Lies, white lies, and the truth

Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and asked, "What charges are you bringing against this man?"

"If he were not a criminal," they replied, "we would not have handed him over to you."

Pilate said, "Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law."

"But we have no right to execute anyone," the Jews objected. This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the kind of death he was going to die would be fulfilled.

Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?"

"Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?"

"Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?"

Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."

"You are a king, then!" said Pilate.

Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."

"What is truth?" Pilate asked. (John 18:28-38)

We live in a society that seems to take it for granted that people will lie. When listening to a politician’s campaign speech, few people really expect him to make good on his promises; it is understood by most that a politician will make whatever promises he must in order to get himself elected. Lawyers are a popular butt of jokes, because most of them are regarded as liars who will distort the truth as much as necessary to win their case. Few people expect a general to give an accurate assessment of how a war is progressing, assuming that he will distort the truth to reassure the homefolk and mislead the enemy.

Now I am not saying that all politicians, lawyers and military leaders are dishonest; what I’m pointing out is that when they are, Americans don’t often act surprised at the news. This is because falsehood has crept into every level of American life. Students are constantly devising new ways to cheat on tests, all the way up to the post-graduate level. Businesses use false or misleading advertising to boost sales. Job applicants lie about their qualifications in order to get hired for a job. Reporters emphasize some facts of a story and suppress others in order to sway public opinion. Singles lie about themselves in the hopes of impressing their date.

Lying has even become a comfortable sin for people who don’t mean to do harm. You’ve probably told more than one "white lie." A "white lie" is a lie that is supposedly spoken to spare another person’s feelings. When a woman asks, "does this outfit make me look fat?" how many husbands are foolish enough to respond, "yes"? When a friend is going through terrible emotional pain in considering a life-changing decision like whether to get a divorce, there is a tremendous temptation for us to not to tell the truth of how we feel, but to tell our agonizing friend what he wants to hear. Society has taught us that, when you love someone, lies are sometimes better than the truth.

But is it true that sometimes a lie is better because honesty is too painful? No, it is not. This is one of the devil’s clever lies. Nothing good ever comes from hiding the truth. Human relations are built on trust—how can you have a solid relationship with someone if you cannot trust that they will tell you the truth? Your husband says that he loves you—do you believe him? If you don’t, how can your marriage survive? How can you build a relationship with anyone who is dishonest with their feelings?

Lies cause problems in other ways as well. In Exodus 20:16, God issued this command: You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. When we think of this Commandment, we usually think about not lying under oath in a courtroom; God does not want an innocent man wrongly sent to jail, or a guilty woman set free unjustly. But the larger issue is one of reputation. An example: some years ago, a day care provider was accused of molesting the children in his care. The court eventually exonerated him from any wrong-doing, but how many parents do you suppose are now willing to entrust their children to his care? Even though the man was never convicted, the false testimony has most likely caused permanent damage to his reputation.

We commit this same sin when we gossip and spread rumors. When we are informed that another person has committed a sin, our first inclination is to get as many juicy details as we can and then spread that damaging information to our other friends. But by acting this way, we show our lack of love. In his explanation of the Eighth Commandment, Martin Luther wrote "explain everything in the kindest way." What he meant was that we should resist the urge to always believe the worst about other people, and open our minds to other possible explanations for the rumor that we’ve heard. Jesus gives us practical advice for dealing with the sins of others in Matthew chapter 18: If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that `every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. Notice that the first thing Jesus tells us to do is to go to our sinning brother privately to discuss the matter; it is only when a person refuses to repent of a sin that we are to involve others. Spreading rumors and gossip that you have not personally confirmed in private violates Jesus’ command. In Proverbs 11:13, our God tells us A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret.

Lies do harm by blinding us to reality and thus placing us in danger. Suppose a job applicant lies about knowing how to operate a floor buffer during an interview. Accepting the lie, the boss does not train the new man on using the buffer; the first time that he then uses it, the man might well end up injured when the machine takes off on him. Or suppose a little girl picks out a mismatched outfit to wear; if her mother, not wanting to hurt her feelings, tells her that she looks fine, the girl has been set up to face ridicule and humiliation from her classmates when she gets to school.

But the worst way that lying can harm us is when we listen to the lie that tells us that we are not sinners, that all God wants of us is to do our very best. This lie is a damnable lie, because if you believe it, you are on a life path that will end in damnation. And yet it is one of the most pervasive lies in America today. Psychologists, sociologists and philosophy teachers tell us that all people are basically good, and only do bad things as a result of poverty, abuse or ignorance.

The Bible disagrees vigorously with these lies. We are not born inherently good; Paul writes in Ephesians 2:3-5, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And no matter how good we try to be, it will never be enough to please God; Scripture says that all our righteous acts are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). This is because there is no one righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10). An unrighteous person cannot do a truly righteous act, a deed that is pleasing to God. Only a righteous person can act righteously, and only one person has ever lived on this earth who was righteous—God’s own Son, Jesus Christ.

The Bible calls Jesus "The Righteous One" because Jesus lived His life in perfect obedience to God’s perfect Law. Jesus came to live a life of perfect obedience so that He could offer His righteousness to His Father to stand in for the righteous lives we are unable to live; and part of that perfect obedience involved our Lord voluntarily going to the cross to die. Paul reminds us, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:8) Sin must be punished with death, and the only way that we could be spared the death that our lying, unrighteous lives have deserved was for the righteous Son of God Himself to obey His Father’s Laws in our place, and die the death that results when those laws are broken by us

Jesus never lied. Over and over again during His earthly ministry among us, Jesus said "Truly I say to you." Peter said of Jesus, He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth (1 Peter 2:22). And yet Jesus was crucified because the Pharisees believed that He lied when He said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6). The Pharisees would not believe that Jesus was telling the truth when He said, Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me (John 14:11). And so Jesus was accused of blaspheming against God, accused of representing God falsely. But the Pharisees encountered a problem; Mark records, The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they did not find any. Many testified falsely against him, but their statements did not agree (Mark 14:55-56). Our Lord Jesus was put to death by liars; He died to forgive us for lying.

Paul advises us, do everything in love (1 Corinthians 16:14). It is never God-pleasing to lie, but truth must always be spoken with love. Jesus never shied away from naming sin for what it was, but He always did so for the purpose of bringing the sinner to repentance so that Jesus could give him the gift of forgiveness. When we speak an unpleasant truth, it must be for the same reason. Love builds up, and truth spoken in love will ultimately result in building people up. Truth spoken in love will help us to grow closer to each other in trust, protect the reputation of God’s forgiven children, and keep us safe from ignorance that can result in harmful consequences.

Let us live our lives in the same spirit as David, who sang to God in Psalm 26: your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth.