LIE (verb) 1: to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive 2: to create a false or misleading impression
LIE (noun) 1a: an assertion of something known or believed by the speaker or writer to be untrue with intent to deceive 1b: an untrue or inaccurate statement that may or may not be believed true by the speaker or writer 2: something that misleads or deceives — (Merriam-Webster)
“Omniscient Father, Help us to know who is telling the truth. One side tells us one thing, and the other just the opposite. And if neither side is telling the truth, we would like to know that, too. And if each side is telling half the truth, give us the wisdom to put the right halves together. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”—Reverend Fred Holloman
“There is a pervasive indifference to truth-telling, which has not only infected day-to-day conversation but the most solemn pledges of life. Perjury under solemn oath is epidemic, the sacred vows of marriage are broken almost as frequently as they are pledged, and God’s name is daily invoked by blatant liars as witness to their truthfulness.” — Kent Hughes
A genuine faith in Jesus works itself out on a daily basis through genuine believers who tell the truth.
1. Do not swear by anything.
“Whenever you utter the formula, ‘I swear to God,’ I am really saying, ‘Now I’m going to mark off an area of absolute truth and put walls around it to cut it off from the muddy floods of untruthfulness and irresponsibility that ordinarily overruns my speech.’ In fact, I am saying even more than this. I am saying that people are expecting me to lie from the start. And just because they are counting on my lying I have to bring up these big guns of oaths and words of honor. . . .” – Helmut Thielicke
2. Always tell the truth.
“I always try—I think I do—to be truthful. All the same I tell a great many petty lies. e.g. things that mean one thing to myself though another to other people. But I do not think lightly of it. Where I am more often wrong is in tacitly pretending I hear things which I do not, especially jokes and good stories, the point of which I always miss; but, seeing every one laugh, I laugh too, for the sake of not looking a fool. My respect for the world’s opinion is my greatest stumbling block, I fear.”—George McDonald
“The avoidance of one small fib … may be a stronger confession of faith than a whole ‘Christian philosophy’ championed in lengthy, forceful discussion.” — Helmut Thielcke
“Truthfulness will be, for some, as tantalizing as a cool drink in the desert.” —Kent Hughes