Truth telling in the Bible
Further to my last post I was asked about my tough questions in relation to the Bible. Well, I have thought of another tough question – truth telling.
Most Christians are keen on telling the truth and I’m certainly not against it. But it is interesting to read some of the Biblical accounts. For example Rahab was “considered righteous for what she did” James 2:25 when she deliberately deceived the king’s messengers. Tamar was held in high esteem for deceiving Judah (see Lost Women of the Bible). Even Jesus Himself when asked about Jairus’ daughter said she was asleep when she was actually dead (Mark 5:39). I know that we spiritualize this and say that from God’s perspective she was asleep but the people who heard Jesus understood Him to mean physical sleep. I was leading a Bible study some years ago and asked the group amongst other things, if Jesus lied. (Even then I wanted to ask the tough questions!) For some reason which I can’t remember, I asked people to work in pairs and write down their answers. One group which I overheard said, “we’ll just write ‘no’; we don’t have to give a reason”. I didn’t mind them answering ‘no’ but why weren’t they prepared to discuss the tough question? What is the Biblical position on truth telling?
6 thoughts on “Truth telling in the Bible”
Cool a challenging question indeed 🙂
I know I am guilty of lying at times … I don’t mean to .. but I think lies or slight deceptions are protective mechanisms like Rahab’s actions and David feigning mental illness in front of Abimelech. I have a friend who simply says he doesn’t remember things he is uncomfortable talking about. I don’t take it as a lie, just a signal.
I looked up the scriptures that refer to lies and liars and they always refer to the works of our enemy … liars and lies in the Bible are words reserved for those who deceive in the spiritual realm (eg) prophets who tell lies saying things to lead people astray that God has not said at all.
John 8:43-45 Jesus said to those who claimed to be the sons of Abraham, Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 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. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!
1 John 2:21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
1 John 4:19 We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
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.”
As far as Jesus saying that the young girl was sleeping he also said that of Lazarus and then explained further because the disciples did not understand that Lazarus was dead.
John 11:11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
yea?
thanks for the questioning, susan. i have actually been thinking about this lately. and although i have to go to work, i will say, right now, that it is interesting to note that most people considered to be “heroes of faith” have used deception or lies at one point or another and those are part of their recorded biblical history. and not all of them are recorded as examples of things NOT to do. god uses many of those situations to further his scheme on this human drama.
hxzxpwn
Good to hear from you again, Jon.
As I was thinking on this issue and the Scriptures that Wendy quoted, the verse that came to mind was, “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” 1 Samuel 16:7. In this case “man” looks at the “lie” whereas the Lord looks at our thoughts, intention, motivation and attitude.
I guess it is just another case where “following the rules” doesn’t work.
Good summation …
The heart and faith and hope and love … the greatest of these being love.
🙂
as i’m reading through genesis at the rate of about 6 chapters a week, it is interesting to see just how much deception was a part of their lives. the lives of our “forefathers” and “heroes”. jacob, who i have just been reading about most recently, is a prime example of a guy who accomplished many things on the sly. many things that helped him to accomplish what god had for him. could it have been done a different way? or was it meant to be that way? since at the end of every choice, we can only choose once, i guess we’ll never know. on this side at least.
sadpunzn
Often I have wondered why God chose Jacob to father the nation of Israel. He seems so manipulative yet maybe Jacob had a heart for the long-term purposes of God, rather than the short-term gain that seemed to be apart of Esau’s thinking.
Comments are closed.