Lying as Humour⤒🔗

Have you ever noticed how a lot of people seem to think lying is amusing? TV comedies make use of lying as a comic device. Some poor fellow is in a bit of a bind, he doesn’t really know how to get out of it, so he comes up with a lie so ludicrous that it’s sup­posed to be hilarious. He knows it’s a lie, the audience knows it’s a lie, even the character he is trying to convince in the show knows it’s a lie, because of how outlandish it is. And this is sup­posed to be funny.

Funny? Is that what we want to teach our children, that lying is funny? That a lie really isn’t so bad, as long as we can make someone laugh about it? My friends, when it comes down to it, there is really nothing funny about ly­ing. Proverbs 6:16, 17 tells us that the Lord hates a lying tongue. And in Proverbs 19:9 we read — “A false wit­ness will not go unpunished, and he who pours out lies will perish.” Reve­lation 21:8 tells us that the fires of hell are prepared for liars. Do you still think lying can be funny?

The thing is, lying comes from the devil, and there is nothing funny about the devil. Consider the words Jesus spoke to some of the leaders of his day, words recorded in John 8:44 — “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own char­acter, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” The devil is the father of lies, and has nothing to do with the truth. Those who lie show that they belong to the devil. Still think that lying can be funny?

Children of the Lie←⤒🔗

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who are of their father the devil, and those who are children of their heavenly Father. Those who are of the lie, and those who are of the truth. Those who are of the truth will know of the love of God for all eternity. But as for those who reject the truth: there is only the possibility of eternal punishment.

This is the terrible reality. Some will refuse to believe the truth. They prefer to listen to the lies of the devil, and they will be punished. There are so many lies and so many people who believe lies. There are so many peo­ple on the road to hell. This is tragic, but true.

There are numerous ways to demon­strate that one is a child of lies. For instance, there is the example of lying in court. In court, there can be no place for lying. The truth must be re­vealed if courts are to function prop­erly. How can you ever have justice when you can’t be sure that those who are putting themselves forward as wit­nesses are telling the truth? There can be no justice when a lie makes an innocent person look guilty; or when it makes a guilty person appear innocent.

Lying in court is perhaps one of the more severe forms of deception; so severe, that it must be subject to serious punishment according to the law of the land.

There are many other ways people lie as well. Children lie to their parents about what their siblings did or did not do, or about what they themselves did or did not do.

How about the example of twisting a person’s words, taking words out of context? For instance, if I were to preach in a sermon: “There are some who believe that God created the world using evolution. But the Bible doesn’t allow for that possibility.” Now, you might say to someone, “the minis­ter said in his sermon, ‘God created the world using evolution.’” Techni­cally, you’d be correct. But you would have taken those words completely out of context, which would make you a liar.

Then there’s slander. Slander in­volves defaming a person’s character with untruths, using lies to make someone look bad.

It’s terrible the kind of damage slander can inflict. And sometimes we even slander people without even realizing it. We start by making assumptions about people without just cause. We then share those assumptions with others, and by doing so we are spreading slander.

For example, it’s easy to assume that when we wave to someone driv­ing by, and they don’t wave back, then they are ignoring us. The truth could very well be that they just did­n’t see us. If we then go around tell­ing people that the person who ig­nored us is a snob, we are spread­ing a lie, even though we don’t real­ize it. You might think this to be an unrealistic example, but I’ve known of this very thing happening. And this sort of slandering can occur in so many other different ways as well. We have to be very careful regarding the assumptions we make about others.

Let us not forget also the whole mat­ter of gossip. Gossiping about peo­ple can be just as bad as lying about them, even though sometimes gos­sip might involve the literal truth. And yet, gossip is just as bad, and it shows that in your heart you are a child of lies. If you gossip about someone, you are guilty of sinning just as much as if you had blatantly lied.

Using Words to Help Instead of Harm←⤒🔗

So, twisting people’s words, slander­ing them, gossiping, these sorts of things show you to be a child of lies. The thing to remember in all of this is that lying is not just a matter of what comes out of the mouth. Lying is about what comes out of the heart.

The Bible tells us that the righteous man is one who speaks the truth from his heart. Speaking the truth can never be just a matter of pro­claiming literal, historical truth. Of course, literal truth is vitally impor­tant, but when it comes to speaking the truth, there is more to it than sim­ply being factually true.

Some people enjoy using the truth as a weapon. They spit out the lit­eral truth in an effort to hurt others. They will even justify this by saying that they are just calling it like they see it. They are just being honest. That sort of honesty is not necessar­ily a biblical honesty. Oh, I’m not at all suggesting that you should feel free to lie if you think it will make your neighbour happy. But there are certainly appropriate and inappropriate times to blurt out the truth. And there are certainly appropriate and inappropriate states of the heart un­derlying our speaking of the truth. To emphasize this point, we need only look to the ninth commandment: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.” Notice how this com­mand is stated. It does not say: you shall not lie. It’s not even: you shall not bear false witness. But rather: you shall not bear false witness against your neighbour. This is quite signifi­cant. God chose to express this com­mandment in terms that point to the impact of our words on our neighbour. We are not to use deceit against our neighbour. We are not to use lies to harm our neighbour.

Our deceitful heart and lying tongue can do so much damage to our neighbour. The tongue, which was originally designed for use in glorifying God, has been distorted because of sin. And now the same tongue that was intended for praising God has become an instrument of attacking our fellow man, a very powerful instru­ment. This should not be.

Instead of harming our neighbour, our words should help him. As we read in Ephesians 4:29, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”

The Victorious Truth←⤒🔗

Often, we do not appreciate just how much negative impact our words can have on those around us. We may not even realize how our words are spreading deceit and falsehood. But it happens. It happens because of sin in the world and sin in our own hearts and because we are naturally inclined to be children of the lie.

Thanks be to God, we do not have to be children of the lie, but can be chil­dren of the truth. The lie has been defeated on the cross. Truth is victori­ous, and we can share in this victory. The Christian boldly proclaims that he knows the truth. And he says to chil­dren of the lie: “you do not know the truth if you do not know Jesus Christ.” John 14:6 — “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’” Jesus Christ is the living word of God, and God’s word is truth. In John 17:17, we read Jesus praying to the Father, “Sanctify them in the truth, Your word is truth.” The Word of God is truth, and Jesus is the living representation of the Word of God. Jesus is truth. Christians have heard and believed this truth. They have the truth living in them through the power of the Holy Spirit. And they will live in the truth forever.

If you are a Christian, you are a child of the truth. As a child of the truth, how can you then turn around and lie? How can you find lying funny? Why would you want to have anything to do with deceit? You should love the truth, speak it candidly, and openly acknowl­edge it.

The Necessary Lie←⤒🔗

Mind you though, we can’t discuss this whole matter and not deal with the subject of so-called necessary lies. There are obvious examples in Scripture of people being commended, even though they lied. The mid­wives delivering the Israelite children in Egypt lied to Pharaoh about what happened to the babies, and they were commended. Rahab was com­mended when she lied about the Israelite spies to the authorities in Jericho, and she was spared the coming destruction, and even be­came a descendant of Jesus Christ. There may be times when we are thrust into a situation where loving the truth may involve our spreading a factual untruth. But the thing is, these situations are extremely rare. Perhaps you have heard about how during World War 2, some people lied about concealing Jews in their homes, in order to save their lives. They should be commended for this. But how often are we going to be faced with a similar dilemma? This sort of example further shows that we must take into serious con­sideration how our words will affect our neighbour. But remember this: the vast, vast majority of the time, our neighbour will be harmed rather than helped by our speaking un­truths.

Remember, the Word of God clearly says that lying lips are an abomina­tion to the Lord. Lying comes from the devil. That is strong language. We must take such declarations se­riously. We must uphold the truth in any way we can. We must do all we can to promote the truth whenever we can, for the benefit of our neighbour, and the glory of God.