How Lying has Hurt My Relationship with God and My Family
andrew travis pantazi
August 13, 2007
(All scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible unless otherwise noted)
The Bible is continuously saying throughout both the Old and New Testaments of how lying is a wicked and vile evil. Solomon said that it is in the list of seven things that are an abomination to the Lord twice, meaning it is doubly an abomination to the Lord. "There are six things which the Lord hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood… A false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers." (Proverbs 6:16-17, 19, NASB95) Later Solomon also said, "Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, But those who deal faithfully are His delight." (Proverbs 12:22, NASB95) This means that when I lie I am committing a sin that is an abomination to the Lord, when I lied to Mom and told her that I had cleaned the bathroom not only was I violating her but I was also violating God. It is vital to understand that God hates, despises, and cannot stand deceit. "He who practices deceit shall not dwell within my house; He who speaks falsehood shall not maintain his position before me." (Psalm 101:7, NASB95) David was saying this because he did not want any evildoers to both influence and do wicked things to God’s people, which shows that I am also violating the person when I lie to them. Lying is such a serious offense that God said liars will not be allowed into the New Jerusalem, after all God is perfect and He cannot live with deceit or allow deceit to go unpunished, "And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God… and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life." (Revelation 21:10, 27, NASB95) When the Bible is talking of lies there are no little white lies, instead a lie is a lie. A lie is defined as any attempt at deceiving, that is why when David was talking in Psalm 101 he says “he who practices deceit” as another way for saying liars. My lying is not something I should look at as a mere character flaw, instead I should look at it as a vile thing that is hindering my walk with the Lord and my fellowship with other Christians.
"But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken falsehood, Your tongue mutters wickedness." (Isaiah 59:2-3, NASB95) Isaiah views lying and a wicked tongue to be just as bad as have hands defiled with blood (or murder). That is how horrible of a sin it is when I tell a lie, it is the just as wicked as if I were murdering someone and it sets a separation between God and me. We were created as whole and perfect beings. We had perfect integrity, the word integrity comes from the Latin word ‘integer’ meaning intact and/or untouched. That is the same root as the mathematical term for integer. One of the ways we lose our integrity or wholeness is by lying. When we lie we are tearing off a part of our goodness and are no longer intact and untouched for we have been touched with evil. That is how lying undermines our very integrity. In the book ‘Little Britches’, there is an important excerpt that outlines the idea of ruining our integrity. “A man’s character is like his house. If he tears boards off his house and burns them to keep himself warm and comfortable, his house soon becomes a ruin. A man with a ruined character is a shame on the face of the earth.” This is true for every time that I lie just so that I can have temporal relief that means that in the long run I will be ruined. Usually that temporal relief does not even come and either because of being immediately caught lying or because of guilt making us have no enjoyment or relief since conviction is in our mind.
One of the ways that lying hurts my relationship with God is that it causes doubt to be in my mind. Jesus says to us, "“You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. “But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me." (John 8:44-45, NASB95) We have made the devil our father and we lie and murder because that is our father’s nature and because Jesus speaks the truth we do not believe Him. For we have made lies to be our nature even though we were originally made our nature being truth. Just as we do the actions of the devil our father, Jesus tells the truth because that is the nature of His father, just before saying the earlier passage He said, "“I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.”" (John 8:38, NASB95) The way that we identify who we are following is how we act. If we act in a way that resembles the devil than he has become our father, however if we act in the manner of God then we have accepted Him as our Father. If we are truly saved then we should be putting to death the works of the flesh. "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." (2 Corinthians 5:17, NASB95) "Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry… Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices," (Colossians 3:5, 9, NASB95) "for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live." (Romans 8:13, NASB95) All of these passages tell us that if we are still living in our sin then we are not in Christ and we must put to death the fleshly desires and sins, including lies. I need to know that if I am in Christ then I must be a new creation, where old things (lying) has passed away and behold, new things (love, humility, peacefulness, etc.) have come. If I am not living in this way then I am lying to myself and to God for I cannot be a Christian and not killing my sin.[1]
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