Definition
What does the Bible say about lying?
Col 3:9-10
9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its
evil practices,
10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge
according to the image of the One who created him
Lev 19:12
12'And you shall not swear falsely by My name, so as to profane the name
of your God; I am the LORD.
Prov 25:18
18 Like a club and a sword and a sharp arrow Is a man who bears false
witness against his neighbor.
Zech 8:17
17'Also let none of you devise evil in your heart against another, and do
not love perjury; for all these are what I hate,' declares the LORD. "
Prov 14:5
5 A faithful witness will not lie, But a false witness speaks lies.
1 Kings 22:16
16 Then the king said to him, "How many times must I adjure you to
speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?"
Prov 19:5
5 A false witness will not go unpunished, And he who tells lies will not
escape.
Deut 19:17-19
17 then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the LORD,
before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days.
18 And the judges shall investigate thoroughly; and if the witness is a
false witness and he has accused his brother falsely,
19 then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother.
Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.
Rev 21:8
8 "But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers
and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part
will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second
death."
Prov 19:9
9 A false witness will not go unpunished, And he who tells lies will
perish.
Prov 24:28
28 Do not be a witness against your neighbor without cause, And do not
deceive with your lips.
Ps 58:3
3 The wicked are estranged from the womb; These who speak lies go astray
from birth.
James 3:14
14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do
not be arrogant and so lie against the truth.
Ex 23:1
1 "You shall not bear a false report; do not join your hand with a
wicked man to be a malicious witness.
Prov 12:19
19 Truthful lips will be established forever, But a lying tongue is only
for a moment.
A lying tongue is not only something God hates, it is also something that is
an abomination to Him.
Prov 6:16-19
16 There are six things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an
abomination to Him:
17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood,
18 A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil,
19 A false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife among
brothers.
So, if a lying tongue is something that is an abomination to our LORD, then
would it not behoove us to understand what constitutes a lie?
Let us first give a definition as to what a lie is according to Webster’s
dictionary:
-
To make a statement that one knows is false, especially with the
intent to deceive.
-
To give a false impression or action or false statement, especially with
the intent to deceive.
-
To make a false statement in order to evade the truth.
-
The invention of a false story or excuse in order to deceive.
lie2
lie (li)
noun
-
A
false statement deliberately presented as being true; a falsehood.
-
Something
meant to deceive or give a wrong impression.
verb
lied, ly·ing
(li ing),
lies
verb, intransitive
-
To
present false information with the intention of deceiving.
-
To
convey a false image or impression: Appearances often lie.
verb, transitive
To cause to be in a specific condition or affect
in a specific way by telling falsehoods: You have lied yourself into trouble.(1)
de·ceive
de·ceive (di-sev)
verb
de·ceived,
de·ceiv·ing, de·ceives
verb, transitive
-
To
cause to believe what is not true; mislead.
-
Archaic.
To catch by guile; ensnare.
verb, intransitive
To practice deceit.
Synonyms: deceive, betray,
mislead, beguile, delude, dupe, hoodwink, bamboozle, double-cross. These verbs
mean to lead another into error, danger, or a disadvantageous position, for the
most part by underhand means. Deceive involves the deliberate concealment
or the misrepresentation of the truth: “There is a moment of difficulty and
danger at which flattery and falsehood can no longer deceive” (Letters of
Junius). Betray implies faithlessness or treachery: “When you betray
somebody else, you also betray yourself” (Isaac Bashevis Singer). Mislead
means to lead in the wrong direction or into error of thought or action: “My
manhood, long misled by wandering fires,/Followed false lights” (John
Dryden). Beguile suggests deceiving or misleading by means of pleasant or
alluring methods: They beguiled unwary investors with tales of overnight
fortunes. To delude is to mislead to the point where a person is
unable to tell truth from falsehood or to form sound judgments: The
government deluded the public about the dangers of low-level radiation. Dupe
means to delude by playing upon another's susceptibilities or naiveté: Gullible
shoppers are easily duped by unscrupulous advertisers. Hoodwink refers to
deluding by trickery: It is difficult to hoodwink a smart lawyer. Bamboozle
less formally means to delude by the use of such tactics as hoaxing, befuddling,
or artful persuasion: “Perhaps if I wanted to be understood or to
understand I would bamboozle myself into belief, but I am a reporter”
(Graham Greene). Double-cross implies the betrayal of a confidence or the
willful breaking of a pledge: New members of the party felt they had been
double-crossed by the old guard.(2)
Augustine, Aquinas, and many early church fathers defined lying as a
statement at variance with the mind. In discussing the ethics of lying they
found it helpful to make a distinction between (1) injurious, or hurtful, (2)
officious, and (3) jocose lies. Jocose lies are told for the purpose of
affording amusement. It is implied that what is said in a joke cannot be a lie:
in order to have any malice in it, what is said must be naturally capable of
deceiving others and must be said with the intention of saying what is false. An
officious, or white, lie is such that it does nobody any injury: it is a lie of
excuse, or a lie told to benefit somebody (these are the types of lies that give
the most problems to ethicists and moralists). An injurious lie is one which
does harm. (www.newadvent.org/cathen/09469a.htm;
Catholic Encycopedia: Lying)
Now, according to these definitions, what would you understand to be the
basic, defining characteristics of a lie or deception?
Perhaps it would be helpful to compare the malice in lying with the malice in
hypocrisy. A hypocrite pretends to have a good quality which he knows that he
does not possess. A hypocrite acts out that which he knows not to be the truth
in his inner person. There is the same relation between a man’s intents and
his external expression of it that constitutes the essence of a lie.
Illustrations of a principle truth
This can be illustrated with a current political debate that is taking place.
John Dean, a FindLaw Columnist, says in a June 6, 2003 Special column on CNN.com
Read excerpts from cnn.com printout.
Hopefully, you can see that even the secular press recognizes that the
challenge it faces is that in order to call President Bush a liar, it must be
proved that he “deliberately misled the nation”; that his “misstatements
may actually have been intentional lies”; that he manipulated or deliberately
misused national security intelligence data to defraud the United States.
A biblical example of lying and deceit is given in Acts 5
Acts 5:1-11
5:1 But a certain man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece
of property,
2 and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife's full
knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles' feet.
3 But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie
to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back some of the price of the land?
4 "While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after
it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have
conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to
God."
5 And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last;
and great fear came upon all who heard of it.
6 And the young men arose and covered him up, and after carrying him out,
they buried him.
7 Now there elapsed an interval of about three hours, and his wife came
in, not knowing what had happened.
8 And Peter responded to her, "Tell me whether you sold the land for
such and such a price?" And she said, "Yes, that was the
price."
9 Then Peter said to her, "Why is it that you have agreed together
to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who
have buried your husband are at the door, and they shall carry you out as
well."
10 And she fell immediately at his feet, and breathed her last; and the
young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried
her beside her husband.
11 And great fear came upon the whole church, and upon all who heard of
these things.
Now, according to these illustrations, what would you understand to be the
basic, defining characteristics of a lie or deception?
Common mistakes
So, I now ask the question: Is it true that anything that is not the truth is
a lie? Let me ask it another way. Is it always a lie when we speak an untruth?
Augustine doesn’t think so. Augustine wrote quite extensively on the
subject of lying. He says,
For which purpose we must see what a lie is. For not every one who says a
false thing lies, if he believes or opines that to be true which he says.
Now between believing and opining there is this difference, that sometimes he
who believes feels that he does not know that which he believes, (although he
may know himself to be ignorant of a thing, and yet have no doubt at all
concerning it, if he most firmly believes it:) whereas he who opines, thinks he
knows that which he does not know. Now whoever utters that which he holds in
his mind either as belief or as opinion, even though it be false, he lies not.
For this he owes to the faith of his utterance, that he thereby produce that
which he holds in his mind, and has in that way in which he produces it. Not
that he is without fault, although he lie not, if either he believes what he
ought not to believe, or thinks he knows what he knows not, even though it
should be true: for he accounts an unknown thing for a known. Wherefore, that
man lies, who has one thing in his mind and utters another in words, or by signs
of whatever kind. Whence also the heart of him who lies is said to be
double; that is, there is a double thought: the one, of that thing which he
either knows or thinks to be true and does not produce; the other, of that thing
which he produces instead thereof, knowing or thinking it to be false. Whence it
comes to pass, that he may say a false thing and yet not lie, if he thinks it to
be so as he says although it be not so; and, that he may say a true thing, and
yet lie, if he thinks it to be false and utters it for true, although in reality
it be so as he utters it. For from the sense of his own mind, not from the
verity or falsity of the things themselves, is he to be judged to lie or not to
lie. Therefore he who utters a false thing for a true, which however he opines
to be true, may be called erring and rash: but he is not rightly said to lie;
because he has not a double heart when he utters it, neither does he wish to
deceive, but is deceived. But the fault of him who lies, is, the desire of
deceiving in the uttering of his mind; whether he do deceive, in that he is
believed when uttering the false thing; or whether he do not deceive, either in
that he is not believed, or in that he utters a true thing with will to deceive,
which he does not think to be true: wherein being believed, he does not deceive
though it was his will to deceive: except that he deceives in so far as he is
thought to know or think as he utters (Augustine, Retractions, Book 1. last
Chapter, from the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Vol 3).
There is another question that confronts us in this issue of understanding
what it means to lie and deceive. Are we guilty of lying when we do not keep our
word?
It is certainly true that if we knowingly tell someone that we are going to
do something while at the same time knowing that we have no intentions of
following through on our promise or commitment, then, we are guilty of lying -
there was intent to deceive that person. But if we do not follow through on a
commitment or promise, it does not necessarily mean that we lied. Too often we
are just too quick or rash with our mouth. One who is “hasty in word or
impulsive in thought” doesn’t take enough time to think about what they are
saying. They usually don’t have too much thought behind their words.
Prov 10:19
19 When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who
restrains his lips is wise.
Eccl 5:4-5
4 When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it, for He takes
no delight in fools. Pay what you vow!
5 It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not
pay.
Usually making senseless vows or commitments is a result of talking too much.
We tend to think in financial terms when we think of making vows, especially
since Solomon says to “pay what you vow”. But much more is in mind here. The
point in verse 4 is to warn us not to delay in fulfilling commitments we make to
God or to other people. It’s especially dangerous for a person to make vows,
especially to God, if the person has no intention of keeping the vows.
The instructions concerning vows were given by Moses in Deuteronomy 23:21-23
and Numbers 30:2-5.
When vows are made to God, there should be no delay in paying them; God has a
right to require payment in full, and to not pay is considered sin before God.
It is better not to vow, in which case the person will not be held guilty.
Matt 5:33-37
33 "Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, 'You shall
not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.'
34 "But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it
is the throne of God,
35 or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem,
for it is the city of the great King.
36 "Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one
hair white or black.
37 "But let your statement be, 'Yes, yes' {or} 'No, no'; and
anything beyond these is of evil.
James 5:12
12 But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth
or with any other oath; but let your yes be yes, and your no, no; so that
you may not fall under judgment.
The point is that our words should mean something. Our words should be well
thought out and our words should be few.
For example, if we tell someone that we will call them back tomorrow, and we
have no intention of calling them, then we have lied. This excuse is often used
with a deliberate intent to deceive. The person does not call back at the
appointed time and will call back at a much later date with excuses of why they
were unable to call which usually goes something like: “I just was so busy,
I meant to call , but did not get around to it.” We all have been guilty
of this, but we need to realize when we say we will do something we need to keep
our word. We do understand there are legitimate reasons that make it impossible
at times to keep our word and in those circumstances we are not guilty of lying.
But it might be better not to make this promise or to say, “I will try
to call you back tomorrow.” (What does the Bible say about Lying?, www.bible.com/answers)
I could list numerous examples. The point is any time we say the words “I
will” we need to be responsible to do it. However, it doesn’t
necessarily mean that we have lied if we fail to act. We all, on occasion, fail
to do the things we have good intentions of doing or we are hindered in some way
and can’t do them. However, if we are unable to keep an appointment we should
be thoughtful enough to call and cancel, or tell of our delayed arrival. We are
living in an age when there are so many uncaring attitudes expressed. Too often,
these careless attitudes, if left unchecked for too long, can be construed as
lies and deceit. As Christians, we can be good witnesses by being different.
Application
None of us likes being lied to. None of us likes being falsely accused of
lying. The reason is because truth is primarily a self-regarding virtue. In
other words, it is in our own best self-interest to see things as either being
true or untrue. If we wish to walk carefully through life, to do so we must be
able to calculate our true position. When you lie to me, you know your position
but you have given me false data which obscures mine. When I lie to you, I
create a situation in which you have a false view of reality and you may lose
your way. (Jonathan Wallace, Lying, The Ethical Spectacle, May 2000, www.spectacle.org)
The implication of this is that no one who has any regard for his own dignity
and self-respect will be guilty of the immorality of a lie. Even a liar does not
like to be lied to. The one principle of truth that I have tried to demonstrate
tonight, is that lying must always involve malice (the desire to harm others).
In addition, it is possible for an honest man to understand truth such that he
might make an error without any intention of deceiving. Such an honest man may
prove himself to be inept, but not a liar. Just as the hypocrite is justly
detested and despised, so should the liar be. However, as no honest man would
ever consent to play the hypocrite, so no honest man will ever be guilty
of a lie.
What kind of witness are we to those around us? As Christians we need to ask
the Lord to forgive us if we are guilty of lying or deceit. Not only do we not
want to lie, but we also want to keep our word so that people know we are honest
and trustworthy. On the other hand, before we point our finger at another for
being a liar, we need to make sure that we can prove malice or intent, lest we
be deceived and become liars ourselves. As Christians, we want to represent our
Father well in this life and be honest and free from fabrication and false
accusation. We can only do this through the power of the Holy Spirit as we seek
to be like Jesus.
Jesus always kept His Word. God still keeps His Word and is faithful to keep
every promise He makes in the Bible. That is why He is reliable and we can trust
Him. We are called to be like Him.
1. Excerpted from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition Copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic version licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V., further reproduction and distribution restricted in accordance with the Copyright Law of the United States. All rights reserved.
2.Excerpted from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition Copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic version licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products
N.V., further reproduction and distribution restricted in accordance with the Copyright Law of the
United States. All rights reserved.
