Better to die than to tell a lie.
Why?
Truth is out there, but it can be hard to understand, find, and even harder to know when we have found it! We embrace lies as truth and ignore the truth as if it is a lie. For all those reasons, truth is precious and so lying, which makes the riches of truth inaccessible, horrible for humankind.
What is a lie? It is at least this: willfully, knowingly giving false witness. When asked, on our honor, we stain our honor, not by refusing to give the truth which might be brave, but by destroying the truth with our lies.
The idea of a “lie” is more complicated than this definition, but at least we can see that tricking our spouse about a surprise party is not a lie. We are not on our oath and our spouse wishes to be tricked. An actor is not a liar, because we know he is a pretending. A hypocrite is a liar, because his acting is bearing false witness about himself.
Of course, the truth is tough and knowing the truth will only set us free if we abide in Jesus. He gives the mental and moral toughness to take what we see about ourselves and the world.
Both are very beautiful, but also very marred.
Ask Oedipus: the truth without God will make you miserable.
So few always tell the truth, perhaps almost none. Even the best of us make errors and must ask for forgiveness. That does nothing to justify a person in business, politics, or life adopting lying as a strategy. A business, church, or country built on lies will be unstable. All great evils have been buttressed by lies, but all great tragedies have begun in a lie. Ask Camelot.
Hardest of all is the temptation to lie to do good, because some good can come from a lie. The world was created good and so good will come from almost any action, especially in the short term. Yet we cannot lie to do good, because our evil means are not justified by a good we see.
Why?
We easily fool ourselves and we do not know the consequences, all the consequences, of our actions in this interconnected universe. Our lie triggers a series of events, a few obviously fortunate perhaps, but many very unfortunate for all we know. For God, the ends can justify the means because God knows all the outcomes. He can see the distant future all the way to the End. We cannot see that if we use the Ring, we might defeat Sauron only to make ourselves into a greater Dark Lord.
God help us, but too many American Christians will battle abortion, injustice, slavery, or other evils, but ignore lies from their own team. If a man lies, but he has the right positions on the Left or on the Right, we will justify his or her lies. If the other side calls us on the lie, then we say “Tu quoque!”
I have even seen Christians say we must lie in order to do good, but this is not the way of Jesus. The Lord would not lie to gain the kingdoms of this world. He lost to win, because Jesus would not tell a lie. He would never say that Satan was Lord . . . and Satan is the Father of Lies. I recently saw Christians rejoice that a politician told falsehoods, because the other side told falsehoods.
God help us, but surely lies, willful lies as a matter of policy, are at least as bad as sex sin. If we will not compromise on marriage, but will lie, then God help us. We damned ourselves in the attempt to avoid damning ourselves.
Doubt this?
Read what the eternal Word of God says:
“But people who are cowardly, unfaithful, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars will find themselves in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”
All liars are there, even the ones who got health care for everyone by lies or who earned a pro-life Supreme Court justice by lies.
Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.
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