Little white lies.....

I saw an article yesterday which reminded me of the question, "are little white lies a sin"? I thought it would be a great topic for a bible study because ultimately it doesn't matter one little bit what any of us think about the subject. The only thing that matters is what God thinks about the subject.

I know many Christians are going to see this story and think it's wonderful but that one little part really bothers me and I have to wonder how many others will see it, and if they do, how many will consider it a lie? Here is a link to that thread for any who haven't seen it yet:

Jesus saves Broward storekeeper from a robbery (is it OK to lie?)

I remember my first experience on a Christian message board. It was several years before I started FH. Someone on the board was asking for advice about what she should tell her mother about something. Now this was an adult, a married woman, asking for the advice. She didn't live with her parents anymore either. What she wanted to do was tell them a lie. In her opinion it was a "little white lie" and she didn't really think God would mind... I was totally shocked at the responses she got from fellow Christians! It was quite a long thread already, with well over 30 replies and every single one of them agreed that it was perfectly OK to tell a little white lie. (which is what this woman in the story said could be referred to as)

I just couldn't believe it. So I posted and tried to say in as gentle a manner as I could that lying was never an option for a Christian and tried to explain why. Boy, talk about being flamed! There was nothing left of me but ash when those folks were done with me! I prayed about it and never posted on that thread again. I felt I had said what the Lord had wanted and it was up to them to each deal with it they way they wanted to. That experience though so profoundly affected me that I never forgot about it and it's one of the reasons I started FH.

So let's begin by looking to see just what God's Word has to say about this subject:

Colossians 3:9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices

Leviticus 19:11 .... ‘Do not lie. “ ‘Do not deceive one another.

Psalm 34:13 keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies.

Ephesians 4:25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

1 Peter 3:10 For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech.

We can easily see from all of the above that we are not to lie, that's obvious. What about little white lies though? I remember when I asked someone about this myself when I was a teen. Their reply to me was to go back through my bible and see if i could find any "if"s, "and"s or "but"s in those verses. In other words, no where in God's Word do we see the Lord saying, "don't lie "unless it's to prevent hurting another persons feelings". Or don't lie "unless you have to in order to save your life". Or, "don't lie "unless you have to save someone else's life".

Those are usually the 3 big excuses we come up with to excuse our lies. We often even believe that we're doing the right thing when we do that and can even come up with verses such as to do all things in love etc that kind of back it up. Let's look then and see what else we can find out about lying, falsehood, and the truth to see just where we should draw the line.
John 8:44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

This seems to make it plain that any lie since there are no qualifiers in that verse, is a sin and is therefore coming from our sin nature and under the province of Satan.

Revelation 21:8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

Again there are no qualifiers here. This doesn't say, "except for people who just tell little white lies". So this too shows us that lying is of Satan, it is a sin and is something we're not to do under any circumstance.

Psalm 119:30 I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws.

This is just one of many but I wanted to post it to remind us that God's way is often called the "way of truth". Do you really think that the way of truth includes little white lies?

John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Not only are God's ways called the way of truth, but God is truth, just as Jesus Himself said in the verse above.

3 John 11 Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.

Ephesians 5:1-2 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

In the above verses we're told not to imitate the things of Satan and we've already seen that he is the father of lies, so we can be pretty sure that even little white lies come under this.

Ephesians 5:8-11 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

John 8:32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Again we're reminded that we need to put off our old selves and put on our new selves. We are to live in the truth and speak only the truth. One of the characterizations of truth is that it sets the person free, while darkness (lies) puts chains on a person. The Lord will always honor us when we are obedient and speak the truth even if it might cost us our own lives or the life of someone we love. He knows how hard it is for us to trust Him so when we are obedient and choose to trust Him and speak the truth anyway, He will never let us down!

Did you catch that? That's the root of the sin when we lie to save someone's life, even our own, what we're doing is saying that we don't trust God to handle the situation unless we are disobedient. We're saying that God's ways aren't good, aren't trustworthy and don't work! Where is our trust and our faith? We're putting it in ourselves instead of in God and looking mostly to "luck" as well! That doesn't sound at all like the way God wants us to live!

Then there's the story of Ananias and his wife Sapphira when they lied to Peter about how much they sold their property for. They wanted to keep some of the money for themselves instead of giving all of it to the apostles to be used for everyone. There was noting wrong with their desire to do so and if they had told simply told the truth, that they were keeping some for themselves and giving X to the church there would have been no problem. To some this too could have been considered a little white lie. It cost them their lives though so I don't think God thought of it that way!

Acts 5:3-4 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God.”

The words translated "filled" in "filled your heart" means "controlled or influenced" so we see again that lies are from Satan and not of God at all, no matter what kind of lie it is.

Ananias sinned against the Holy Spirit of God by lying. The sin was not one of being stingy; Ananias and his wife simply wanted to appear more generous than they were, possibly as generous as Barnabas who had sold some land and brought the proceeds to the apostles (4:36, 37). Sudden death for both husband and wife, within three hours of each other, seems to some to be harsh judgment for their “little white lies.” Believer's Study Bible.

In many places besides the above story the bible teaches us that when we sin, it is God we are rally sinning against and not other people:

Psalm 51:3-4 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.

Considering all of these things, I really don't think it's wise to be telling even "little white lies"!

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