The Truth About Lying

A Chicago Tribune article published in 1991 reported an astonishing study: At the time, the American Association for the Advancement of Science said of humanity, “Proficiency at lying may be the best measure of advancement, with primates much more adept at it than other mammals and human beings the most masterful liars on the planet.” Proficiency in lying, the Association reasoned, is the best measure of our progress as a people. We are what we are because of our ability to deceive, perjure, and distort the truth.

This thinking is in tension with what we discover in the Bible. The Scriptures introduce us to a God who is a truth-telling, promise-keeping God. Proverbs tells us the Almighty hates “a lying tongue” (6:17). Indeed, a culture that treats lying as either a virtue or a permissible way to “bend the rules” rather than a sin will never make progress in the things of God.

What the Culture Says About Lying

The fact that some view lying as a viable option is closely tied to their rejection of biblical teachings. Disregard God as He has revealed Himself in the Bible, and there is no longer an ultimate basis for truth telling.

In the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Western culture began to convince itself that the God of the Bible was a nonexistent being. Atheism’s popularity grew. The social application of Darwin’s theory of evolution provided an alternative to telling the truth, lying becoming necessary in a society where only the fittest would survive.

Disregard God as He has revealed Himself in the Bible, and there is no longer an ultimate basis for truth telling.

The compounding effects of this worldview have been tragic. A diminishing number of people seem to believe that honesty is the best policy; instead, they insist that lying may be justified, depending on the circumstances. Even children—some of whom have now grown to adulthood—have learned that it’s acceptable to lie. As far back as three and a half decades ago, one publication was already describing lying as “an important step in the development of the self.” The time between then and now has only exacerbated the problem.

Proficiency at lying is a mark of human advancement, said the Association. Lying is not only normal but necessary for a child’s development, reported Child magazine. Countless others have followed. It’s no wonder why, decades later, our culture is in a state of moral and spiritual decline.

What the Bible Says About Lying

Of course, lying isn’t anything new. Six hundred years before Christ, God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah, saying,

Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
 look and take note!
Search her squares to see
 if you can find a man,
one who does justice
 and seeks truth,
that I may pardon her. (Jer. 5:1)

Old Testament Israel’s moral fabric was in shambles because they denied the worship owed only to the true God. It’s not that they weren’t religious; in fact, they were incredibly interested in spiritual things. But they created for themselves gods that would do what they desired rather than fear the Creator, to whom they were accountable. To use Paul’s language, “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie” (Rom. 1:25).

We tell lies by perjury, spreading rumors, slander, deception, and flattery. And such lying has far-reaching consequences, according to Scripture. Telling lies dishonors God and demeans others. It disfigures the image of God in us, in which we’ve been created as moral beings.

We lie because we’re basically sinful, full of pride. We fail to conform to the humble Christ, who “came not to be served but to serve” (Mark 10:45). We live for our own glory, doing everything we can to save face and impress people.

Telling lies dishonors God and demeans others. It disfigures the image of God in us.

Far from a mark of societal progress, lying is compelling proof that man is not what God intended him to be. “The wicked are estranged from the womb,” says the psalmist; “they go astray from birth, speaking lies” (58:3). Parents know by experience that they don’t have to teach their small children to tell lies—it’s in them from birth! And so many a parent has had to ask the inevitable question: What do we do about this endemic problem?

What to Do About Lying

The Bible not only exposes our sin nature in relation to lying; it also tells us what we need to do to be made right with God. Simply put, we have to face the truth and come to the Truth.

Facing the truth is hard. We don’t want to do so, because the truth condemns us. It’s why many don’t like confronting what the Bible has to say about us and our sinful nature. God’s Word is like a surgeon, and we are the patients. It cuts us open before it mends us back together. Those incisions, even if they’re ultimately meant to heal, can hurt—especially if we haven’t accepted our need for them.

This is, in part, why the Jews of Jesus’ day rejected Him as their Messiah. They wouldn’t receive His teachings. They were self-deceived, blinded by their own religious experience. So when Jesus urged them to face the truth so they could be free from sin’s bondage, they replied by retreating to their lineage, their spiritual pedigree: “We are offspring of Abraham, and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free?’” (John 8:32–33).

We, instead, must face the truth. But even then, we still have to come to the Truth. That’s Jesus’ invitation in John 14: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (v. 6). The only way we can deal with our sinful nature, from which our lying inevitably springs, is by coming to the Lord Jesus in repentance and faith. He forgives us our sin. He gives us a new nature with new desires. He writes His law on our hearts, enabling us to walk in the truth.

We would do well to make the psalmist’s prayer our own:

Teach me your way, O LORD,
 that I may walk in your truth;
 unite my heart to fear your name. (Ps. 86:11)

This article was adapted from the sermon “The Truth About Lying” by Alistair Begg.