Zechariah 8:16-17 But this is what you must do: Tell the truth to each other. Render verdicts in your courts that are just and that lead to peace. Don’t scheme against each other. Stop your love of telling lies that you swear are the truth. I hate all these things, says the LORD.”
How did it happen that we have become so comfortable with not telling the truth? Not telling the truth of course is called lying. I’m not talking about the kinds of lies that people tell for the purpose of greed, personal gain at the expense of another, to damage another person or to sustain criminal activity. We all know that is wrong.
I’m talking about what people call “white” lies, as if there is some kind of sanctified lying. It is like calling witchcraft, “white witchcraft”. Witchcraft is witchcraft and lying is lying. Just because someone goes to church, doesn’t make their lying (or their witchcraft for that matter) somehow acceptable.
Let’s be clear. God said, “Tell the truth to each other”.
This isn’t just a little problem. This is a huge problem.
For example: your friend Jamie asks you if you have heard the rumors about them being sloppy (or rude, or dishonest or whatever)? It seems like it is just a little thing (a lie), to say that you haven’t heard about these rumors. After all, is it going to make Jamie feel better to know that you too have heard the rumors? Why embarrass them? It will be awkward.
If you go through this process, you are being disingenuous, and dishonest. Not to mention that you are enabling others to gossip and lie by trying to cover those actions up.
The truth is that a lie at this point will hurt Jamie. Jamie has already heard the rumor so you’re not telling them anything they don’t know, except perhaps that you too, had been gossiping about them.
Are you really protecting them? Or are you lying to protect your own reputation (your pride)? You see God hates lies, and there is no lie that stands on a good foundation. If you don’t want to admit to participating in gossip, don’t participate. Even if you lie to your friend, God still knows the truth. You are distancing yourself from God, when you don’t tell the truth.
What Jamie needs isn’t more confusion, which is what a lie always brings with it. What Jamie needs is a friend who values them enough to tell them truth, even though it may not be easy to do.
An even bigger issue is that little lies beget big lies, and big lies become entrenched in our lives, our homes and our families. They can carry on for generations. Lies exist and take root in God’s absence, in the dark. In the dark is where the enemy can establish himself in our life. Lies hide secrets, and some secrets can hold generations in bondage. Families have secrets to keep and these secrets (lies) keep people in bondage.
No one wants to be lied to, so how can we justify lying to someone else?
A person who tells the truth is a person who can be counted on. They are a person who can be believed, and they are a person who can become a bridge between believers, unbelievers and God.
Ephesians 4:15Â Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of His body, the church.
The most important and immediate reason to tell the truth is so that you can remain in communion with God. First and foremost we need to be focused on doing what we see God doing; saying what we hear God saying, and that will always be true, and always be the truth.
Ephesians 4:23-25 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body.
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