Earlier today, my wife and I were discussing a surprise birthday treat for a friend this weekend. In the course of our conversation, my wife told me that our friend's wife had set up the surprise by telling her husband that it was another person's party, not his.
To that I could only respond, "Well isn't that a lie?" I then asked if there could be any other way to spring a surprise without twisting the truth.
Lies have long been seen as a gray area in many Christian circles. How far does a lie have to go to become sinful? Is it OK to tell white lies? What's bad about lying if it doesn't hurt people?
Exodus 20:16 tells us, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour."
The reason why God abhors lying is because it goes against His very nature which is truth. Jesus once said that He is the truth (John 14:6), and to go against the truth is to go against Jesus' nature and therefore against Himself.
Why does twisting the truth seem enticing to us? Because the truth of the matter is that it works. Lying gets us results easy and fast. When we lie to get off the hook at work, to conceal an embarrassing truth or to keep secrets from a spouse to avoid fights, it works.
However, it works only for the moment. The longer a lie goes, the harder it is to maintain.
Sin always acts that ways. It promises another alternative solution to getting results, and it always goes the opposite direction that God would have us do. God wills for us to walk in truth no matter how inconvenient or how hard that truth may be. Why? Because at the end of the day, when "you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:32)
We all know the truth. The truth is found in the work, person, and being of Christ. The most undeniable truth is that apart from God, we are nothing but dirty, hopeless, and cursed sinners. But that also follows the most amazing truth that in our hopelessness, Christ came – though we did not deserve Him – to be our salvation and liberty once and for all.
It's when we walk in truth that we are set free. When we walk in the truth that we have problems (whether health, financial, relational or even spiritual), that we don't have solutions, and that we need God's mighty intervention to come about, that's when we start walking in the truth of God's Word and the truth of God's grace.
The truth will not always seem delightful, but it will always be better than a sugar-coated lie. That's why God goes against the nature of lying – because there is a better alternative. That alternative is His life-giving truth.
