Printer Friendly Version - pdf. Right click and "save target as".
By Denver Cheddie
Is it a sin to tell a lie? If a woman knocks 5 years of her age when asked how old she is, does she need to repent in sackcloth and ashes? Is it of the same ilk as lying to save someone in court or to condemn someone wrongfully? Or is there a type of lying that’s OK and another type that’s sin?
We’ve been told all our lives that lying is a sin. And of course the devil is the father of lies (John 8:44) so who dare question? There are a number of scriptures that seem to condemn lying, but there are scriptures where godly men and women lied with no reproof from God or the writers of the Bible. So what is the truth? Let’s dig a little deeper into the various scriptures which discuss the topic of lying.
Before we look at a few examples of people who lied in the Bible and how God and the authors of the scriptures responded, we need to clarify what exactly is a lie. Is it simply a technical untruth or is it the intention to deceive? The truth could be told in such a way as to give someone the wrong impression e.g. by leaving out certain details or by tone of voice. I think most would agree that lying extends beyond mere technical untruths. The intention to deceive is enough to make it a lie. There was much truth in what the serpent told Eve. He told her that she would not die and that her eyes would be open to know good and evil. Both of those were true in a sense. They did not die physically that day and their eyes were opened, so the devil was technically correct (Gen. 3:4-7, 22). What he withheld from them though is that they would indeed die spiritually and that their eyes being open was not a desirable thing. The bottom line is that the intention to deceive was enough to make the devil a liar “since the beginning”.
Samuel
With this in mind consider the case of Samuel (1 Sam. 16:1, 2). God told Samuel to go to the house of Jesse and anoint a new king of Israel. Samuel was afraid of Saul, what he would do if he found out he was going to anoint his replacement. So God told Samuel, “Just tell him you’re going to make a sacrifice.”* God told him to lie. Some people explain that away by suggesting that Samuel would indeed be making a sacrifice in the process of anointing a king. This is beside the point. The intention to give Saul the wrong impression was clearly present. God told Samuel to lie. Now if all lying is a sin, then was God aiding and abetting a felony?
Rahab
The next case is Rehab (Joshua 2:4-6 ). Rahab was convinced that God was with the children of Israel, so she hid the spies in her house and when questioned by the enemy concerning their whereabouts, led them in the wrong direction. A blatant lie. Some people say that God would have given Israel the victory even if Rahab had not lied. Maybe He would have, maybe He wouldn’t have. All we know is what God actually did, not what He would have done or could have done. But that is completely missing the point. The question is not whether God would or would not have given Israel the land, but whether or not Rahab’s life and her family’s would have been spared. I doubt very much that Israel would have spared her life if she had sold the spies out and then conceded, “Sorry guys, I couldn’t bring myself to lie.” Besides how would the rest of the army have found out about the red ribbon plan if the spies weren’t alive to tell them?
In Hebrews 11:31 we see Rahab mentioned in the faith hall of fame. By faith her life was preserved. It did not say that by faith she helped Israel defeat the enemy. It could be debated whether God would have given the victory had Rahab not lied, and I personally believe He would have, but it could hardly be denied that Rahab would have died with the heathens had she not lied. In other words, lying was part of the act of faith which preserved her life and inducted her into Hebrews 11. Selah.
Abraham and Isaac
Two other cases of lying were when Abraham, out of fear, told the king of Egypt that Sarah was his sister and not his wife (Gen. 12:11-20, 20:1-12), and later Isaac did the same thing with Rebecca (Gen. 26:7). Some again say that Sarah was Abraham’s half cousin so he was technically correct. Once again, the intention was to mislead. What was interesting in both these cases is that God had to intervene to bail them out. This is the same God who did not intervene to prevent Abraham from “going unto” Hagar and bringing Ishmael into this world. I dare say that God didn’t really think Abraham’s and Isaac’s lies were such big deals.
“But there are clearly scriptures in the Bible that condemn lying”, one may protest. To that I quip, “Really?” Let’s look at a few of those scriptures. The first one is the 9th commandment, “Thou shall not lie.” I think quoting the scripture wrongly is a bigger sin than lying. What Exodus 20:16 and Deuteronomy 5:20 actually say is “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” That makes a huge difference, because now it’s not talking about lying in general but a very specific form of lying. Bringing a false accusation against someone is an affront to the justice of God. So it is very clear that God hates this kind of lying. This thought is repeated over and over in the book of Proverbs. That book has many references to lying but they are all in the context of lying against one’s brother or neighbor to accuse them wrongfully.
The next scripture which condemns lying is Rev 21:8 which states that all liars have their part in the lake of fire. If this verse if read in isolation it definitely gives the impression that it is referring to all kinds of liars. But it actually isn’t. All of those sins mentioned in that verse refer to some specific set of events taking place during the tribulation, after all the context is set at the end of the tribulation period. The lying in this context refers to preaching and teaching a lie (cf. 1 Tim. 4:1, 2). It refers to propagating false doctrine. There would be a lot of false doctrine during the tribulation period (many false prophets and false teachers) even more so than today. Note that this does not refer to theologians who hold to a slightly differing viewpoint on peripheral issues. It refers to those preaching doctrines that lead people away from Christ. In the context of Revelation it refers to those who were doing the bidding of the Antichrist. But in a broader sense it refers to anyone who leads people away from the true Christ.
So the Bible clearly condemns 2 types of lying: bringing false accusation against others and preaching false doctrine. These are clearly labeled as sin. It is very easy to see that lying about one’s age is not quite the same thing. The Bible remains silent on any other type of lying, and so should a lot of people. There may be social consequences associated with certain types of lying, but to call them sin is to run ahead of the scriptures.
* There is another possible interpretation of this verse - God was not addressing Samuel’s fear i.e. God did not instruct Samuel to tell Saul he was going to make a sacrifice, but rather to tell the house of Jesse that he came to make a sacrifice. It is difficult to tell exactly what was intended, however the fact is that God gave Samuel those instructions immediately after Samuel admitted his fear of Saul. So it is possible that God was in fact giving Samuel and alibi to tell Saul.