Lie or Truth?

Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

Matthew 5:37

Juvenal the first century Roman poet and satirist wrote “Honesty is praised and starves”. Honesty is extolled by everyone as a virtue (though practiced, it often seems, by few). Jesus is encouraging us to be people who are truth tellers all the time, not just when we swear we are telling the truth.

We suffer in our society from a crisis of trust. We find it hard to believe anyone fully. Politicians lie to us by distorting figures and making promises they know they can’t deliver. We read touching stories in the news that are actually fabricated.

There is an implied question in the words of Jesus: Why do you need to take an oath about something? We all know that there are documents and testimonies that require oaths but . . .There is really no reason for oaths in other dealings. Think about it, aren’t you really saying, “I swear I am telling the truth . . . .not like the other times I say things!”

Jesus says, Why not just let your “yes” mean “yes” and your “no” mean “no”. Jesus urges us to be people of integrity ALL the time so that swearing is not necessary.

There used to be a day when a man’s word was his bond. Those were days when integrity was king. Unfortunately it seems those days are in the past. We are told to “get everything in writing”. Why? Because we have come to believe that we can’t trust anyone. And why is that? It is because we have found ways to get around our promises and agreements with each other.

In our current society we insist on getting things in writing because the only way we can be sure someone will uphold their end of the contract is if they are compelled to do so by the courts. There seems to be no motivation to being honest if we can get away with being dishonest.

Josh McDowell wrote a book titled Right from Wrong some years ago about truth. In the book he talked about some of the practical benefits of telling the truth which I paraphrase here:

a.       Truth telling allows us to avoid having to live with guilt; and makes it possible for us to live with a clear conscience. Guilt is a powerful emotion. It will dog your steps and haunt your soul.

b.      It allows us to know the true joy of accomplishment.

c.       Telling the truth keeps you out of the cycle of deceit. One lie leads to another, which leads to still another. Frankly, it becomes hard to keep track of all the lies you have told.

d.      Telling the truth keeps you from ruining relationships and instead produces trusting relationships. Someone has said, “If you tell the truth all the time, I can believe you all the time. But if you only tell the truth some of the time. I can’t believe you any of the time.”

We know that Jesus was rebuking the Pharisees for not telling the truth all the time. He confronted their idea that you can lie in little things and it is OK. You can make promises, but as long as they are not vows before God, it is OK to break those promises. Jesus said, “No, it is not OK”.

The question that hangs over us is this: How does this apply to us? The simple application is that we need to be truth-tellers. If we ever want to have an impact for the gospel of Jesus Christ we have to first be people who are known for telling the truth. That is easier said than done. We live in a cynical age so the only way you can get a reputation for integrity is for you to tell the truth over and over and over again. How can we be truth-tellers?

First, we must fill our minds with the truth. In other words we need to be Scripture saturated people. The old saying is true: the best way to be aware of lies is to be so familiar with the truth that you recognize the lie immediately. One of the reasons this is so important is because the first person we lie to is us.

We tell ourselves that we aren’t hurting anybody by what we are saying and doing. Yet we know from our own experience that we have been hurt by what others say and do.

We tell ourselves that we “didn’t mean it”. Most of the time we said exactly what we meant. When it didn’t turn out well we try to bail ourselves out by lying. Sometimes we even say, “I swear to you that I didn’t mean any harm.” The truth is, we didn’t mean to have our intentions exposed.

We tell ourselves that “it is not my problem” or “I am not the one at fault”. But many of these problems ARE our problem. And almost all the time we share blame for things that go wrong. We don’t’ think we are selfish, but we are.

Second, we must make a conscious effort to be truth-tellers. Twisting truth to suit our purposes or to cover up our actions is so pervasive, so common, that we have to work hard to consciously tell the truth. We need to remind ourselves that lying may get us out of trouble (for now) but it is not the way for a child of God to act. God is a Truth-telling God and as His children, we should likewise tell the truth. If we are going to wear the name “Christian” we must accept the fact that we are held to a higher standard.

Third we need to work on eliminating even socially acceptable deception. This involves even things like exaggeration (unless people know you are exaggerating). We exaggerate when we make our accomplishments bigger than they really were; or we report we were much more witty in what we said than we actually were. Sometimes we even say we did something or said something that was actually said by someone else. It is a common practice; we all do it; but it is a step away from letting our “yes” be “yes” and our “No” be “No”.

Dear Friends little things add up. Small lies lead to bigger lies which result in a corrupt character.

This Lenten Season let us tell the truth in all things, letting our “yes” be “yes” and our “no” be “no”, so that after a while, we will have the reputation as a person of integrity. In other words, people will begin to see Jesus in us.

May God help us to do so.