Have We Become “COMFORTABLE” With Lying? (Part 4)

In these articles on the subject of lying we have attempted to understand the why and the why not of telling the truth all the time. Making a hard law out of something the scripture does not teach is wrong but many times we try to justify a truth that seems right to us without really investigating the “Whole Truth” of God’s Word. Take, for example, the law of God about committing adultery. The pharisees who wanted to trap Jesus used the law of God against him so they brought a woman caught in the act of adultery to be judged by him. They thought they had him over a barrel where he would have to uphold the law and agree to stone the woman or show mercy and prove he was a law breaker. Jesus turned the tables on them and exposed their hypocrisy! If you haven’t read the first three articles please do so before reading this one or it will not make sense.

John 8:3-4      Woman Caught In Adultery                                                                                                                                                 As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and Pharisees brought a woman they had caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. 

In this account Jesus gives the answer that ruined their whole evil scheme against him and the woman. He tells them “He who is without sin cast the first stone”. Jesus upholds the law and also extends mercy to the woman. Always remember there is a reason for the law of God which ultimately is to show us our need of God. The apostle Paul states that the law never was intended to make us righteous but to reveal our brokenness and need of a savior.

Galatians 3:21  Law Can’t Make Us Right                                                                                                                                                   Well then, is there a conflict between God’s law and God’s promises? Absolutely not! If the law could have given us new life, we could have been made right with God by obeying it. 

So, we have been grappling with the subject of lying and whether it is ever justified and necessary? Whenever we are dealing with biblical truth we need to consider that there are many layers of reasoning that are in the foundations for any such truth. Take, for instance, the truth of  the law of gravity. The axiom of “Whatever goes up must come down” is true. However, if aerodynamics is added to the truth of gravity it then can change that axiom, namely if one has wings and propulsion that object may not always come down for hours or even days! Truth is always hinged on context. Jesus violated the Sabbath by healing during such a day and was justified by the added truth that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, and secondly that Jesus was lord of the law of the Sabbath.

With all this in mind let’s look at some key stories in scripture and the people who told lies for various reasons. In doing so, we need to keep at the forefront of any scriptural truth that ultimately God is after the heart and not just the mechanical act of obedience. Remember what the Lord told Samuel the prophet when looking to anoint the next king of Israel. He told him not to just look at the outside of a man, but at the heart like God does.

1 Samuel 16:7       Man After His Own Heart                                                                                                                                             But the LORD said to Samuel, “Don’t look at how handsome Eliab is or how tall he is, because I have not chosen him.                        God does not see the same way people see. People look at the outside of a person, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

So, the focus is the person’s heart or motives in their actions. God is looking for hearts that are submissive to his will because God desires our best. The Pharisees obeyed the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law. In saying this, we need to be careful that we don’t neglect or violate the law of God for our personal gain, which all of us know is easy to do.

The first example is Abraham. Two times he out right lied to two kings because he was afraid he would lose his life. He was becoming a man of faith but he also was at the beginning of that process, not the end.  The first time was during a famine in which Abraham traveled to Egypt under Pharaoh. He lied about his wife being his sister. To be fair, this is just after Abraham gets his call of God to relocate to Canaan. He was early in his walk with God but he was radical in his willingness to follow God to a new land with no safety net of relatives. Did he lie? Yes. The interesting thing is God protected him while there and blessed him financially. Scripture didn’t justify the lie he spoke but it does state that God protected him. The reason is he was overcome with fear and used human logic and reasoning for his own safety while living under a Pharaoh, who would have killed him for his wife. God didn’t condemn Abraham but rather protected him. When reading such a story we need to both read what the scripture says and what it doesn’t say about lying.

Genesis 12:16-19      Abraham’s first Lie                                                                                                                                                       Then Pharaoh gave Abram many gifts because of her—sheep, cattle, donkeys, male and female servants, and camels. But the LORD sent a terrible plague upon Pharaoh’s household because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. [18] So Pharaoh called for Abram and accused him sharply. “What is this you have done to me?” he demanded. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? Why were you willing to let me marry her, saying she was your sister? Here is your wife! Take her and be gone!” 

Abraham lied again to King Abimelech in Gen 20:1-7, which was about 10 years after the first lie and with another king. In this story, God goes directly to the king during his sleep and gives him a dream of God’s judgement if he violates Abraham’s wife. God calls Abraham a prophet and commissions Abraham to pray for healing for the king and his family, which was amazing. We often believe that God can’t and won’t use people who aren’t squeaky clean yet God uses Abraham and calls him a prophet. Did Abraham lie? Yes, yet God does not judge Abraham for this sin and, make no mistake, it still was a sin.

Genesis 20:5-7    Abraham & Abimelech                                                                                                                                                       Abraham told me, ‘She is my sister,’ and she herself said, ‘Yes, he is my brother.’ I acted in complete innocence!” “Yes, I know you are innocent,” God replied. “That is why I kept you from sinning against me; I did not let you touch her. Now return her to her husband, and   he will pray for you, for he is a prophet. Then you will live. But if you don’t return her to him, you can be sure that you and your entire household will die.”

Lastly, let’s look at the example of the midwives during the time of Moses. Pharaoh saw that the Israelites were getting too numerous and wanted the midwives to kill the baby boy. They lied to protect these children and Moses was one of the ones saved because of their lies. God appears to bless their deception and the babies were saved. Was it still a lie? Yes and, in my mind, it is a sin they needed to confess and repent over.

Exodus 1:15-17      Lies of the Midwives                                                                                                                                                          Then Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, gave this order to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah: “When you help the Hebrew women give birth, kill all the boys as soon as they are born. Allow only the baby girls to live.” But because the midwives feared God, they refused to obey the king and allowed the boys to live, too. [20] So God blessed the midwives, and the Israelites continued to multiply, growing more and more powerful. 

I will continue this topic and explore many more examples of men and women who lied about things and seemed to be protected and often blessed in spite of their lying. Never confuse lying as being an action that we should use to better our lives. I do believe there are times when lying is justified, like when harm will come to yourself.  But lying for the sake of advantage, gain or profit is wrong. We live in a broken world that is full of deceit and evil intent and the scripture tells us to be as innocent as a dove but wise as serpents. I hope to deal with the ethics of lying and why telling the truth is the normal standard God accepts rather than the exception.

Questions

1) Have you lied in the past and not confessed and repented?    1 John 1:9 is so important to consider.

2) Have you lied for a wrong reason that you need to admit to?   The bible speaks about restitution and should be studied.

May God help us to “Rightly Dividing the Truth of the Word”

Pastor Dale