Biblical Breakdown #3: Telling the Truth

Elementary, but essential.

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Tell the Truth

This week’s newsletter may seem a bit elementary, but it is also a remarkably underdiscussed part of the Bible: sin of lying. Elementary may not even be the appropriate term since parents typically tell their kids not to lie before those kids even go to elementary school. Because we learn not to lie so early on in our lives, it becomes so basic that we fail to emphasize it as we get older.

I understand that there are passages in scripture that muddy the waters a little regarding oppossing evil by lying. For example, the Hebrew midwives in Exodus 1 deceived Pharaoh when he ordered them to kill Hebrew sons. Also, Rahab in Joshua 2 lied to the king’s messengers by telling them that she did not where the two Hebrew spies were. However, I am not going to address these extraordinary cases. (Here is some discussion from John Piper about these situations if you are interested).

I want to focus on how lying is viewed by the vast majority of scripture. The genesis of this newsletter is Matthew 5:33-37. It reads:

33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

Frequently, when people read or discuss this verse it is in the context of trying to address whether Christians ought to take an oath or not. While this is certainly a pertinent verse for that discussion, Jesus (as he does throughout the Sermon on the Mount) is challenging God’s people to live up to a higher standard in which ethical living is the product of a holy life, not the end in itself.

At the time of Jesus, many in Israel would swear oaths on various sacred objects with the idea that lying after taking one of these oaths would mean desecrating the object. To Jesus, this missed the point. Lying at any point in time was desecrating the name of God which is of infinitely more value than whatever part of creation by which they would take an oath.

God’s people ought to be so committed to telling the truth that oaths are unnecessary. James reinforces this later in James 5:12, “But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.”

In a sense, it’s completely understandable why there is a constant temptation for us to reassure another person that we are telling the truth. This world is full of lies and it is frequently impossible to tell when someone is lying or not. And yet, oaths are not how Christians are called to reassure people that we are telling the truth. It is to live a life, and become the kind of person, that is committed to the truth because we worship the God of truth.

In order to do this, we must know God and continually strive to know him and his creation better as it is impossible to tell the truth if we don’t know the truth. This is easier said than done considering we live in a world full of lies as I mentioned earlier. This means the world isn’t neutral in our pursuit of truth. The bible says that Satan is the “ruler of this world” (John 12:31) and the the “father of lies” (John 8:44) who seeks to “steal, kill, and destroy” (John 10:10) the sheep of God.

Christians cannot live passively, meaning mindlessly consuming the things in this world, and expect to stumble on truth. They must be active and strenously work towards finding the truth all the while trusting in God’s grace.

When Christians live in such a way that it is clear they value the truth, they stand in stark contrast to the darkness of the world. Conversely, Christians that lie proclaim to the world that truth is worthless.

Valuing truth is a far different way of thinking then simply thinking “don’t lie.” Because we are sinful, we are talented deceivers. Even when we intend to mislead others, we convince ourselves that it’s just a “white lie” or maybe just a “half-truth” and is therefore justified.

This human tendency is an ancient one as we see it in Abraham as well. In Genesis 12, Abraham has Sarah tell the Egyptians that she is his sister. As a result, she is taken into Pharoah’s house and the house is punished. In Genesis 20, Abraham again has Sarah tell Abimelech, the king of Gerar, that she is his sister. In this instance, God threatens Abimelech’s life because he has taken another man’s wife.

Interestingly in Genesis 20:12 Abraham says, “Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.” In a technical sense, it was true that Sarah was Abraham’s sister; however, Abraham was purposely misleading the foreigners by saying this. It may not have technically been “lying,” but it clearly demonstrated a lack of valuing the truth.

I want to be clear that this doesn’t mean Christians should be unwise with the truth by harshly proclaiming it in a “facts don’t care about your feelings” way. Yes, the loving thing to do is to tell someone the truth, but we are also called to tell people the truth in the most loving way possible. Sometimes, this means being harsh as Jesus was with the Pharisees, but it more often than not means having compassion for people like Jesus did for pretty much everyone outside of the religious leaders.

In fact, it is the truth of the gospel that motivates us to have compassion on others. As God displayed his compassion for us, we are called to display compassion for others.

I’ll leave with two of the best quotations regarding telling the truth. The first comes from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. In the novel, Pip comes from a simple, poor background and seeks to “rise above” it. Joe, his simple but wise guardian tells him, “‘There’s one thing you may be sure of, Pip,’ said Joe, after some rumination, ‘namely, that lies is lies. Howsoever they come, they didn’t ought to come, and they come from the father of lies, and work round to the same. Don’t you tell no more of ‘em, Pip. That ain’t the way to get out of being common, old chap.’”

The other is from the sufferer of the Soviet Union gulags and author of The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. He writes, “You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.” Let that be the credo of all Christians.

God Bless,

Hunter Burnett