Hitch-hiker
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor Deuteronomy 5:20
False – It’s court language, but it’s not limited to trials. The word picture recalls the witness stand. “Do you swear to tell the truth?” The answer better be “Yes.” In front of the judge and jury, we want true testimony. So does God. But His reasons for demanding the truth are not always the same as ours.
We look for justice. We want satisfaction. God has a much deeper concern in mind. Lying disturbs the nature of the universe. Why? Because God is truth and whatever circumvents, diminishes or deflects truth attacks His very character. The universe reflects the glory of God, says the psalmist. Lying in any form damages that glory, and God will not put up with it.
Once we see the Hebrew word, shaw, we understand the hideous nature of lying. The word is not just about circumventing the truth. This is a word that also means emptiness, vanity, evil, ruin, worthlessness and uselessness. Lying fits all of those categories. It constructs a fictitious universe, a world where there is no reliability and no consistency. No wonder God tells us that He hates lying (Proverbs 6:19). Everything that results from lies stands in utter opposition to the character of God.
Take another look at the meanings of shaw. Did you notice how many are associated with actions, not just words? Did you see how shaw is rooted in the practical, not just the linguistic? Worthless, useless, empty and vane – lying gets you exactly nothing. It moves you in the opposite direction from life itself. It sucks the blood out of relationships and drains the world of meaning. Lying is a step toward chaos and away from the God of order.
It’s popular to suggest that life requires little white lies. After all, just shading the truth a bit here and there seems to ease things along. Transparency and brutal honesty are not virtues in a Greek-based world of image management. It’s far easier to side-step the conflict with a tiny, little lie. But now you see why even the whitest of white lies comes from the blackest pit of hell. Every lie moves me away from the living God. That means it removes me from my own real life. No matter how “justifiable”, a lie attacks the glory of the Creator and the handiwork of His image in me. Lies send me right back to the second verse of the Bible, when the world was without form and void.
The choice is yours. Lies always stand at one-way streets waiting for a ride. You can stop and pick them up, but you will have to travel toward the dark if you do. Or, you can see them for what they are – and turn around.
Topical Index: Commandments, Lying
