Thou Shall Not Lie

by Dewayne Griffin

Whom do you believe? Or perhaps the question is better asked, whom can you believe? Maybe it is the times in which we live or just a function of my age, but I find it increasingly difficult to believe the things otherf tell me. Almost daily I interact with business contacts who are not truthful. When I encounter deception, several feelings come over me. I feel violated, hurt, confused, and even a bit helpless.
What has happened in our society to make so many people comfortable with not telling the truth? The axiom, "a man's word is his bond," used to carry a powerful message. The practice of telling "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" seems, at times, an outmoded idea of the past. In the jidst of this confusion, however, I am sure of one unequivocal truth. God cannot lie ( Titus 1:2).
Throughout the Bible, there are examples of those who lied and how God dealt with them. Death was the punishment for Ahanias and Sapphira when they tried to lie to the apostles ( Acts 5). Abram and Sarai, his wife, conspired to lie (or at least tell a half-truth) about their marital status in;an attempt to protect their lives. Instead of safety, however, they were expelled from Egypt, and their duplicity brought plagues on the house of Pharaoh ( Genesis 12).
God does not intend for his children to be liars. He has proved this by direct command, biblical example, inference, the three ways in which all teaching is done in scri. ture. If the world is to be a better place, truth must begin with each of us individually. God intends for each of us to te I the truth every time, under any circumstance, despIte any repercussions that may result from our veracity.
May we dedicate ourselves to being more truthful and, in so doing, become more pleasing to God.

• Satan's Big Lie -Mar 25, 2001