-The old man. He was a liar. He was practised at lying, as well as a host of other things, things which proceeded out of his mouth - anger and slander and all kinds of negativity, unwholesome words which neither built up nor gave life. This is who we were. But we have taken off that old man like a nasty ratty old coat. So stop with the lying. Lying chains you to guilt and a false existence. It robs you of your freedom to fully be you, and it steals your energy as you must struggle to maintain the lie. Lying dishonors the God of truth Who cannot lie and it makes Him very angry, partly because when we lie we are acting more like the deceiver himself.
-The first lie, the first recorded lie anyway, was way back in the beginning, in Eden, where the deceiver entered the serpent and lied to Eve. Yes, he was a liar from the beginning, the father of lies, the deceiver of nations. Abraham, the man God chose to bless and be a blessing, was also a deceiver, and it permeated his family, esp. his grandson Jacob and many of Jacob’s sons. And yet God still chose them and used them. Imagine how much smoother it may have gone for them if they would have been more committed to truth.
-The lie is at the root of all sin in fact. Every act that stems from replacing God and what He wants in our heart is rooted in the lie that what He has said is not true and that He is not better than anything or anyone. Such that any and all deviation from what God wants implies a level of deception in my heart about what is true, what is best for me and what will ultimately satisfy (cf Jeremiah 17.9, Romans 7.11, Ephesians 4.22, 2Corinthians 11.3, Hebrews 3.13).
-Lying stands out above the other sins on this list because usually the other person doesn’t know when i am lying to them, at least not at first. Thus it tends to be more malicious and calculated (altho not always, as some lies are rooted more in a fear of being caught or exposed, fear of failure or of consequences). It’s a dainty morsel, a poisoned apple held out to us by a crafty devil, promising all kinds of gains or deliverance from negativity and embarrasment, but its end is the way of death.
-And no, God Himself cannot lie (1Samuel 15.29, Numbers 23.19, Titus 1.2) and considers any kind of lie or deception to be an abomination (Proverbs 11.1, 12.22, 19.5, 20.23, Revelation 22.15, Deuteronomy 25.13-16, Jeremiah 9.2-6, Amos 2.4). Thus perhaps the most God-like thing we can do is - by His grace of course - to abandon all pretense and attempts to hide or otherwise pervert the truth, and commit ourselves entirely and unreservedly to truth, truth in our relationships, and most of all to the Truth of God, unchanging, unyielding, unstoppable. The truth, God’s truth, will always prevail.
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