One of the foundations of a strong family is speaking the truth. Parents to each other and parents and children to one another. However, we all tempted to not speak the truth, which the Bible calls lying. Lying leads to weak families that have great difficulties.
Lying has a very long history it goes back to the garden of Eden. Do you know who the first liar was? Was it Adam? Or was it Eve? No, the first liar was the serpent Satan. God had commanded Adam & Eve not to eat from one tree in the garden or else they would die. He warned them against doing something that would cause them infinite harm. Yet the serpent came up to Eve and said “You will not die if you eat from the tree”, “in fact if you do you will become like god.” It won’t be bad for you, it will be good. Jesus called Satan “the father of lies.” So Eve disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit. She didn’t instantly die physically, but the physical death process began. Her sin caused her to die spiritually and be separated from God.
Satan does the same thing to us today. He whispers in our ears. Sometimes just a thought that flashes through our minds or a thought that is planted by something we had seen or read. The lie goes something like this “O you know that God says it is wrong to do such and so, but God is just a spoil sport. It won’t hurt you to disobey God’s command. Everybody is doing it. In fact, if you disobey you will be better off and have some fun beside.”
But Satan is a liar. What God says He means. His commands are warnings. When we disobey them we end up losing. When we obey, we end up winning in life.
My message today is called “Speaking the Truth.” We are going to look at the 9th commandment found in
Exodus 20:16 (NIV) You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
A lie is a statement used with the intention of deceiving another person. Lying always involves at least two people. When a lie is told it is against the one who is being deceived. Breaking a promise is a form of lying.
Psalm 15:4b (NLT) … faithful followers of the LORD keep their promises even when it hurts.
Lies hurt people and lead to more lies. Not only do lies hurt the person who is deceived, they also hurt the person who lies.
Psalm 34:12-13 (NIV) Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies.
The quality of your life and length of your life will be reduced if you tell lies. People don’t lie for no reason. There is always a reason or motive behind being less than honest. So let’s look at the motives behind some of the ways that we may lie. Maybe even without knowing it. The better we understand what motivates lies, the more we will be able to deal with the real issues and become more honest and truthful.
Listen to or watch my April 10, 2011 message Speaking the Truth.