Do Christians Lie?

Do Christians tell lies? Is it OK to lie at times? The short answer is, yes. But you say, how can this be? The first thing we need to consider is what is a lie? Mr. Webster explains a lie as to make an untrue statement with the intent to deceive, or to create a false or misleading impression. He goes on to explain a lie as verbs, nouns, and synonyms. We are also given the definition of a fib, which is the telling of an untruth that is trivial in substance or significance.

Once again I am amazed at what I do not know about our English language. To me a lie is a lie, the telling of an untruth. How does Mr. Strong explain the Hebrew and Greek words for a lie? In the old testament there are three words for it, 3576, 3584. They mean to be untrue, deceive, deny, and he also uses 8267 as an untruth, a sham, deceit, false, or to cheat. Sounds like Mr. Webster and what I understand to be a lie. The new testament also uses two main words, 5574, and 5579. They mean an untruth or attempt to deceive by falsehood or falsely.

I have been taught all liars will be sentenced to the lake of fire (Revelations 21:8). Does this mean all those who tell lies? We need more information don’t we? It seems to me the older I get the more questions I have. What is a liar? 1 John has a lot to say about this word. What does the word liar mean in the Greek? How is it (5571) used in Revelation 21:8? I will give the new testament definitions below:

5571= pseudes, untrue, erroneous, deceitful, wicked, or false.

5574= pseudomai, to utter an untruth or attempt to deceive by falsehood.

5583= pseustes, a falsifier.

Is lying always a sin? Once again the short answer is yes, but we need to know why it is a sin. Remember the Word of God tells us that anything not of faith is a sin (Romans 14:23). Lets look at WW2 for an example an untruth that was basically OK to do. The German families that considered the war to be immoral hid Jewish people that were to be killed. These people were extremely brave to hide someone who was on the “Wanted List” by Hitler. Their own lives were at stake for hiding these people. So there was no advantage to them to lie. They lied to protect an innocent life from being taken by ungodly men.

The old testament has several examples of Gods chosen people lying or telling untruths, Abraham, David, Rahab, Sampson, just to name a few. All these people told lies but were never condemned by God for lying. Why? The ninth commandment says “thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor”. In other words you are not to injure your neighbors character by telling lies about them or trying to get an advantage over them by deception.

So by what we have just read and discussed , a lie is the attempt to deceive someone to gain an advantage over them. This is what the ninth commandment is all about. Treating your neighbor as you want to be treated. Or in other words, the “Golden Rule”, do unto others as you would have them do unto you (Matthew 7:12).

So far we have just set the groundwork definition as to what scripture and man defines as a lie. Both agree as to the basic meaning in substance. A lie is to gain an advantage over others by deception the telling of an untruthful statement to your advantage. This is the main point of this study and next week we will discuss this subject with examples of what I see Men of God doing in the Church today.

We are in the last stages of our Great move to Ohio and next weeks blog will be from there if I can get internet access. It is very hard to move twenty one years of stuff. We have to be out of our home here by May twelfth. I hope you don’t mind a two part study, but it is the best I can do for now.

Remember, You will make it, just don’t give up. See you in Ohio.