Lying is terrible! And it seems that it has the ability to set traps for its practitioners. For example, a store manager who cared more about sales than honesty overheard one of his clerks telling a customer, “No, we haven’t had any for a while, and it doesn’t look as if we’ll be getting any soon.” The manager approached the customer and rudely interrupting the clerk said, “We’ll have some soon. We placed an order last week.” Later he admonished the clerk, “Never, Never say we’re out of anything! Say it’s been ordered and is coming. What was it she wanted anyway?” The clerk said, “Rain!”
When I became a Christian I decided to read the Bible cover to cover. I’ve read it through many times since, but that first journey through God’s Word was enlightening, exhilarating and occasionally alarming. No verse caused me more concern than Luke 12:3. Jesus, addressing the multitudes stated that, “Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops for all to hear!”
I was only 22 years old, but many things that I had spoken, publicly and privately, came to mind. Later I read Revelation 22:15 which indicates that those “who make a lie” will not enter God’s kingdom. “I’m sunk!” I thought to myself.
Thankfully, as I continued to study and learn about Jesus and what He provides for those who believe in Him, I was relieved to discover that lying sins, along with all of the others, were paid for by Christ’s finished work on the cross and forgiven when I (or anyone else) receives Him as Savior. Thank God for Christ’s forgiveness and God’s qualified forgetfulness for all of our sins! “You will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean!” (Micah 7:19).
I have never gotten over the initial shock of that first reading however. Imagine having all that anyone of us has whispered or gossiped being broadcast from city center for all to hear. How humiliating and shameful that would be!
Lying is insidious...it often seems easier and more expedient than the truth. As Mark Twain said, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while truth is still lacing up her boots.” Sometimes it appears as if a lie may hurt us or someone else less than the truth. In fact it seems almost natural to lie at times and even to hear and entertain lies... but it is still all wrong.
“...speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).
FAITH & REFLECTION