Why Lying Is a Moralities Issue for Disciples of Christ

While on the Sanctification Road, disciples of Christ are to change their character to resemble God’s. We do that through ensuring our morals are consistent with His. This daily devotional looks at why lying is opposite to God’s morals.

Nuggets

At times, we make a conscious decision to lie.
We should be faithful in keeping our word, or we are liars.
We damage our relationships with others when we lie.
Those who have asked Jesus to become their Savior are children who should strive to remain truthful.

To read devotions in the Redo for Godliness series, click the appropriate button below.

Devotions in the Moralities Lead to Godliness series

In becoming godly, we are interested in changing our character to have it more resemble God’s. To do that, we will need to determine right from wrong and conduct ourselves based on that system of moral conduct.

Manton discussed that in his sermon entitled The Moralities of Christianity. We are going to step through his sermon (along with some others) and see what we can glean to aid us in redoing our character.

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Let's Put It into Context

“Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable — if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy — dwell on these things” (Phil. 4: 8 CSB)

The definition of moral, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is “of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior.” Morality, then, is “a doctrine or system of moral conduct.” When it is the plural form — moralities — it is a “particular moral principles or rules of conduct.”

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Our morals determine our character. Character, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is “the complex of mental and ethical traits marking and often individualizing a person, group, or nation.”

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According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, to lie is “to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive.”

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God commands us to not lie (Lev. 19: 11). When we do, we show that we are children of Satan. “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. 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 lie” (Jn. 8: 44 NIV).

Sometimes, we do lie. Let’s check out how.

We Lie by Assertion

“‘Ananias,’ Peter asked, ‘why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds of the land?’” (Ac. 5: 3 CSB)

At times, we make a conscious decision to lie.

The early church held their possessions in common. “Now the entire group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but instead they held everything in common” (Ac. 4: 32 CSB).

Ananias with Sapphira had sold a possession. Instead of donating the entire proceeds to the early church, they held some back. What is left unsaid here is that they must have pretended that they donated all the money gained.

The problem was Ananias with Sapphira lied to God, not Peter and the others. “Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight …” (Ps. 51: 4 NLT). God is the God of Truth. Anything less is against Him.

It is against God because it was instigated by Satan, the father of lies. Lechler wrote, “Evil does not exist and grow isolated in the human breast, but is connectively interwoven with the kingdom of evil in the invisible world.” That makes it inexcusable.

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Ananias with Sapphira may have thought they hid the lie, but they didn’t. God is all-knowing.

To read a related devotion, click the button below.

But look at it this way. The sin was being cloaked in the appearance of service to God. Instead of the godliness they were portraying, Ananias with Sapphira were engaged in sin. It was their conscious decision to lie about their contribution.

Watkinson said something interesting. He wrote, “The Bible is a book of personalities — it has nothing to do with personifications, streams of tendency, etc. Here the personality of the Holy Spirit is clearly recognised (sic), and Satan is no figure of speech. The resistibility of evil is the greatest moral of the text.”

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What I gained out of that was

Personality is a compilation of our character. So, the Scriptures are about our character.
We can easily see the character of the Holy Spirit, and therefore God.
Satan is real.
Resisting Satan and his lies is the most important theme of the Scriptures because it is right verses wrong behavior.

We Lie by Promise

“What is desirable in a person is his fidelity; better to be a poor person than a liar” (Prov. 19: 22 CSB)

We should be faithful in keeping our word, or we are liars.

Solomon talked about fidelity or faithfulness. If we promise to be faithful, we should keep the promise.

If we don’t plan on keeping our word, we are a liar.

Arnot has a sermon entitled Circumstances or Character. What he was taking a round about way to say — I think — is our character should not be dependent on the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

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The version Wilde used talked about kindness. He wrote, “A man’s kindness is in his heart, not in the measure of the gifts themselves.”

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If we substitute character for kindness, we are saying that character is at heart level. It isn’t really measured by the service projects we do.

We can be doing the service projects for an ulterior motive that has nothing to do with character. That means it isn’t at the heart level.

Lying Is Detrimental to Our Relationships with Others

“Therefore, putting away lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another” (Eph. 4: 25 CSB)

We damage our relationships with others when we lie.

Why is lying such as issue with God? God is the God of Truth. Lying is completely opposite of His character.

Campadelli called lying a habit. Instead, we should take Candlish’s advice. He wrote, “Bear in mind what putting away falsehood really means. It describes a state or frame of mind, a character of the inner man, peculiar to the real Christian, the true believer. If so, it would seem to follow that by speaking truth every man with his neighbour, is meant a habit or mode of speech also peculiar to such a one.”

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Once we begin a lie, we may have to keep lying to make sure the lie is not exposed, making it difficult to remember what we’ve said. Woolsey extended this lie to covering up our opinions. If we’ve misrepresented our opinions, we are insincere about the relationship.

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Lying hampers communications with others, especially when we intentionally lie about something. When others start to question our integrity, relationships suffer.

Truth Will be Rewarded

“He said, ‘They are indeed my people, children who will not be disloyal,’ and he became their Savior” (Isa. 63: 8 CSB)

Those who have asked Jesus to become their Savior are children who should strive to remain truthful.

Hmmm. When I started writing this, I hadn’t intended it to be specifically on lying. However, that is where the sermons I research took it.

Until we get to Isaiah.

True, Waddington interpreted “… children who will not be disloyal …” (Isa. 63: 8 CSB) as “children that will not lie.” But we finally get to flip the focus.

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We have to exhibit truth in our character. This shows that we have a new nature as we are new creations. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (II Cor. 5: 17 NIV).

If we were previously children of Satan, who is a liar, we no longer are that creation after we ABCD. We now are children of God. We are children of the Truth.

The ABCDs of Salvation

If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.

A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord

D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us

The Disciple’s Job Description

Glossary

Now, don’t read this verse to say that all we have to do to be children of God is to not lie. Jesus doesn’t automatically become our Savior because we are good people.

In order to become children of God, we have to admit that mankind was separated from God after the original sin, making us sinners; believe Jesus paid the penalty for those sins to become our Savior and Redeemer; confess God as Sovereign God; and demonstrate that commitment by submitting our lives to living following His laws and commandments.

God demands that we turn away from Satan and his lies and begin following Him. We can’t do that by just being good. It has to be a conscious decision for Him.

To read a related devotion, click the button below.

Making the Connections

Morgan reminded us of a couple of verses about truth.

“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (Jn. 17: 17 ESV).
“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn. 8: 32 NIV).

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God is truth. We learn about Who He is by navigating the Sanctification Road.

Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration, gradually changes our nature through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness. Regeneration is the change in us that God brings about when we go from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive. Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.

Glossary

Lechler reminded us of the significance of understanding Satan is real. It isn’t just a matter of being a moral person. Those who follow his ways will follow him into hell for eternity. Those who do not follow God follow Satan.

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To read a devotion in the Hell Does Have Fury series, click on the appropriate button below.

How Do We Apply This?

How do we put away lying? Candlish told us to keep our hearts clean. We do that when we follow His laws and commandments.

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Glossary

Because sin to enter our hearts when we allow it, we have to be diligent in keeping it out. We do that by seeking God.

Searching for and Seeking God

Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).

Eadie wrote that “Christians are to speak the whole truth without distortion, diminution, or exaggeration.” Instead, we like to justify situations where we think lies are needed, argue that lying shouldn’t be considered a sin, and all sorts of other excuses to decrease our sin.

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Instead, we need to always tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. When we do, we have the character of God.

Father God. You are Truth. Help us to be truthful in all that we do. Sometimes, that truthfulness must be coupled with kindness. Help us to show others Your character. Amen.

What do you think?

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