth. It is vital. And the truth is not only vital to a community – it’s vital to us as individuals as well. If you won’t face the truth you can’t be healed
2. We must realize that lying is serious.
It can cause as much damage, and often more, than a physical assault. Here’s a helpful guide – THINK before you speak. By that I mean. T – is it true?; H – will it help?; I – is it inspiring?; N – is it necessary?; K – is it kind? If we can’t say yes to all of these then we shouldn’t say it.
3. We must realize that Jesus is the truth.
Jesus is truth personified “I am the way the truth and the life..” John 14:6
Jesus’ words are truth – over and over he would say to people “I tell you the truth.” We can stake our lives on his words.
Those who follow Jesus should love truth and hate lies: In fact in John 16:13 Jesus says that one of the titles of the Holy Spirit is the ‘Spirit of Truth’ and one of the tasks of the Holy Spirit is to lead us into all truth.
How should we respond? We need to take action:
- a. Repent of our abuse of the truth: our lies, insinuations, half-truths, gossip and excuses.
- b. Come to Jesus for cleansing
- c. Resolve to live lives of truth in future
- d. Ask God for the power of the Holy Spirit to help us live in the truth.
- e. Work at using our tongues for good not evil.
All of us need to work at being people whose words are true and good.