“You shall not bear false witness.” (Exodus 20:16)

Simply put, we should not lie about people. We should not pass on gossip about people.

“You must not pass along false rumors. You must not cooperate with evil people by lying on the witness stand” (Exodus 23:1 NLT)

Were you ever hurt by someone telling lies about you? People told lies about Jesus, too. People cooperated with evil people and lied about Jesus Christ when He walked the earth. The religious leaders, who valued their positions of authority more than truth, wanted to get rid of Jesus and didn’t care if it took a lie.

Matthew 26:59 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. 60 But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward.

Sad. There were many “false witnesses” against the Truth, God Himself!

Jesus, “God with us”, was put to death.  He was hung on a cross to die. But the Truth always wins in the end. Jesus Christ rose from the dead!  HalleluYAH! God wins in the end. If you are living the truth, you will win in the end, too!

GOD IS TRUTH

God never lies. God is truth. He has given us His Word which is Truth. He has sent His Son Jesus who is the Truth and who lived the truth for all to see. He is God’s “faithful witness” showing us how to live righteously and truthfully. (Rev 1:5) We Christians should, therefore, be truthful sons of God.

“Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor…”  Eph 4:25

LITTLE WHITE LIES or MAKE-BELIEVE

The devil wants you to believe lies. He wants you to believe that sin is not sin. He wants you to believe it is okay to tell a “little white lie”. But a lie is a lie. If your teacher asks for your homework, and you say “the dog ate it”, that’s a lie unless your dog really did eat it!
Blaming things that you did on your little brother is a false witness. Making up bad stories about people you don’t like is lying. Telling tall tales to cover up breaking mom’s favorite knick-knack is lying as well since the intent is to deceive mom and keep the truth from her.

STORY-TELLING

Making up stories could be lying OR maybe not!

Granny Vee has written many stories. The stories are not factual. They are made up for fun or sometimes to teach a truth. For example, my story Green Frog, Gold Heart has a talking, singing frog. Well, frogs don’t really talk. Friendly Philemon Frog is a make-believe character.   But he is teaching a real truth that is in the Word of God. The story teaches the Golden Rule which is “treat other people as you’d like them to treat you.” But there is no real frog with a golden heart. So is the story a lie? No. It is make-believe. And everyone knows that.

A lie, by definition, is “a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive.”

If you go to the library, the books are divided into fiction and non-fiction. A fiction story is by definition make-believe. Many are not meant to deceive but to entertain. But be careful! Just as Granny Vee’s fiction story about the frog is teaching a truth in God’s word, sometimes ungodly fiction writers try to teach ungodly things in their stories. For example, they might teach that it is okay to sin or it is okay to cast spells or practice witchcraft. But God’s truth defines these things as sin and rebellion against Him. It is important to know God’s Word so that we know the difference between truth and deceptive lies.

THE FIRST LIE

Do you know the first recorded lie in mankind’s history? It was told way back in the Garden of Eden by the devil himself, the “father of lies”! When Adam and Eve bought that lie, it caused the downfall of all their children – humankind! What was this lie that has caused so much misery ever since?

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  (Genesis 3)

So the crafty devil speaking through the serpent, first brought doubt about God’s Word by saying, “Did God really say…?” The devil had Adam and Eve questioning God’s truthfulness, honesty and love for them so Eve was tricked by the devil into taking the first bite of the forbidden fruit.

Then, the devil made God out to be a liar by saying that what God had said is NOT true. God had said,

“but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it, you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:17)

God had already said “you will certainly die” and Satan came along and said the opposite, “you will NOT certainly die”.   Now, who would you believe, Satan or God?

THE TRUTH

Do you believe “God with us”, Jesus Christ?  He says, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) Or do you believe Satan’s advertising campaign that says you can do things your own way – which is really the devil’s way of rebellion against God?

If you believe God, if you believe in Jesus Christ, you will have eternal life. If you believe the devil, “you will certainly die” – and remain separated  from God who is Life.

Yes, the devil is still out there lying. And people are still believing him because he is “crafty”. His intent is to deceive people so they will not enter into God’s Kingdom of “righteousness, peace and joy”. The devil wants people to stay in his kingdom of darkness.

Some people in the dark kingdom lie all the time. Lying becomes a way of life for them because they follow after the “father of lies”.

Sadly, Christians lie sometimes, too. If you lie all the time, maybe you have not yet received the Truth, Jesus Christ, into your heart.  Check your heart and pray.

Maybe you are a true Christian but sometimes make a mistake and lie.  If you lie or commit any sin, you can always ask God the Father to forgive you. Jesus Christ already took your punishment for that sin on the cross. Ask His Holy Spirit to help you to become more and more truthful. As we spend more time with God, He changes us to be more like Him!

“Do not lie to one another…”  Col 3:9

So don’t be  like the devil, the father of lies.  Be like our heavenly Daddy God, who is Truth!

“Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, but those who act faithfully are His delight.”  Psalm 12:22

PS: Would you like to know a fancy big word that means to tell a lie? Prevaricate. Don’t prevaricate! Satan is the father of prevarications!