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What About “holy” Lying?

What if you find yourself in a situation where you have to lie to protect someone or even to save a life? A homely example is a Christian lady by the name Corrie-Ten Boom, whose house was a safe hiding place for persecuted Jews during World War II. When the Hitler soldiers knocked on her door, she denied ever having any hiding people inside her house. Hence those souls were saved from sure death – through that lady’s lie! So what does God say about that? What does the Bible say about that?

In all honesty, this is the most difficult topic I have ever discussed. In fact, I might as well disappoint you by saying that I am still learning on this one, hence I will not end here with a definite conclusion. What I will do is to provide you with two different opinions about this issue. So that you can also learn to think and decide for yourself. Let’s go...

Opinion 1: Lying is wrong, there is no justification for it.
Our God is holy, and lying is sin. Scripture is clear that “all liars will have their part in the lake of fire” In fact according to Proverbs, a lying tongue is one of the 7 things that God hates. Hence there is nothing like “lying for good reason.” Nowhere does your Bible divide lying into two categories; good and bad. Nowhere do we find a Biblical teaching that says you are allowed to twist truth in certain situations. It’s either truth or lies. Righteousness or sin. Pastor John MacArthur goes on to say that “God does not need your lie to accomplish His purposes”.  Meaning that God knows how to govern His universe controlling the events of our lives according to His will. Hence there is no need to lie at the job interview so as to get that job, because if the Lord wills, you cannot get that job even if you lie. Just a few articles ago I emphatically reminded all of us that God is a Spirit of Truth. Hence if we claim to be His servants, we will be lovers of truth and haters of lies. By the way, what killed Ananias and Sapphire? Lying! This means the Almighty He will not, under no circumstances, lower down His holy standard to accommodate our lying habits.

Opinion 2: As much as straight lying is wrong, lying for a good cause is not. That is, some situations have worse consequences when truth is told. For example, Rahab the prostitute clearly lied to protect the people of God (Josh 2:1-6), in fact, according to Scripture, what this woman did was a great act of faith (Jam 2:25) – enough to earn her a spot among God’s Hall of Fame (Heb 11:31). Therefore, one can conclude that “lying for good reasons” is understandable in the heavens. Personally, I think God alone knows if there ever is any justification for twisting the truth for whatever reasons. Because there is a huge possibility that most of what we define as “good lies” are actually true lies that we cook up so as to protect our self-interests. Regardless, I also believe that there are indeed very difficult situations where you will have no choice but to tell lies. For example, when some terrorist points a gun at you and asks if you have any hidden family members. Obviously, you wouldn’t give him the truth so he could kill your people, would you? How the Lord would judge me for lying in such a situation is beyond my knowledge. What I am sure of is that the Judge of the whole earth will always do what is right; repaying all evil and rewarding all good accordingly.  

Summary: I just brought this up for your consideration because it has been bothering my mind for some time. Regardless of your standpoint, I must encourage all of us to always strive to speak the truth all the time. If it happens that you find yourself in a tight corner to tell lies, you might try to avoid that by simply saying, “I don’t want to tell you” or if someone asks for something that you don’t want to give, instead of lying, “I don’t have it” you can just say, “I don’t have enough to give you.” Having said this, I am aware that each situation is different, and that it’s not always that easy all the time. Regardless, I hope you understand that I can only chew this much. As I said, I am still learning about this difficult matter, Lordwilling, next time I will have a clear answer. Otherwise, good luck in your efforts to speak the truth.

Sinothi Ncube


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