The Sin of Deceit
by Dave Brown
Return to the Sins of this World page
Many are reluctant to just come out and call it what it is: lying. Perhaps it is like the word “drunk” – so many euphemisms have been developed for it to try to water down this sin – e.g., high, stoned, bombed, feeling good, etc., all of which tend to paint a slightly more positive picture than just plain “drunk.” And so it is with lying – one of the more recent PC words used to describe it is “spin.” The theory is “It is wrong to lie, but when you have an agenda to push, spinning is OK.”
All deceit is lying, and all lying is sin. Deceit might take subtle forms at times to try to disguise itself. For the record we define a lie to be an untrue statement that is specifically intended to deceive. The consequences or ramifications are not mitigating – it is better to just say nothing than to take a chance on misleading others.
Some of the condemnations in the New Testament include:
John 8:44
44 Ye are of (your) father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stands not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof.
And so it is with liars today – they speak of their own – their own self-serving evil, for if it were not evil then they would be much better served describing it with truth.
Romans 1:24-25
24 Wherefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves:
25 for that they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
Colossians 3:7-11
7 wherein ye also once walked, when ye lived in these things;
8 but now do ye also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, railing, and shameful speaking out of your mouth:
9 lie not one to another; seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doings,
10 and have put on the new man that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him:
11 where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all.
1 Timothy 1:8-11
8 But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully,
9 as knowing this, that law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and unruly, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
10 for fornicators, for abusers of themselves with men, for kidnappers, for liars, for false swearers, and if there be any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine;
11 according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.
Reason that Lying is Wrong
To those who serve God the fact that He stated it is wrong is good enough. But God has a reason for his commands, and they are all given out of love and to our benefit. We will not presume to be able to fathom the reasons that God commanded honesty, but consistent with His loving nature, there are some things that seem obvious. First, would there be any reason to tell a lie if it were not to take advantage of the ignorance of another person – perhaps even to motivate and control them when it is done by leaders.
In no case can a lie require in benefit to the person deceived because that person will now move on to base his/her life decisions on the deceptive statement. It is a truism that when we make decisions based on false assumptions, those decisions will not work out to our benefit. Lies injure and kill. They keep people from moving their lives ahead and being successful in all things, both physical and spiritual. The curse of the divides in our society today are the result of lies, some of which go back and have been accepted for centuries. This is not what a loving God had in mind when He created us.
Can you imagine a society where there is no stigma at all attached to lying? Perhaps you do not need to imagine, since our society is very close to that state today. It is not very pretty, is it?
Compulsive Lying
Lying tends to become habitual, just like anything else. In the extreme it becomes compulsive. That is, believe it or not, some people cannot tell the truth. Now, once in a while they just happen to stumble on something that they believe to be a lie, but it turns out to be the truth. But that is the only time truth will come out of their mouths.
Why is this? Fortunately it only affects a very small number of people, but we have encountered a few, and we expect you have as well. The reason for their compulsive lying is that they harbor a belief that anything that is reality is going to play against them. That is, if they tell the truth it is going to result in a loss or disadvantage to themselves. It also comes about by allowing the habit of lying to so dominate them that it becomes the norm for them.
We only bring up this extreme so that we can see how sin has its consequences. The first lie might cause our conscience to want to make it right. But as we practice lying, it no longer has any negative feelings to us. And the ultimate result is that the truth begins to give us conscience – would I not be better off lying about this?
It seems that our political leaders to a large extent have no conscience when it comes to lying. Their reasoning is that it is better to lie and get elected, and then we will act in the best interests of the people once we are elected. But that never happens because that which was attained by lying can only be maintained by lying. So while the rationalization sounds good, these people are far closer to compulsive liars than most people would like to admit, and it is totally denied by their followers who expect to benefit from all of the deceit themselves.
God, His Word, and His People Cannot Lie
The statement is made in Titus 1:1-2 that God cannot lie:
Titus 1:1-2
1 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness,
2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before times eternal;
God’s promises have always stood the test of time, and they are some of the few things that we can really depend upon:
Romans 3:4
… let God be found true, but every man a liar; …
As for God’s people:
1 John 2:21
I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and because no lie is of the truth.
Further we see the characteristics of those who are going to have an eternal home with God in eternity:
Revelation 14:5
5 And in their mouth was found no lie: they are without blemish.
Revelation 21:25-27
25 And the gates thereof shall in no wise be shut by day (for there shall be no night there):
26 and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it:
27 and there shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or he that makes an abomination and a lie: but only they that are written in the Lamb's book of life.
This is not to say that faithful Christians cannot lie and in times of weakness sometime succumb to it. But they have severe conscience issues when this happens and they will move as quickly as possible to make things right.
The Final Disposition of Liars
Call it what you may, God calls it lying and God from the earliest times condemned it. It carries with it an explicit statement of the punishment to be meted out to those who are guilty of it:
Revelation 21:8
But for the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part (shall be) in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone; which is the second death.
Revelation 22:15
Without are the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and every one that loves and makes a lie.
Revelation 19, 20 and 21 make it quite explicit that corrupt political leaders who profit from lies will find their part in the lake of fire. It also makes it quite clear that those who follow and support them will also follow them into the lake of fire. It would be far better to remain neutral politically recognizing that God is in control, than to promote lies and end up in an unthinkable eternal punishment.
If you are caught up with promoting lies, there is but one escape. Turn to Jesus now and accept His conditions of pardon. Or if you have already done this, repent and confess your sin to God and ask for His forgiveness (1 John 1)
Return to the Sins of this World page
Jesus gives his conditions for eternal life: God's Plan of Salvation
All deceit is lying, and all lying is sin. Deceit might take subtle forms at times to try to disguise itself. For the record we define a lie to be an untrue statement that is specifically intended to deceive. The consequences or ramifications are not mitigating – it is better to just say nothing than to take a chance on misleading others.
Some of the condemnations in the New Testament include:
John 8:44
44 Ye are of (your) father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stands not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof.
And so it is with liars today – they speak of their own – their own self-serving evil, for if it were not evil then they would be much better served describing it with truth.
Romans 1:24-25
24 Wherefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves:
25 for that they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
Colossians 3:7-11
7 wherein ye also once walked, when ye lived in these things;
8 but now do ye also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, railing, and shameful speaking out of your mouth:
9 lie not one to another; seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doings,
10 and have put on the new man that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him:
11 where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all.
1 Timothy 1:8-11
8 But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully,
9 as knowing this, that law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and unruly, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
10 for fornicators, for abusers of themselves with men, for kidnappers, for liars, for false swearers, and if there be any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine;
11 according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.
Reason that Lying is Wrong
To those who serve God the fact that He stated it is wrong is good enough. But God has a reason for his commands, and they are all given out of love and to our benefit. We will not presume to be able to fathom the reasons that God commanded honesty, but consistent with His loving nature, there are some things that seem obvious. First, would there be any reason to tell a lie if it were not to take advantage of the ignorance of another person – perhaps even to motivate and control them when it is done by leaders.
In no case can a lie require in benefit to the person deceived because that person will now move on to base his/her life decisions on the deceptive statement. It is a truism that when we make decisions based on false assumptions, those decisions will not work out to our benefit. Lies injure and kill. They keep people from moving their lives ahead and being successful in all things, both physical and spiritual. The curse of the divides in our society today are the result of lies, some of which go back and have been accepted for centuries. This is not what a loving God had in mind when He created us.
Can you imagine a society where there is no stigma at all attached to lying? Perhaps you do not need to imagine, since our society is very close to that state today. It is not very pretty, is it?
Compulsive Lying
Lying tends to become habitual, just like anything else. In the extreme it becomes compulsive. That is, believe it or not, some people cannot tell the truth. Now, once in a while they just happen to stumble on something that they believe to be a lie, but it turns out to be the truth. But that is the only time truth will come out of their mouths.
Why is this? Fortunately it only affects a very small number of people, but we have encountered a few, and we expect you have as well. The reason for their compulsive lying is that they harbor a belief that anything that is reality is going to play against them. That is, if they tell the truth it is going to result in a loss or disadvantage to themselves. It also comes about by allowing the habit of lying to so dominate them that it becomes the norm for them.
We only bring up this extreme so that we can see how sin has its consequences. The first lie might cause our conscience to want to make it right. But as we practice lying, it no longer has any negative feelings to us. And the ultimate result is that the truth begins to give us conscience – would I not be better off lying about this?
It seems that our political leaders to a large extent have no conscience when it comes to lying. Their reasoning is that it is better to lie and get elected, and then we will act in the best interests of the people once we are elected. But that never happens because that which was attained by lying can only be maintained by lying. So while the rationalization sounds good, these people are far closer to compulsive liars than most people would like to admit, and it is totally denied by their followers who expect to benefit from all of the deceit themselves.
God, His Word, and His People Cannot Lie
The statement is made in Titus 1:1-2 that God cannot lie:
Titus 1:1-2
1 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness,
2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before times eternal;
God’s promises have always stood the test of time, and they are some of the few things that we can really depend upon:
Romans 3:4
… let God be found true, but every man a liar; …
As for God’s people:
1 John 2:21
I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and because no lie is of the truth.
Further we see the characteristics of those who are going to have an eternal home with God in eternity:
Revelation 14:5
5 And in their mouth was found no lie: they are without blemish.
Revelation 21:25-27
25 And the gates thereof shall in no wise be shut by day (for there shall be no night there):
26 and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it:
27 and there shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or he that makes an abomination and a lie: but only they that are written in the Lamb's book of life.
This is not to say that faithful Christians cannot lie and in times of weakness sometime succumb to it. But they have severe conscience issues when this happens and they will move as quickly as possible to make things right.
The Final Disposition of Liars
Call it what you may, God calls it lying and God from the earliest times condemned it. It carries with it an explicit statement of the punishment to be meted out to those who are guilty of it:
Revelation 21:8
But for the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part (shall be) in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone; which is the second death.
Revelation 22:15
Without are the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and every one that loves and makes a lie.
Revelation 19, 20 and 21 make it quite explicit that corrupt political leaders who profit from lies will find their part in the lake of fire. It also makes it quite clear that those who follow and support them will also follow them into the lake of fire. It would be far better to remain neutral politically recognizing that God is in control, than to promote lies and end up in an unthinkable eternal punishment.
If you are caught up with promoting lies, there is but one escape. Turn to Jesus now and accept His conditions of pardon. Or if you have already done this, repent and confess your sin to God and ask for His forgiveness (1 John 1)
Return to the Sins of this World page
Jesus gives his conditions for eternal life: God's Plan of Salvation
