1. Why Does
God Prohibit Lying?
In his gospel, John records some very powerful and scathing
comments the Lord Jesus made to some very distinguished religious leaders.
"Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what
I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your
father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth,
for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for
he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not
believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth,
why don't you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason
you do not hear is that you do not belong to God." (John 8:43-45)
Jesus' statement immediately put the dangerous business
of lying into perspective. When we lie we are speaking the devil's native language.
His mind is so warped, Satan doesn't know the truth, and Jesus says, when we
lie, we become the mouthpiece of Satan. When we lie we connect ourselves to
the devil, to the point where he becomes people's father. In John 10 we read
that Jesus came to give us spiritual life in abundance. Why? Because Satan is
at work in the world and his intention is to kill, steal, and destroy, and lies
and deception are his principle weapons. How tragic when people, unknowingly
become his voice.There is a cosmic struggle in the universe - its between truth
and delusion. In 2 Corinthians 4:4-6 we learn,
"The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers,
so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who
is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord,
and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let
light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give
us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."
You may know some of the people Paul describes who
have minds so blinded to truth that they live a delusion. The truth of God found
in Jesus Christ is the light that shines in the darkness. When we speak and
live by that truth, however imperfectly, our lives radiate the light of Christ
to our world. Now do you see why God takes lying so seriously? "When
he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies."
However white, however apparently justifiable, lying is Satanic in origin and
generates darkness not light. Second question.
2. Why Do People
Lie?
The simple reason is that we are not in a right relationship
with our creator God.
"This is the message we have heard from him and declare
to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have
fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the
truth. (1 John 1:5-6)
2.1 People Lie to Themselves
Romans 12:3 tells us we should not think about ourselves
more highly than we ought, but that we should think about ourselves soberly.
In other words we should use our God-given minds to think about ourselves as
God does. If we begin to dwell on what we have done for God, if we have to rationalise
or make excuses for our behaviour, if we begin to think God is lucky to have
us on his team we are thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought and we
are deceiving ourselves. We are walking in darkness. And although we may not
notice it, others will.
2.2 People Lie to God
You may think trying to lie to God is absurd, unthinkable.
He knows everything. How can we possibly lie to Him? Acts 5 tells a story of
the early church. Some people had great need, and others had property. Some
of the property owners sold their land and brought the proceeds to be placed
in the common purse. Joseph was one of those who gave his land. The apostles
gave him new name. They called him Barnabas which means the 'son of encouragement'
because that is what he was to others. Two other people named Ananias and Sapphira
watched Barnabas and thought, "We'd like to do something like that. That
kind of recognition would feel good. We've got some land; we'll sell it. Then
we can bring the proceeds to the apostles - well at least some of them. We can
pretend we have given it all."But God knew what
they were thinking and he tipped off Peter.
"Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan
has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept
for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn't it belong to
you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal?
What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God."
(Acts 5:3-4)
What led Ananias and Sapphira to lie to God? On the one
hand they wanted to appear in favour with God, to look good to God's people.
But to do so would have cost them, would require decisions and change. They
wanted the benefits without paying the price. When we pretend to honour God
and love Him, but don't really want to do it his way, because it will cost too
much, we not only lie to those around us, we lie to Him. We are living in a
never, never land than doesn't reflect the real state of our faith. This is
an insidious and disastrous trap. Maybe you come to church and sing a powerful
hymn about serving God, but if you are not careful, and if you don't mean what
you sing, you could find yourself very sweetly lying to God the whole time.
Now that may not sound like a major crime, but it might signal the development
of a mindset so far removed from reality that you lie both to yourself and to
God.
2.3 People
Lie to Other People
People lie in three different ways.
2.3.1 The Destructive Lie
The Sanhedrin decided Jesus was lying when he claimed to
be God. They wanted to kill him for it. Having decided that he would have to
die even before his trial, they got false witnesses to lie under oath about
what they alleged Jesus had said about the temple. Perjury then as now is a
very serious crime. Not uncommonly we find such malice in our own hearts, sometimes.
The desire to destroy, hurt or hinder someone. The Monica Lewinsky affair or
Mohamed Alfyad's attempt to obtain British citizenship are both full of claims
and counter claims of destructive lies.
2.3.2 The Defensive Lie
Peter used this after his great confession, "Even if
everyone else forsakes you, I will not." "Will you Peter?" said
Jesus. "Before the cock crows you will deny me three times." Following
the arrest of Jesus, Peter followed at a distance. When confronted he lied bursting
into oaths and curses, calling on God as his witness that he was not one of
the Lord's disciples. Why? Peter was afraid. He was afraid of arrest and he
tried to escape by lying. Thankfully the Lord restored Peter. He was forgiven
and eventually had the privilege of dying as a martyr for Christ. In the 1960's
an up and coming young British politician, the Minister for War, John Profumo
who was married to a glamorous actress Valerie Hobson, was charged with having
an affair with a prostitute, Christine Keeler. Someone associated with the Soviet
embassy. He was challenged in Parliament. He categorically denied it. But he
lied, and when it was proven he resigned. Every year politicians and public
figures see their careers similarly ended abruptly, all because of a simple
defensive lie. The destructive lie, the defensive lie.
2.3.3 The Defective
Lie
The defective lie is the lie of carelessness, boastfulness,
silence or half truth. See article in Times for more evidence. I involve myself
in the careless lie when, for instance, I pass on information without checking
the facts. Out of carelessness we find ourselves, however unintentionally, in
the lying business. Or maybe we lie out of boastfulness. Because we have a fragile
ego, we make ourselves out to be something we are not. We stretch the truth,
exaggerate, manipulate. I have this dilemma every time I travel to Israel.
The security services invariably interrogate you and
want to know the purpose of your visit. Whom you will be visiting, where you
will be staying. Do I tell them everything or just some of the facts. I'm coming
to your beautiful country on a pilgrimage. Yes that's true, I am also here to
monitor human rights abuses in the Occupied Territories. I've come to bring
encouragement to Christians suffering under your governments apartheid policies
of military occupation, land confiscation, detention without trial, torture,
deportations. If I say that I won't be allowed in.
So I limit my answers and sometimes refuse to answer
their questions. In such situations we need the wisdom of God to know how to
answer. There are destructive, defensive and defective lies. 3rd question.
3. What is the Cure for Lying?
How do we overcome the lying tendency? Remember the first
question? Why does God condemn lying? Answer: Realise its Satanic in origin.
Second question? Why do people lie? Answer: Because they are not secure
in their relationship with Jesus Christ. Deception and fantasy provide a poor
substitute. Earlier I quoted 1 John 1:5-7.
"This is the message we have heard from him and declare
to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have
fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the
truth.
The passage goes on to say,
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we
have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies
us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will
forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
(1 John 1:7-9)
Here is the ultimate, guaranteed, no nonsense cure
for lying. Walk in the light. Allow the word of God
to bring light to your world. Allow Christ to shape
your understanding of God's love. Allow Him to determine your self image. Allow
Him to be Lord of your relationships. Then you will have less and less need
to lie or deceive, to doubt or feel insecure. Then you will become more and
more like Jesus who said "I am the truth". As we are honest about
our selves and truthful in our dealings with other people, we continue to experience
his love and forgiveness, his cleansing and empowering. Paul described it as
putting off the old self and putting on the new. Of nothing less than becoming
like God.
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that
you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.
They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God
because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts...
You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him
and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were
taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self,
which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude
of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in
true righteousness and holiness. Therefore each of you must put off falsehood
and speak truthfully to his neighbour, for we are all members of one body. Do
not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful
for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who
listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed
for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling
and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one
another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
(Ephesians 4:17-32)
Three questions. One answer. Become the person God
intends - created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. And that's
the truth.Let's pray.
P.S. Here is a moving story of how 'deception' may
have a positive purpose in combatting evil...
The first serious book I ever remember reading as a teenager was "The
Man Who Never Was." Sitting in the middle of the choke point of the
Mediterranean, Sicily was the shortest route from North Africa to Adolf Hitler's
Europe. It was also the base from which the Luftwaffe had pounded Malta for
many months, as well as any convoy that tried to reach the beleaguered island.
Sicily had to be taken, but its rough terrain favored the defender. Any attack
against a well-entrenched force would be very costly, or might even fail. If
the enemy only could be misled as to where the Allies intended to strike next,
the attacking force might encounter something less than a fully manned defense.
But how were the German general staff and intelligence service to be duped on
such a grand scale?
The solution to that problem came from two relatively junior British officers:
Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu, a reservist who represented naval intelligence on the
interservice XX Committee (XX for double cross), and Squadron Leader Sir Archibald
Cholmondley, Montagu's Air Ministry counterpart. The plan was to plant false
Allied documents on a dead body given the identity of a fictitious Major Martin
and letting it fall into German hands giving the impression that an Allied courier
had died in a plane crash at sea and whose corpse had washed ashore. Rather
than attempting something as clumsy as feeding the Germans a bogus operations
plan, the plotters decided on the more subtle approach of using an unofficial
personal letter between two top-ranking officers.
The letter would only talk around what they wanted the Germans to believe, but
it had to be done in such a way that no one could fail to interpret the meaning.
For the key false letter, Montagu got General Sir Archibald Nye, vice chief
of the Imperial General Staff, to write to General Sir Harold Alexander, the
British commander in North Africa under American General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The phony letter did two things. It suggested two operations would be launched
in the Mediterranean (one in the east and one in the west). It also clearly
identified Sicily as the cover for the true target in the west. That only left
Sardinia in the west, and strongly suggested the Greek mainland and the Balkans
for the target in the east. To corroborate the letter from Nye, Major Martin
also carried a second letter from Lord Louis Mountbatten, chief of Combined
Operations, to Admiral Andrew Cunningham, British naval commander in the Mediterranean.
That letter established the purpose for Martin's trip; he was an expert on landing
craft on loan from Mountbatten's staff for the planning of the Mediterranean
operations. The Mountbatten letter also contained a side comment about sardines
being rationed in England.
It was a crude joke by British standards, but Montagu correctly guessed the
Germans would not be able to resist that piece of bait either. Major Martin
left England for the last time on April 19, 1943. He traveled in a special canister
packed with dry ice aboard the submarine HMS Seraph. Just before dawn on the
30th, Seraph surfaced about a mile off the Spanish coast near Huelva. After
crewmen brought the canister up on deck, Jewell sent them back down into the
boat, leaving only the officers topside. Up to that point only Jewell knew what
the canister contained. He quickly briefed his officers, and then they prepared
the body for launch. They blew up the major's Mae West and made sure the briefcase
was securely attached to its chain. Then Jewell said a short prayer from the
Navy Burial Service, and they slipped Major Martin over the side. The wash from
the submarine's screws pushed the body toward shore. A few hours later a fishing
boat picked up the dead marine and brought him into port. The local Abwehr agent
did the rest.
After some delay and diplomatic shuffling, the Spanish government eventually
returned Martin's briefcase, apparently unopened. Once the documents returned
to London, however, microscopic examination of the paper revealed they had indeed
been opened, and presumably photocopied. The body, meanwhile, received a quick
post-mortem that confirmed Spillsbury's predictions. Major Martin was buried
a few days later in Huelva with full military honours, surrounded by floral
tributes from his heartbroken fiancée and family. Back in London, the
June 4 edition of The Times noted Martin's death in the casualty lists. The
German intelligence services bought Mincemeat whole. "The authenticity
of the captured documents is beyond doubt," they reported. The German general
staff bought it, too. When it finally got to Hitler, he played his part perfectly.
On May 12, 1943, he issued an order summarizing his estimate of the situation
in the Mediterranean. The order concluded, "Measures regarding Sardinia
and the Peloponnese take precedence over everything else." Hitler ordered
the strengthening of fortifications on Sardinia and Corsica, and he sent an
additional Waffen SS brigade to Sardinia. He sent his favorite commander, Field
Marshal Erwin Rommel, to Athens to form an army group. He sent one panzer division
to Greece all the way from France. Perhaps most damaging to the German situation,
he ordered two additional panzer divisions to prepare to move to Greece from
Russia--at the same time the Germans were getting ready for history's greatest
tank showdown at Kursk. When the Allies stormed ashore on Sicily they caught
the German and Italian defenders almost completely flatfooted.
On July 7, 1943, only two days before the start of the landings, the war diary
of the German high command did not even have an entry for the western end of
the Mediterranean. The Allies assaulted the southern tip of Sicily, but the
bulk of the island's defenses were oriented along the north coast, facing Sardinia.
Many of the Italian divisions in Sicily folded immediately. Operation Mincemeat
had been an unqualified success. It was a brilliant if bizarre example of successful
deception. The 9th Commandment insists we tell the truth at all times but sometimes,
in exceptional circumstances not necessarily the whole truth.
I am grateful, in particular, to Stuart Briscoe and
his book The Ten Commandments, Playing by the Rules, (Carlisle, OM, 1986),
for material used in this sermon.