In 1993 the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey ran a help-wanted ad for electricians with expertise at using Sontag connectors. It got 170 responses - even though there is no such thing as a Sontag connector. The Authority ran the ad to find out how many applicants falsify resumes. Lying is indeed a part of life. Studies have shown that 91% surveyed routinely lie about matters deemed trivial, while 36% about things which are important. Some sociologists say the average person lies about 50 times a day, but only one in seven lies are ever detected. Lies are slippery eels which writhe and slither. They are great contortionists, twisting, altering their shape to fit whatever our needs demand. A lie is a verbal Gaak, that disgusting slime which oozes between your fingers and takes whatever shape it can. Some say that lying and deception are center stage as the legal wrangling continues in Florida. Each side employs spin doctors to help shape public opinion and a bevy of lawyers to sway the courts, all the while pointing fingers at one another claiming their opponents are molding the truth like a clay nose. The issue of truth in this campaign has local flavor as 18 year old Marquette University student Rob Bosworth garnered national attention by bragging about voting numerous times in the election. Of course he retracted that statement as he found himself the object of criminal investigation and perhaps a phone call from his irate father. He was next seen seated next to his lawyer while she read a prepared statement, claiming the 18 year old lied about lying, inventing the story to express his youthful frustration toward the electoral process. Since then police, in raiding his room, have found equipment for the falsification of identification. And the lies continue. The Ninth Commandment has much to say about the relevance of truth to our society as we live out our faith. In Deuteronomy 5 we have the second reading of the Law as the second generation of Israelites in the desert are preparing to enter the Promised Land. These ten simple Commandments help shape our understanding of the God we serve and how we should structure our lives.
Why should we not lie? Lying reveals a deceptive view of God As we’ve mentioned before, each of the Commandments flows from creation. These are not particular laws for a particular people at a particular time. They are universal, for they are based in the Covenant of Creation, going back to the beginning. Truth-telling is necessary for we serve a truthful God. The account of creation is a chronicle of God speaking the world into order. God’s words form our existence, shape reality. God speaks to Adam, instructing him how to live and what to avoid. It matters greatly whether those words can be trusted. It was the Serpent’s ploy to cause our first parents to doubt those words when Satan asked the simple question: "Did God really say..." and then to flatly deny the veracity of God’s Word by contradicting God’s threat of death for disobedience by saying, "You will not surely die!" Not only is truth critical to our understanding of creation, but also for our redemption. We place our faith in a God who speaks truthfully about our condition in sin and His solution by giving us Christ. Jesus likewise contrasts Himself with Satan in John 8 as He is the truth who sets captives free and Satan is the devil, diabolos, the slanderer. In John 8:44 the one who tempted in the Garden denying death to disobedience, is called a murderer for he holds not to the truth. Lying is his native language. Truth does not just explain an aspect of God, not just a special character trait of God. It is used to define God Himself. Absolute integrity, perfection in His very being defines our God. If God were anything less He would cease to be God. To despise the truth is to despise God whose very being and character are truth. God is a God of absolute truth. No shadow of error; no falsification; no deceit or distortion, can ever proceed from God, because He is a God of absolute truth. The word "testimony" in verse 20 is a form of the word used to refer to the Decalogue itself. Some 37 times in the NIV you’ll find the two stone tablets, the summary of God’s moral law referred to as the Testimony. God’s Law bears witness of His perfect character. For us to lie is to deny God’s character Lying reveals a deceptive view of community This Commandment is the mirror to the Third. Just as we must speak truthfully of God, so we must also be honest in our communication with others. As humans, we bear the image of God, so our words must likewise reflect reality, not seek to recreate it according to our desires. This command logically follows the prohibition against theft. Stealing another’s property and stealing his reputation through a lie or withholding useful information is related. Shakespeare, in Othello, makes this point well when he says: "Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls: Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; ‘Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed." (Shakespeare: Othello, 3.3.155) Community is built on truth, it presumes honesty. When truth is replaced by deceit in any relationship, that relationship loses its value. A lie is a verbal disease to a relationship, rotting trust through untruth. There is no more thorough way to destroy character than to deceive. Any other sin may be recognized and dealt with, but deception by its nature leads away from reality so that ultimately truth is not even recognizable. How, then, can it be found, how can repentance and restoration be pursued? Falsehood is the fault line in the foundation of the soul, putting all the superstructure in jeopardy. Deceit holds hostage all other virtues. The lie destroys community not only in another, but also in the one who lied. George Bernard Shaw once commented that the liar's punishment is not that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else. Where should we not lie? In The Court The Ninth Commandment, strictly speaking, prohibits perjury: deliberately making a false statement in a court of law. This kind of deceit threatens the integrity of the courts by which justice is secured. The responsibility of the individual Israelite for the integrity of the legal process was taken quite seriously in the Covenant community of Israel. The testimony of at least two witnesses was required to sustain a charge, and the penalty for false accusation was that the perjurer would receive the punishment of the crime he lied about. In fact, according to the Old Testament Law those who refused to testify and thereby frustrate justice were punished. The context of this command helps to delineate its application. This command does not require us to become an obnoxious bore, unable to regulate what flows from our mouths. There are those who use the pretext of truth to cover their social cluelessness. "Gee, where did you get such an ugly tie?" "Did you pay for that hair cut?" "Frankly, I think your lack of creativity and subhuman intelligence will render you a penniless slob to be cared for by the state for the rest of your life." Unloving scoundrels will find little refuge here. It is just as wrong to use the courts to find loopholes for our lies. Such was the case of a Charlotte, NC man who purchased a case of rare, very expensive cigars and insured them against... fire. Within months, having smoked his entire stockpile of fabulous cigars, the man filed a claim against the insurance company. In his claim, the man stated that he had lost the cigars in, "a series of small fires." The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason that the man had consumed the cigars in a normal fashion. The man sued... and won. In delivering his ruling, the judge stated that since the man held a policy from the company in which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable, and also guaranteed that it would insure the cigars against fire, without defining what it considered to be "unacceptable fire," it was obligated to compensate the insured for his loss. Rather than endure a costly appeal process, the insurance company accepted the judge's ruling and paid the man $15,000 for the rare cigars he lost in "the fires." But... after the man cashed his check, the insurance company had him arrested on 24 counts of arson. With his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case being used as evidence against him, the man was convicted and was sentenced to 24 consecutive one-year terms. In Our Relationships When the New Testament deals with this Commandment, it often does under the topics of gossip, of slander, of hateful words and misuse of our mouth. It is interesting that often in the New Testament when the writers give their lists of the evils which God hates, in addition to those we’d consider grossly immoral, the lists also include gossip and other misuses of the tongue. Gossip not only refers to telling lies about other people; it may involve telling something very true. The easiest way to verify if what you are saying is gossip or not is not whether it is true or false, but if the information makes the other person look bad. Is its affect, intended or not, demeaning to a person unable to defend him or herself? In a church this can happen so easily, and it can be so deadly. Another place where we can give false testimony outside the courtroom is not just speaking evil of another, but speaking only good of yourself. Most of us here will perjure ourselves the moment we climb out of the car and walk through those doors. The venom spewing from our lips becomes sweet honey to those outside our family. The fact is, we don’t want others to see the real us, so we lie. We guard our sins so closely, hoping people will think better of us than we are. We remain quiet about our struggles, imagining that others do not struggle with those issues or that we are just too ashamed to admit we struggle. Being a Christian means being ready to let the world see you as the fool whom God sees. But far too often we spend an inordinate amount of time and effort trying to put ourselves in the right; we want to camouflage our ignorance, explain away our failures. This is like the woman who, when company is coming and the house is a mess, takes out her old get well cards and places them on the mantel: we don’t want others to see our warts, forgetting that when we show others our sin we can then show them God's grace. Certainly sometimes, with some people, we fake humility; we share our foibles and stupidities. But it is far too rarely that we put aside our self-esteem, lower our guard and are honest with those around us. Our default mode always is to show our own righteousness and hide our sin. To do that we have to do a lot of lying. When you are walking down a street and trip over your own feet, what do you do? You look back at the spot as if something from the ground jumped up and grabbed you. We may laugh at the spin doctors hired by politicians, but we do that as well. There is the story of children in a prominent family who decided to give their father a book of the family's history for his birthday. They commissioned a professional biographer to do the work, carefully warning him of the family's "black sheep" problem: Cousin George had been executed in the electric chair for murder. The biographer assured the children: "I can handle that situation so that there will be no embarrassment. I'll merely say 'Cousin George occupied a chair of applied electronics at an important government institution. He was attached to his position by the strongest of ties and his death came as a real shock.'" We struggle with dishonesty in others because we can’t bear the pain of being honest with ourselves. Psychologists describe a number of defense mechanisms used by people to keep from admitting they have sinned. One text lists I6 different methods of self-deception, which we all employ at times, to avoid dealing honestly with our own evil thoughts and feelings. We rationalize our sin rather than repent of it, claiming that others do far worse. We project our faults on others, as it is always easier to see our sins at a distance. We shift the blame, pointing the finger at others as the cause of our bad attitude rather than deal our own sin head on. We desire not only the approval of others, but the approval of ourselves, so much so we will tell ourselves lies about ourselves so that we’ll perceive our self wrongly and more comfortably. This problem seems to only increase in Christians, because we believe the lie that we really can make ourselves holy enough to please God; after so many years of trying, my sins just have to go away. So we play the game of self-justification, rather than trusting Christ to do that. We try to make ourselves look good, but at the expense of the truth. We play all the nice religious games, but refuse to be honest about our own sin, our own need, our predilection for loving the lie. How can we not lie? As with the other Commandments, it is far too easy to believe the lie of our own ability and go from there thinking that we not only should change our behavior, but that we can change our behavior. The worst lie you will ever swallow is the one that says you can make yourself pleasing to God. The worst lie you will ever tell others by your words or behavior is that you have your moral act together. There are times reading God’s Word that if we do not allow Scripture to interpret Scripture, if we do not look at the context for the meaning, we will perpetuate this lie of our own ability. For those of us who have violated this Commandment (and those who think they haven't are still deceiving themselves), there is refuge in the righteousness of the one who is the Truth. Each time we come face to face with the demands of the Law, we come face to face with not only our sin, but our total inability to keep the Law on our own. The solution to our lying tongues is found in Ephesians 4:25: Put off lying; put on truth On the surface that sounds simple, but we know it is impossible. In Ephesians 4 Paul tells his readers that they must stop living like those outside the church, but his focus is not so much that of lifestyle, but of thought process. Notice what he says: verses 17-21. What is it they were taught? What is the truth we are to know? Put off the old self, put on the new self. These verbs are not continuous action, but a point in time. They refer to conversion; this is the change which happens when God takes a heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh. This is moving from believing the lie that you are able to make yourself acceptable to God to trusting another to declare you righteous before a perfect Father. Being made new in the attitude of your mind. This verb in the Greek is continuous. The mind can only be renewed when we remove the old clothes and put on the new. Once we recognize the truth about ourselves, that we love the lie and not the truth – and that Jesus Christ took our lies on Himself and gives us His perfect record of truthfulness, we have our thinking changed. What is it to be made new? It is created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness This is nothing we can manufacture. The image here is what takes place when we come by faith to Christ. Our sins are removed and His righteousness is imputed. The filth of our sin is taken away at the Cross, but we are not left naked; rather we are given new clothes, clothes we could not manufacture: Christ's righteousness. Only then the command can come: put off falsehood, and speak truthfully to your neighbor. You can not by your own effort be fully and completely honest, with yourself, with others. Don't make the focus to be your own right living, but Christ's righteousness for you, His death for your sins, His resurrection for your right standing before God. The life which God requires can only be as we look in faith to God to graciously work in us that which He desires. |
