Mr. Peter Eddington
Sermon Transcript
September 1, 2001
What's So Bad About a Little White Lie?
Try to image just for a moment
what a different place this world would be if just one of the Ten Commandments
was kept by all of mankind-just one kept perfectly out of the ten. Perhaps we
could imagine what a different place this would be if there was no murder in
our society, or maybe how nice it would be to do away completely with adultery.
It's in the news a lot these days. What if everyone truly honored his father
and mother? Wouldn't it be nice if no one ever stole from his or her neighbor?
Not to mention, of course, honoring God and keeping the Sabbath day holy, if
everybody was keeping the Sabbath at this time. Well, today I want to concentrate
on just one of the Ten Commandments, the ninth commandment, "You shall
not bear false witness against your neighbor." In other words, don't lie.
Once again, in the news a lot these
day, people won't tell the truth. Let's study the subject during the time we
have for the split sermon. We'll see that each of us is guilty when it comes
to the ninth commandment, and we need to be on our guard as a result; and so,
I've titled this sermon, "What's So Bad About a Little White Lie?"
Stop and think for a moment about
this commandment. If mankind was able to eradicate even this one sin, we know
what a better place this world would be, don't we? Even our children, perhaps,
will listen up and learn some things and learn to improve along these lines
as well.
1. Lying
in our society today.
I have six fairly short points about
lying for us to look at today. The first one is, lying in our society today.
Let's look at lying in our society today because society goes to great lengths
to find out when an alleged criminal is lying or not. Sophisticated equipment
is used to see if he is telling the truth. We've all heard of the polygraph.
Let me read to you a quote from the Encyclopedia Britannica on the subject
of the polygraph. It's actually under the heading of "lie detector."
It says, "Lie detector. Also called polygraph. An instrument for recording
physiological phenomena such as blood pressure, pulse rate, and respiration
of a human subject as he answers questions put to him by an operator. These
data are then used as the basis for making a judgment as to whether or not the
person is lying." So it's called a "lie detector." "Used
in interrogation and investigation since 1924, the lie detector is still controversial
among psychologists and not always judicially acceptable." See, even man's
most sophisticated technology cannot really determine whether or not the person
is telling the truth; and, therefore, it is generally not even admissible in
court. We don't have a way of always knowing whether someone is telling the
truth or telling a lie. This complicates and confuses our lives; and many, many
safeguards have been introduced into our legal system to try to find out the
truth.
Think for a moment how simple the
O. J. Simpson trial would have been if he was asked to tell the whole truth.
You know, that trial went on for months and months, with millions and millions
of dollars being spent on it. "Did you kill your wife and her friend? Yes
or no?" If he answers yes, you've found your killer. If he answers no and
he's telling the truth, then you can start to look elsewhere for the real killer.
When you find him or her, you ask the same questions. Simple!
Our legal system would be just a
fraction of what it is now. Even lawyers would have to tell the truth. No one
would be taken advantage of by another person in this way. "Were you speeding?
Yes or no?" "Did you hit your wife? Yes or no?" "Did you
steal your brother's toy? Yes or no?" "Did you steal a cookie out
of the jar?" "Did you finish your homework?" "Did you pay
your taxes honestly?" "Did you assault the teenager at school? Yes
or no?" You see, if everyone would just tell the truth, things would be
a whole lot simpler in our society today.
Lying is much more prevalent than
most of us realize. It has infected all parts of our lives. To give you an idea
of just how widespread bearing a false witness is, I have some dictionary definitions
here of "lying" from Mirriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.
You know, it's one thing to tell an outright lie, but people try to get around
it in so many ways in their lives.
"Lie," says Miriam
Webster's, "marked by or containing falsehoods. To make an untrue statement
with intent to deceive. To create a false or misleading impression. To bring
about by telling lies." To "equivocate" implies using words having
more than one sense so as to seem to say one thing but intend another. "Palter"
implies making unreliable statements of fact or intention or insincere promises.
"Fib" applies to telling of a trivial untruth.
So all these little things are under
the heading of "lie." Do you see how many different ways a person
can lie? Even using one word that may have two meanings so as to mislead somebody.
Note some synonyms from the ever-trustworthy Roget's 21st Century
Thesaurus under "lie." Roget says lie can mean "to equivocate,
falsify, fib, palter, prevaricate, beguile, deceive, delude, misguide, misinform,
misinstruct, mislead, distort, exaggerate, or misstate."
So you see how many ways there are
of just stretching the truth a little bit, all these different ways of lying.
I know I'm guilty of doing this. It's easy to tell a white lie because, after
all, it's for the best for ourselves or for someone we're trying to protect,
right, just to stretch the truth a little bit? To exaggerate, maybe, a bit?
You see, lying in our society is very widespread and goes deep into everything
everybody does. It's not just outright lying on purpose. It's just the way people
live is stretching the truth.
2. What does
God say about lying?
Let's look, number two, at what
God says about lying. What does God say about lying? Because it's pretty straightforward.
There is not too much gray area when it comes to this because God says, "Don't
lie," period! There are no ifs, ands, or buts. Stretching the truth or
exaggerating maybe pushing the lying envelope over the limit as far as God is
concerned. As Roget said, "to distort, misinform, make believe, misstate,
or string along," is to lie. Let's go straight to the source on this subject
and turn to Deuteronomy, chapter 5, and let's read verse 20. Like
I said, we'll go straight to the source. Deuteronomy, chapter 5, and verse 20.
Deut. 5:20 - You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
That sounds pretty straightforward,
doesn't it? Now, we're all familiar with the cute stories that parents tell
their children about the Easter bunny, Santa Claus, the tooth fairy. Do you
think that's stretching the truth just a little bit? Lying to our children has
become an accepted practice. Even an acceptable practice, something you're expected
to do! But it even goes further than this. We find it infecting most aspects
of human life. So imagine this, the thought and possibility that everyone in
the whole world would always tell the truth, would never bear any kind of an
even small false witness. It's almost overwhelming, if you could think just
how far that would go. It would profoundly change the way our whole society
operates. Unfortunately, that's not the case right now; and often we can't trust
what our neighbor says. Maybe our friends don't always tell the truth to us.
The Bible, the scriptures we have
here on our laps give some pretty stern warnings about lying. Look over in Proverbs,
chapter 6, for example. Proverbs, chapter 6, and we'll read verses 16-19.
Prov. 6:16-19 - These
six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: a proud look,
a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked
plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies,
and one who sows discord among brethren.
Lying is mentioned twice. It gets top billing here in these things that God
really hates. You have to wonder why does He hate it so much to list lying and
a lying tongue twice. Well, I'll tell you why. It's because it is so directly
opposite to God's nature. It's the opposite of what He is. And He lists it twice
as things that are an abomination to Him, things He hates! God is trying to
impart some of Himself into us through the power of His Holy Spirit. Our consciousness
should begin to be like His consciousness when His Spirit is working with our
spirit in our minds. If God hates lying, then so should we, if we are becoming
like Him as His people. His Spirit will convict our heart and mind when we slip
up. We'll want to do better and become more like Him and have His mind and His
character.
Titus, chapter 1, let's read
verses 1 and 2, if you'll turn over with me to Titus, chapter
1. Here we read, as Paul writes to Titus, right at the very beginning as he
addresses the letter, Paul says:
Titus 1:1-2 - Paul, a
bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of
God's elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness,
in hope of eternal life...here's where our hope is, and what are we depending
upon? ...in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before
time began...
Thankfully we can believe this,
that we are offered eternal life, because God doesn't lie. Look at Hebrews,
chapter 6, if you go forward a few pages. Hebrews, chapter 6, verses
17 and 18:
Heb. 6:17-18 - Thus God,
determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability
of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which
it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have
fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
So we've just read twice now that
it is impossible for God to lie, and our very eternal life can be based upon
that. We can believe that. We can have faith and trust in the hope that is set
before us because God doesn't lie. What He says, He will do. We can believe
it.
These are some of the most encouraging
words in the scriptures. Our very hope in salvation rests upon the fact that
God has promised eternal life to mankind and will not go back on those statements.
God's promise of salvation is not a half-truth. It is not an exaggeration in
the least. It is not an overstatement. He's not stringing us along. It's not
a distortion or a fabrication of some kind. It's truth. We can rest assured
that everything God says is true. We have 100 percent confidence in this, that
God is not lying when He says that if we do what He tells us, we can live forever.
That's mankind's dream, isn't it? Mankind thinks he's going to go to heaven
and live forever as an immortal being. That's what mankind tries to do, tries
to prolong life. Well, God says that what mankind generally understands is wrong,
but He does promise us eternal life through another means. We can live forever,
and it's not a fabrication. God does not falsify or fib even just a little bit
or tell a little white lie or partial untruth. He doesn't beguile or deceive
or delude. God doesn't misguide us. He doesn't misinform, maybe, just a little
bit. He doesn't misinstruct or mislead. He doesn't distort or exaggerate or
misstate. No, what He says is true; and our friends, family, and fellow human
beings should have the same trust in us, that what we say, they can believe,
because we are becoming more like God.
As God's Spirit works in our minds
and as He begins to impart His character to us, you and I should start to abhor
lying and untruths. God's nature, the fact that He cannot lie, should grow to
become a part of us, too; and, of course, eventually, when resurrected to spirit
life, we'll do it perfectly. Until then, we keep trying and working and improving.
And so, you see what God's word has to say about lying.
3. The end result
of lying.
Let's look at number three, point
three, the end result of lying. If you are a habitual liar, where will that
get you? We can read in the book of Romans about those men who have changed
the truth of God into a lie. God allowed these people to be given over to a
debased and reprobate mind, and this is the opposite mind to what we have with
the Holy Spirit, because with God's Spirit, we have a sound mind. The end result,
of course, of lying, if not overcome, is death. There will be no liars in God's
kingdom, as we can find in Revelation 21:8. No liars in God's kingdom.
And that means even someone that is always telling little lies, always stretching
the truth just a little bit. You know, God does not allow for that in His plan.
In fact, Christ told John that incorrigible liars would perish in the lake of
fire. It's serious business to God. We must overcome lying and respect God's
commandment in this regard.
Proverbs, chapter 21, let's
go back to Proverbs for a moment. Turn back there with me to Proverbs, chapter
21, verse 23 and verse 28.
Prov. 21:23, 28 - Whoever
guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles. But notice verse
28 here. A false witness shall perish...
You see, somebody who is always misleading people doesn't have a big future,
if you could look at the overall scheme of things. However, the opposite is
something most wonderful. The Proverbs also paint a beautiful picture of how
wonderful nicely chosen words without deceit can be. If you go over to Proverbs
25, and you read verse 11:
Prov. 25:11 - A word fitly
spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.
And so, a false witness shall perish; but if you do what is right in what you
say, it's like something very precious. In our society today, it really is something
very precious. It's hard to find.
Now, in Proverbs, chapter 15,
verse 23:
Prov 15:23 - A man has
joy by the answer of his mouth, and a word spoken in due season, how good it
is!
So our tongue can be used for good
and bad, but when our tongue is used for something good, it is a wonderful thing.
But when we lie, when we stretch the truth, when we distort, when we deceive,
that only leads to death. The false witness shall perish. So the end result
of an incorrigible liar, someone who will not change from that, is the lake
of fire, eventually.
4. The power of
the tongue.
Let's look at number four, the power
of the tongue, because we mentioned that it can be used for both good and bad.
Unfortunately, often it is used for more bad than good when it comes to what
we say. I'd like to have you read a passage with me that the apostle James wrote,
in James, chapter 3. It's a very powerful passage that reinforces to
us the strength that our tongue can have, and it's so important that our words
do not carry deception or mislead people. It may be a very small member in our
body, but a most powerful one; and as we concentrate today on speaking truthfully,
read this worst-case scenario passage here, about how bad things can get if
you are not able to control what you say. James, chapter 3, we'll read verses
1-14 here:
James 3:1-2 - My brethren,
let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter
judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word,
he is a perfect man...you know, this is an awfully difficult thing to do,
not to stumble in what you say...able also to bridle the whole body.
If you can control your tongue, that little thing in your mouth, then you can
control your whole body, is what he is saying. If you can get that under control,
you're on the road here.
Verses 3-4 - Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey
us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large
and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever
the pilot desires.
Verses 5-14 - Even so
the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest
a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue
is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire
the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast
and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by
mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly
poison. This is looking at a worst-case scenario here, someone who really
cannot control his tongue. With it we bless our God and Father, and with
it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same
mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be
so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can
a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring
yields both salt water and fresh. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let
him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.
But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and
lie against the truth.
Of course, these were extremely
stern words that James was writing here, addressing a major problem. Do you
notice a breakdown of these thoughts outlined by James? I noted five subheadings
in this passage. First of all, the tongue is small but very significant. Secondly,
the tongue is combustible. Third, the tongue is an unruly beast, he says. {Fourth},
the tongue is poison. And fifth, the tongue is double-tongued. And so, if
you can't control your tongue, you've really got a problem.
Our tongue must be bridled; and, as we know, this begins before the words actually
come out of our mouth. It begins in our mind, doesn't it? That's where the thoughts
start, before our tongue actually says anything. Our tongue can be a powerful
tool, an instrument of great good, like apples of gold in settings of silver,
very precious; or it can cause great harm, as we just read. But we need to heed
the warning given by Paul in his epistle and be careful to bring every word
we speak into captivity. Remember that verse? Bring every thought into captivity
so that what you say, then, is appropriate. Words we speak begin as thoughts,
and our thoughts have to be controlled. God's Spirit working in us helps us
have this control. Of course, we have to pray for it, pray for God's Spirit
to work with our spirit, that we may be careful in what we say. And this leads
us into not bearing a false witness, not misleading people in what we say.
5. Imagine how it
could be.
Point five, just imagine how it
could be. Just imagine, like we did at the beginning, how it could be. Young
people today are learning to steal and lie in an immensely organized fashion.
Not only are they stealing articles by the thousands from stores, shops, schools,
and even churches, but they regularly organize an intricate system of cheating
on tests and exams. It is a very big problem in our society today: cheating.
Because it is generally looked on without too much alarm, this practice is really
growing at an unprecedented rate. What the young people may not have been told
is that cheating is taking a score or grade illegally. It's stealing or lying
about one's base of knowledge being covered in a test or an exam. But students
do it all the time. They find a way around tests, cheat, and then lie about
what they really know.
The shop keeper who uses false weights
and measures or a poor quality of material or workmanship to deceive the public
is just as guilty of breaking the commandment as a common thief. He's trying
to get something more than a legitimate return for his product. Viewing illegal
profits he hopes to receive is trying to get that extra something for nothing,
and only God knows how many cases of people stretching the truth or lying about
their product there is on this planet today.
One of the great commercial sins
of our age is the common practice of false advertising. The consumer is led
to believe that a certain pill, for instance, will cause him to lose weight
or gain weight, increase his potency, restore his thinning hair, or whatever
the case may be. And in many cases, the statement that is advertised is a direct,
willful lie, without any doubt. The manufacturers know it {the product}
is going to have little or no effect on the person; and, in many cases, the
victims of these gigantic frauds are not only robbed of money, but they're robbed
of health, happiness, and peace of mind. You see, many a respectable businessman
and community leader has only attained his position largely through mass deception.
He got where he was or where he is by not telling the truth. Look at the scandal
that invaded the White House. The President and Mrs. Clinton were engaged in
a fight to protect themselves from jail time because of deceit and lying through
their business dealings over the decades. It went way back, lying and cheating.
This is the age of the sophisticated lie, the double-standard of morality, the
Watergate syndrome. This is the age of respectable-appearing lawyers, industrial
leaders, union leaders, governmental officials, and college professors perjuring
themselves on the witness stand, and even before the United States Senate, as
the tobacco industry lied to the face of the government questioners, outright
lies, just a couple years back.
The Christ we serve, our elder brother,
our High Priest, thoroughly condemned the hypocrites of His day whom you could
not believe. I wonder what He would say about our generation today? The hypocrisy,
the lying, the mis-truths. The ninth commandment protects every upright and
decent man in guarding his reputation; and perhaps there is no more despicable
lie than that of slander, the lie invented and spread abroad with intent to
harm one's fellow man and his reputation. A thief may take some material goods
which can be replaced, but a false witness who slanders may rob a person of
esteem and reputation in the eyes of his fellow man, and chances are slim that
when you have been slandered that your reputation will ever be fully regained.
Imagine if the truth was told completely
in our day and age. The immediate value of being able to rely on a man's word
would not only guard every decent man's reputation and eliminate millions of
hours wasted investigating every situation, but would also prevent unworthy
men from ever being placed in high positions of responsibility. It would literally
clean up our society. In the field of industry and business, think of the tremendous
benefit that would come to the public if each company would honestly tell the
truth about their product and honestly seek to serve the consumer's real needs.
The effect of this would be literally astounding.
Think of a society where each brand
of toothpaste and breakfast cereal, for example, was not just an imitation or
a needless variation of another cereal but was truly the best of its particular
type, honestly priced and truthfully advertised. Even when they advertise all
the vitamins and minerals they put in cereal, you find out that they just go
right through your body and don't do anything. That's just a gimmick. Apply
this to every phase of our society and you get something near utopia just from
this one commandment being kept. Imagine the blessings that would come if our
entire population obeyed just the ninth commandment. It would affect all of
us because we are brothers and sisters together in this world and in this Church.
Notice Ephesians, chapter 4,
verse 25. Paul wrote to the church there at Ephesus:
Eph. 4:25 - Therefore,
putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor...here
it is being written to the Church. I guess they had a problem with lying, too...let
each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of
one another.
You see, we are all brothers in
this together, so why stretch the truth in what you say? It's interesting to
note that Jesus Christ Himself was murdered as a result of a false testimony
levied against Him by His neighbors, His brothers. We are all members, one of
another, in this Church and in this society. Why hurt one another like that?
Christ's death resulted from the lies that were told about Him. We are members,
one of another, here in what has been called the "global village."
We all affect each other.
6. Our responsibility.
Let's look at our final point, number
six, which is our responsibility, our responsibility. In our own personal lives,
we need to learn the importance of telling the truth, believing the truth, and
living the truth, because the very character of our Father in heaven can be
imparted to us through His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives to us His nature,
the nature of God; and this nature begins to replace our nature and our spirit
as we overcome ourselves and our sins. It helps us become more like Him, and
He cannot lie. God does not stretch the truth one little bit to beguile or deceive
or to misstate, and we must be careful not to base our lives on any kind of
a series of lies, whether personal, political, religious distortions, any kind
of untruth.
Let's turn to John, chapter 8,
and read verse 31. It's an important scripture for all of us who
seek freedom from the pains of this world, those who truly want to be free and
not to be in bondage.
John 8:31-32 - Then Jesus
said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are
My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make
you free."
It's the truth that can set us free-of
course, the very truth of God, which we can believe. In our personal speech,
we must guard our words carefully. We must never forget that a man is only as
good as his word. You've heard that before. If a man becomes a habitual liar,
it is very difficult to help him. And, unfortunately, anything he says or does
may simply be another deception. It gets to the point where somebody, you know
they lied about one thing, then you don't really know whether you can believe
them when they say they had nothing to do with somebody's disappearance. You
know, once you get down that road, it's pretty hard to turn that person around.
One of the best attributes of God's
character is that He is truth, and this truth can make us free. If we couldn't
rely on God's word, there could be no real assurance of forgiveness from our
past sins. And, of course, we would also have no confidence in obtaining help
from our Father in heaven when we have a need, or of any future reward of eternal
life. We might as well give up now if you couldn't believe what God told us.
When God says our sins are forgiven upon repentance, we can thankfully really
believe that; and He forgets about them and we move on.
It's interesting to note the very
opposite of God's character. It comes from, as you know, Satan the devil. Christ
exposed Satan for what he really and truly is in John, chapter 8. It's
right here, back a page or so. John, chapter 8, verses 43 through 45.
You see, we've just been reading about the truth and the truth setting you free.
Just read down a few more verses and see where Christ was leading with this.
It was in John 8, now verse 43:
John 8:43 - Why do you
not understand My speech? He was talking about the truth, right? Because
you are not able to listen to My word.
Verses 44-45 - You are
of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He
was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because
there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources,
for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do
not believe Me.
You see, Christ was really setting the record straight here about what the problem
was with those He was dealing. Of course, Satan the devil began with that first
line in the garden of Eden with Eve, and he's the father of all lies. He's a
murderer from the beginning. It's interesting to see here Christ relating murder
and lying together. It's so destructive. You can assassinate somebody's character
through slander and lying. You may as well kill him. You see, those who follow
Satan in his refusal to live by the truth, which can set you free, have a terrible
fate awaiting them.
Let's now read the scripture I referred to earlier, in Revelation, chapter
21, verses 7-8, because it carries a tremendous amount of weight on this
subject. Revelation 21:7, first of all, here's something we can believe:
Rev. 21:7 - He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be
his God and he shall be My son. There's our promise of eternal life, once
again, that God gave us.
But then:
Verse 8 - But the cowardly,
unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters,
and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone,
which is the second death.
Some people think just telling a lie or two once in awhile is no big deal. Do
you see what it's listed with here? All of the other sins and abominations?
God hates lying because it's the opposite of what He is. Satan is a liar, the
father of it, a murderer from the beginning. God cannot lie. He just cannot
stretch the truth, even just a little bit.
Society goes to great lengths to find out when an alleged criminal is lying.
Sophisticated equipment is used to see if they are telling the truth or not.
And even the most sophisticated technology cannot really determine whether or
not a person is telling the truth. Lying is much more prevalent than any of
us realize. It has infected many parts of our lives, and the thought and possibility
that everyone in the whole world would always tell the truth is almost unimaginable;
but one day, they will. You and I are in training at this very moment. We should
be setting the right example now, as God's people being led by His Holy Spirit;
and so we bring every thought into line and be careful what we say to one another.
The whole world is not rid of lying yet, no matter how hard we'd like to imagine
it; but we can start to make a difference in our personal lives now.
In our own personal lives, we need to learn the importance of telling the truth, believing the truth, and living the truth. The very character of our Father in heaven can be imparted to us through the power of His Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives to us His nature by which He cannot lie. This nature begins to replace our nature as we overcome ourselves and our sins and become more like Him. Remember, there are no little white lies in God's sight. He doesn't tell white lies. Half-truths, distortions and deceptions are condemned throughout God's word. Jesus said, "Thy word is truth," in John 17. Let us live by that inspired word that we may inherit life in the kingdom that is based on what is literally true and right. This is the message of the ninth commandment.