I. Specific Kinds of Lies and Deceit A. Outright Falsehoods These are bold-faced lies - the one who tells them is well aware that he has told an outright falsehood. He may consider it a big black lie (one with serious consequences) or a little white lie (one he thinks will not have serious consequences), but he knows it he has told a lie. Many passages rebuke the general concept of lying. Proverbs 6:16-19 - God hates a lying tongue and a false witness who speaks lies. Exodus 20:16 - You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Ephesians 4:25 - Putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor. 1 Timothy 1:10 - Liars are listed among other sins that are contrary to sound doctrine. These are direct prohibitions against lying. Most people know that lying is morally wrong. Interestingly, people who often tell lies to others (like politicians) will often become very upset when other people lie to them and are often the quickest to accuse others of lying! Other kinds of lies and deceit may be less obvious: people may not consider these acts to be lies or deceptions when they do it. Yet they often recognize such acts to be lying when other people do it to them! [Other verses note especially Matthew 15:19; Leviticus 19:11,12; Colossians 3:9; see also Psalms 7:14; 32:2; 58:3; 59:12; Proverbs 4:24; 24:28; Isaiah 59:3,13; Hosea 4:2; Micah 6:12; Nahum 3:1; Romans 13:9; 1 Peter 2:1; 3:10; John 1:47] B. False Promises Some people make promises they have no intention of keeping or know they cannot keep. This is a form of deliberately misleading people. Genesis 29:18,25 - Many stories about Jacob involve deceit. He bargained with his uncle Laban to serve seven years for Rachel. Laban agreed, but at the wedding he gave Jacob Leah instead. Jacob said Laban beguiled or deceived him. Exodus 8:28,29 - Pharaoh deceived Moses by promising to let Israel go if the plagues were removed. When that was done, he did not keep his promise. Numbers 23:19 - God is not a man, that He should lie ... Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? The implication is that, if God did not keep His promises, He would be guilty of lying. As humans, there may be circumstances beyond our control when we simply cannot keep a promise we really intended to keep. But when we knowingly make a promise we never intend to keep, or when we could keep it but we deliberately choose not to, that is deceit. How many of us are guilty? [Jeremiah 5:2; Exodus 21:8; Psalms 24:4; Malachi 1:14; Matthew 21:30; Acts 24:25; Genesis 3:4,5] C. Flattery Often people want to make a favorable impression on others, so they say nice things that they dont really mean or dont really believe to be true. This may seem kind, but it is a form of deliberately deceiving others. Psalms 62:4 - They delight in lies; they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. When we dont mean the nice things we say, we are lying. Psalms 78:36,37 - Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouth, and they lied to Him with their tongue. Here the people flattered God by professing that they would serve Him but did not really mean it in their hearts. This is both a form of flattery and failure to keep promises. The passage says they lied. Jude 16 - False teachers often walk according to their lusts, speaking smooth words, flattering people to gain advantage. This is deception because they say nice things about others, professing to care about them, but really they just seek their own advantage (money, a following, etc.). This may remind us of politicians trying to get votes. They pretend to think highly of you, but they really want something from you. Sometimes we really hold an unfavorable view of someone, but we dont want to insult them, so it is easy to say what we dont mean. Perhaps it isnt even proper for us to be thinking those negative thoughts about others. But if our thoughts are valid, then we need to either speak the truth or find something we can honestly say or just change the subject. But lying should not be an option. Are we guilty? [Romans 16:17,18; Proverbs 26:24,25,28; 27:6; Jeremiah 9:8; Psalms 12:2] D. False Doctrine When religious teaching is presented as truth even though it cannot be proved by the Bible, deceit is always involved. Genesis 3:4 - Satan told Eve she would not die if she ate of the forbidden fruit. Yet God had said she would die (2:17). After Eve sinned, she said the serpent had beguiled her (3:13). [1 Timothy 2:14; 2 Corinthians 11:3] Jeremiah 14:14 - Prophets prophesied lies in Gods name. He had not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them, but they prophesied a false vision and the deceit of their heart. 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 - False apostles are called deceitful workers, because they pretend to be servants of Christ, angels of light, and ministers of righteousness. Many teachers present themselves as men of God teaching His word, yet they teach things they cannot find in the Bible. Acts 13:6,10 - Elymas the sorcerer tried to prevent Sergius Paulus from accepting the gospel. Paul accused him of being full of deceit and fraud. Note that false teaching is sinful for a number of reasons. But one reason is that it always involves deceit. Many religious leaders are deceitful because they claim a teaching is from God when they know they dont have the proof. But sometimes a teacher is sincerely in error - he really believes he is teaching truth; in that case, he has been deceived by someone else. All false teaching is ultimately a lie in that it all originates with Satan, who knows it is a lie. So false teaching is wrong for many reasons. But one reason is that it always involves deceit. Let us make sure we are not guilty! [Note especially Ezekiel 13:6-9,19,22; 1 Thessalonians 2:3,4; 1 Timothy 4:2; Revelation 12:9. See also 2 Corinthians 4:2; Revelation 2:2; 3:14; 20:3,10; Isaiah 30:10; 9:15; Romans 16:18; Jeremiah 48:10; 5:31; 6:13; 20:6; 23:14,25,26,32; 27:10,14-16; 29:8,21-31; 1 John 4:1; Titus 1:10; Ezekiel 21:29; 22:28; Daniel 2:9; Zech. 10:2; 13:3; Matthew 24:24; Romans 1:25; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-11; 1 Kings 22:22,23; 2 John 7; Deuteronomy 11:16; Ephesians 4:14; Colossians 2:4,8] E. Hypocrisy A hypocrite is a deceiver because he pretends to be something he knows he is not. He tries to give other people the impression he is more righteous than he really is. 1 Timothy 4:2 - Those who depart from the truth speak lies in hypocrisy. Note that their hypocrisy is associated with lying. 1 Peter 2:1 - Lay aside guile (deceit), hypocrisy, and evil speaking. Again, hypocrisy is associated with deceit. Hypocrisy is deceit because the hypocrite puts on a false front. He pretends to be better than he is. Malachi 1:14 - When one pretends to offer a sacrifice to God but refuses to give what He knows God wants, he is a deceiver accursed of God. Many people, even in the church, profess to serve God faithfully. But are we really doing what we know we should, or are we just deceiving others and maybe ourselves? Are we giving what we know God wants, or is it just a pretense? [Psalms 78:35-37; Galatians 2:14; Acts 5:1-9; Jeremiah 7:4-11; 3:10; Acts 5:5] F. Half Truths Some think they are innocent as long as they say what is technically true, even though they intend to mislead others to believe what is not true. It is possible to tell things that are technically true, yet we leave out pertinent facts or otherwise so speak that we lead others to believe untruths. Bible examples Genesis 37:28,31-33 - Josephs brothers sold him to the Midianites, dipped his coat in blood, brought it to Jacob and said, We found this coat. Does it look like your sons or not? This was technically true, but they omitted pertinent facts so they could lead Jacob to believe a wild animal had killed Joseph. Exodus 32:4,24 - When confronted by Moses regarding the golden calf, Aaron said he threw in the gold and out came the calf. But he neglected to say that he had fashioned the calf with an engraving tool! Matthew 26:60,61; 27:40 - One of the accusations made against Jesus at His trials was that he claimed He would destroy the temple and built it again in three days. But those who said this were false witnesses. It was technically true that Jesus had said He would build the temple in three days. But He was referring to His body, meaning that He would rise from the dead three days after they killed Him (John 2:19-21). Modern examples Many salesmen are experts at half-truths. This is the method the photographer at the Cubs game was using. Modern entertainment is often filled with this. Even Disney movies, I Love Lucy, Andy Griffith, and other supposedly good programs often justify deceit. A popular song entitled Sad Movies Always Make Me Cry tells of a girl who goes home crying because she saw her boyfriend at a movie with another girl. When her mother asks her whats wrong, she says to keep from telling her a lie, I just said, Sad movies always make me cry. It was technically true, but deceitful. Most false teaching involves half-truths. What the teacher says may be technically true, but he leaves out essential facts or twists the truth to lead people to believe something different from what God intended. I emphasize: we are not required to tell people everything we know. Some things are confidential or there may be no good reason why some particular person should be told what we know. Keeping a matter secret or confidential is not necessarily wrong. But if you are keeping a matter to yourself, dont lead others to think things that are untrue or that you have told them the whole matter when you have not. I suspect that every accountable person has violated these principles, most of us many times. But have we repented of it, or do we continue to justify such practices? [Proverbs 30:8; Acts 23:27; Genesis 3:4,5; Ezra 4:1,2,11-16] G. Self-Deception One of the saddest forms of deceit is self-deception. People who dont want to face reality can sometimes convince themselves to believe things that they really know are not true. Bible teaching Many passages warn about self-deception. 1 Corinthians 3:18 - Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. People often think they are so smart that they fool themselves into believing error. A man in the movie Princess Bride thought he could out-smart anyone. He tried to fool another man to get him to drink poison, but then ended up drinking it himself. That is the way people are who think they are so smart but end up fooling themselves. Galatians 6:3 - If anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Sometimes people do not want to admit what they are really like, so they deceive themselves into thinking they are better than they are. This especially happens in religion. James 1:22,26 - But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this ones religion is useless. People deceive themselves, because they are in many ways religious. So they think they are acceptable, but God is still not pleased because of sins in other areas of their lives. 1 John 1:8 - If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 2 Timothy 4:3,4 - Some will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. Note that these people end up believing error, because they do not like the truth. They prefer teachers who tickle their ears - tell them what they want to hear. So they may end up believing they are acceptable to God, but they deceived themselves. Modern examples People who believe in evolution, atheism, and many other false doctrines, often have motivations for not believing in God. They claim they have been convinced by scientific evidence, but that is not really why they believe as they do. They just dont want to face the truth, so they defend evolution or other error till they convince themselves it is true. The same often happens with people who have family members or loved ones who go into error - perhaps an unscriptural divorce or false religious practice. They cannot bring themselves to believe their loved ones are lost, so they seek for a justification till they finally convince themselves. One of the few things I remember from my college psychology course was an experiment in which people were asked to do a boring job (turn pegs on a board), and they said it was boring. Then they were paid to convince other people it was a good job. When asked again later, they said it was a good job. For the sake of money they had misled other people so long that they ended up believing their own lie. Im convinced this happens with many false teachers. They may doubt what they teach, but they know they are expected to teach it and people want to hear it, so they teach it. After a while they become convinced it is true. Self-deception is sad in any area of life, but it is especially sad that the area of life in which most people deceive themselves is religion. God hates tongues that speak lies. What about you and me? Are we guilty of lying? The truth is that we have all been guilty at one time or another. Have we been forgiven? Have we repented and obeyed Gods conditions to forgive us? [Romans 1:19-25; Isaiah 30:9-11; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12; Jeremiah 5:31; John 8:31-55; 2 Timothy 4:4]
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 09:45:34 +0000