LYING ISN’T FUN
Religious jokes are sensitive to handle. This joke mailed to me by a friend teaches salient lesson[s]. A minister told his congregation, “Next week I plan to preach about the sin of lying. To help you understand my sermon, please read Mark 17. The following Sunday, as he prepared to deliver his sermon, the minister asked through a show of hands how many read Mark 17. Almost every hand went up. The minister smiled and said, “Mark has only 16 chapters. I will now proceed with my sermon.”
Was the pastor mean? After all everybody does it. Nobody finds out except, perhaps God. A little lie may be seasoning; no matter how inappropriate covers our shame, saves us from embarrassment and makes us look good. After all we did read chapter 17 in our contemporarily self -made edition. Sin is not new to humanity. It is our defect of God’s perfect righteousness. It manifested itself among God’s angelic host and entered human experience with the fall of man. Sin originated from Satan and directed against God. Sin is a transgression against Gods’ law, a despised of his authority and negligence of his government. However, human beings may kid that this religion stuff is too ancient to be true or irrelevant to this age. This could be a subjective opinion.
Lie is the opposite of truth. It’s either that there is no lie or there is no truth to tell. “Human beings lie in words, in action and silences”. Lie could be a denial of the truth, [James 3:14], speaking rationalized truth or keeping quiet or pretending “I don’t know”. Whichever is the case if it’s not true it is a lie, deceit, false, dishonest or inauthentic? The menace called lies has so much eaten into the fabric of our society that people appear to be comfortable with it. Our society does not take lying serious or believe in the objective truth. This opposite virtue eludes us from the knowledge of the truth. We often rationalize our reasoning and share our feelings. This makes it difficult to establish the truth; the truth becomes relative and subjective.
As the pastor preaches on the sin of lying, he declares the positional truth according to the word of God. God’s word challenges not only the hearers’ consciences and rationalization but also the preacher’s. The Word in the power of the Holy Spirit convicts, purifies, and transforms us again into the image of God, the Father. The sermon topic then was most appropriate because preaching the word is meant for instruction, correction, rebuking and training in righteousness, to equip saints for every good work and righteous living [2 Tim 3:16; Titus 1:13-14]. Even though human beings consider lying lightly, Gods’ word calls it sin. We may not like the word sin because it makes us feel guilty, uncomfortable and humiliates us. We feel better calling it error, mistake or lapse or any other name but not sin. Lies come from deceiving spirits and hypocritical liars [1Tim 4:1-2]. Its purpose is deceit, destroy and death. The scripture warns that all liars will not inherit the kingdom of God and shall spend their eternity in hell [Rev 21:8]. Does it mean everybody shall go to hell? Could it be that the bible was too hard in condemnation of lies? Weigh it yourself and allow the truth speak to your conscience.
Human beings try to categorize lying: common lies, harmful lies, corporate lies, smart lies and cheerful deceit. One may ask if I just tell one common lie will that send me to hell. Suppose I denied knowledge of it but saw who did or said I don’t know; just to stay away from trouble. Should I falsify information, make money out of such deal and paid my tithe to the church, should I consider my actions as lying? The gift of a sinner is an abomination to God. If a servant of God says the Holy Spirit says when it was simple intuition of the mind, just to look good and righteous, should this constitute a lie. Rehab said the two spies were not in her house just to save their lives. Was that a righteous lie? [Joshua 2:4]. [Email me your opinion]. Surprisingly people know when they lie but live in denial and chose to call it other names, masquerading as near-truth.
Jesus was not kidding when he said the truth shall set you free. What truth did he meant – the objective or subjective truth? He was also revealing himself when he said, ‘I am the truth.’ In our transient culture we love and tell lies to make up for selfish drive for power and pride, ego and gains. We disbelieve ourselves, doubt others and live in deceit. However one common ground remains, the truth even when it’s denied or attracts hatred for the speaker and even rejected by the crowd remains the truth. For example, when Jesus said he’s the truth, this fact remains eternally. It does not depend on whether one knows it or is ignorant or live in denial. In our age we have heard a lot of ‘And God said’ that we begin to wonder whether these are all true. Prophetic lies are not new. Some old time prophets said what the Lord did not say just to feel belonging to the kings and look holy to the people of their times. God was angry and spoke to prophet Jeremiah, “These prophets are telling lies in my name. I neither sent them nor ordered or spoke a word to them. Their visions did not come from me and their predictions are worthless imaginations” [Jeremiah 14:14-15; Ezekiel 13:6-9]. King David opined that some group of prophets take pleasure in lies [Psalm62:4] and cover their ignorance with lies [Job 13:4]. These are not peculiar to prophets alone, even judges and leaders tell lies.
In our time and age, most political office holders like the Pharisees and Sadducees of old tell lies to the citizenry during campaigns, while in office and thereafter. Their lies bother on the inappropriateness in office conducts, financial mismanagement, misuse of executive and military powers, etc. They lie out-rightly or by suppressing the truth in cheerful deceit as well as in pen robbery. However, the scripture warns that no one who tell lies in public office shall escape punishment; no lair will live in God’s kingdom and no hypocrite shall tarry in God’s presence [Psalm 101:7; Proverbs 19:9]. Even the laws of our land are not equitably implemented in truth. While the fun of lying persists, it hurts and provokes distrust in high and low places. Truth telling is a learned behavior. We should practice it by telling truth to ourselves and one another. This behavior honors God and earns us the respect of our spouse, children and acquaintances; listeners and those who will rely on our information. We could like Job vow to speak nothing evil or lies [Job 27:3-4].Christians conversations should be honest [1Peter 2:12, 22]. Jesus commended Nathanael, an Israelite without guile [John1:47]. Are you transparent, without deceit? We can only change the society after we change ourselves. Truth telling shall sanitize our lives, homes, society and constitutes wellness.
Reach Evangelist Ogbonnaya, Godswill at: weefreeministries@yahoo.com Or Box 720035, Houston, Texas, 77272.