Have You Been Lying?
What a horrible way to introduce a subject. It gets your back up before you even read it. But are you a liar? Do you tell lies, misrepresent the truth or engage in devious deceit more often than you should?
Genesis, the very first book in your Bible contains far too many lies. Even one lie is too many. Satan lied to our first parents. Our first parents lied when they donned their fig-leaf costume. Cain lied when he tried to throw God off his tracks after murdering his brother: “How would I know where Abel is? Am I my brother’s babysitter?”
Abraham lied more than once when he told half the truth about his wife being his sister – but really his half sister. He failed to be upfront that she was his wife. Elderly Sarah chuckled to herself when the Lord said she would have a baby and then right to the Lord’s face she denied she had laughed.
Isaac too lied about his wife by concealing her true identity. Rachel led the elaborate lying scheme with her son Jacob to deceive old Isaac and upstage Esau. There are the connivings of Jacob and the lies and deceit of Laban. Rachel stole some images and when Laban tried to retrieve them, she sat on top of them. Her stated reason for not standing to greet Laban? “Too weak today to stand up. Feeling lousy.”
The list of lies and deceit and misrepresentations of the truth is a long one in Genesis. We haven’t even mentioned Joseph’s siblings and their lies. Or the lie of Potiphar’s wife, alleging that Joseph had tried to corner her.
Lying, deceit, concealing the truth, shading or coloring the truth, half truths, cover-ups, deleting history, misrepresentations and exaggerations had their start with the father of lies – Satan. (John 8:44)
All forms and degrees of lying are offensive to God. In fact, Proverbs 12:22 emphatically states that lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. Anything less than the truth is fundamentally opposed to the very character of God.
We expect salvation to change a drug addict or a chain-smoker and we watch them carefully to see the transformation. We expect a gambler to stop gambling and a blasphemer to stop swearing but those are pretty obvious things. But what about lying, exaggerating, conning, concealing, hiding, spinning tales or doctoring facts? Shouldn’t that stop too?
“Wherefore putting away lying,
speak every man truth with his neighbour…”
(Ephesians 4:25)
You’re operating your own business. How’s it going? Is everything 100% true? 75% truth is an untruth and is an abomination to the Lord. Is the history on your computer true or has it been doctored? That form you filled out – was there full disclosure? That answer you gave, could it have been taken two ways and did you intend it to be that way?
God can not lie. (Numbers 23:19, Hebrews 6:18, Titus 1:2). Jesus said: “I am the Way, the TRUTH, and the life….” John 14:6
The more closely we walk with the Lord each day and the deeper our relationship with Him becomes, the more sensitive we will be to any form of falsehood in our lives, legs and lips.