Tell the Truth in All Its Color
Imagine yourself as a German Christian in the year 1943. You know that something seems terribly wrong in your country; that Jews, some of whom you count as friends, are being strangely rounded up and sent away by train to concentration camps. There are quiet rumors of the worst, and your family has taken in a Jewish family you know. They have been hiding in the attic for months, when one day the Nazi police come to your door. They knock. You open the door. “Are there any Jews in this house?”
What do you say? Would you tell them the truth?
What do you think God would want you to do in this moment?
Ninth Commandment
As we turn this morning to the ninth commandment — which we often summarize as “do not lie” — we find that the commandment is just slightly more wordy, perhaps with more subtle nuances than the simple summary. And there’s a particular context: the courtroom.
Exodus 20:16 reads, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
The ninth commandment is not as terse and punchy, and immediately universal, as six, seven, and eight:
“You shall not murder.”
“You shall not commit adultery.”
“You shall not steal.”
There are some careful considerations we should make here, and some complexities we should account for, as we’ll see. And yet, there is a clarity and substance we dare not miss.
So let’s begin with a definition of “lying” based on the ninth commandment. And then let’s consider this commandment first in black and white, then in gray, and finally in color.
What Is Lying?
What is a “lie” if we take our cues from the ninth commandment? A seminary professor of mine, named John Frame, defines a lie as “a word or act that intentionally deceives a neighbor in order to harm them” (Doctrine of the Christian Life, 835).
We typically think of lying as happening with our words. And it does. Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” — life through truth, and death through deception (see also James 3:5–8).
But acts and behavior also can lie. Lying is not only what you say but what you practice. Like Revelation 22:15: “Outside . . . [are] everyone who loves ad practices falsehood.”
Also lying is intentional. We’re not talking about miscommunication or misunderstanding or accidental deception but intentional deception.
And at least here, we’re not talking about enemies but neighbors. “Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.” The rules of engagement, say, for war are not the same. In a war, you are under no obligation to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth to the enemy. So also in some games and sports. There are forms of intentional deception which may be according to the rules, while others may not be.
And finally lying seeks to do harm to a neighbor. We’re not here talking about a scenario in which you might intentionally deceive someone, perhaps someone about to jump from a bridge, in order to help them and keep them from self-harm.
One more disclaimer here. Not all lies are bald-faced. Many, if not most, are half-truths. Lies intend to deceive a neighbor for his harm, or at least for the selfish benefit of the liar. And half-truths are often the most effective manner of lying, which is how Satan is known for lying.
So, lying, defined in terms of the ninth commandment, is “a word or act that intentionally deceives a neighbor in order to harm them.” And in the main, the story of truth and lies is plain enough, in black and white.
Truth in Black and White
Throughout the Scriptures, there is a stark contrast between telling lies and speaking the truth. Bearing false witness — in court, and lying in everyday conversation — is not only undermines order in society, but is an affront to God. Easy as it might seem to utter a small half-truth, lying is a big deal. God treats it with seriously. Consider the contrasts:
On the one hand, God never lies (Titus 1:2), and it is impossible for him to lie (Hebrews 6:18), while Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44), going back to the garden (Genesis 3:4–5). Jesus said of Satan, “When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).
God hates lies (Proverbs 6:16–19), and God delights in the truth. Proverbs 12:22: “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.”
The essence of sin is exchanging truth for lies (Romans 1:25). Unbelievers lie, as we see in Romans 3:13–14, quoting the Psalms: “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
And God hates liars and will destroy them. Psalm 5:6: “You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.” Revelation 21:8: “as for . . . all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur.”
Yet the gospel is the word of truth (Ephesians 1:13; Colossians 1:5; James 1:18), and the church is the pillar and bulwark of the truth (1 Timothy 3:15).
While false teachers speak lies (1 Timothy 4:1–3), genuine teachers speak truth. 2 Timothy 2:15: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”
While lies express unbelief, truthful speech reveals a pure heart. Psalm 24:3–4: “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.” Revelation 14:4–5: those “who follow the Lamb wherever he goes . . . in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless.”
Sinners enjoy lying (Proverbs 18:8), but God’s people speak truth and love truth (Colossians 3:9–10).
From the garden, to Sinai, to Psalms and Proverbs, to the Gospels and Acts, and the Epistles and the book of Revelation, the story of truth and lies is told in black and white. On one side, you have God and truth and the gospel and his people and honesty and joy, and on the other side, you have Satan and deception and destruction and misery.
Three Surprising Extensions
While there is a certain straightforwardness to the contrast between truth and lies, life is complex. The longer we reflect on the simple truth, the more we see the surprising ways it’s manifested in our complex humanity and lives, and how relevant the ninth commandment is every day.
During this series on the Ten Commandments, and especially in these last few weeks, in the second table of the law, we’ve turned to the Westminster Larger Catechism (from 1647) to consider the wider expression and applications of these commandments. I spent some time lingering over questions 144 and 145: What are the duties required in the ninth commandment? and What are the sins forbidden in the ninth commandment?
Let me highlight three emphases I thought especially relevant to us in 2020. So, what all might we include in the ninth commandment?
1. “Preserving and promoting the good name of our neighbor, as well as our own.”
Lying isn’t just about what you say to someone’s face, but also concerns how you talk about them to others. Not just avoiding slander and gossip. But obeying the ninth commandment means protecting and promoting, rather than besmirching, the reputations of others, whether in face to face communication, or online.
That begins in our hearts. It includes “a charitable esteem of our neighbors; loving, desiring, and rejoicing in their good name; sorrowing for and covering of their infirmities; freely acknowledging of their gifts and graces, defending their innocence; a ready receiving of a good report, and unwillingness to admit of an evil report, concerning them.” According to John Calvin, “We (sinners) delight in a certain poisoned sweetness experienced in ferreting out and in disclosing the evils of others. And let us not think it an adequate excuse if in many instances we are not lying. For he who does not allow a brother’s name to be sullied by falsehood also wishes it to be kept unblemished as far as truth permits” (Institutes, 1:412).
Being a truthteller means going to bat for others, and refusing to be cynical of others (“unnecessary discovering of infirmities”). Giving the benefit of the doubt, and wanting to.
Westminster also thinks it good to defend self in normal circumstances. We should “love and care of our own good name . . . defending it when need requires.”
2. Not “outfacing and overbearing the truth.”
We saw in 2 Timothy 2:15 that Christian teachers are to “rightly handle” the word of truth — meaning there are wrong ways to handle truth. Elsewhere Westminster forbids “speaking the truth unseasonably, or maliciously to a wrong end, or perverting it to a wrong meaning.” Ephesians 4:15 calls us to speaking the truth in love. Telling the truth means more than just saying true things without any care in how, when, where, why. Specific truths are for specific times and seasons and places and reasons.
3. Not “vainglorious boasting.”
Which may be Westminster-speak for going with the flow on social media. My dad calls this tooting your own horn. Westminster expands it to forbid “thinking or speaking too highly or too meanly of ourselves or others; denying the gifts and graces of God.” Romans 12:3: Don’t “think of [yourself] more highly than [you] ought to think, but . . . with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” And: “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth” (Proverbs 27:2).
Truth in Tones of Gray
So, the story of truth and lies is told in black and white. There is a stark contrast to it, even though the applications can be complex and more than what is simply immediately obvious.
But what about the Jews in the attic, with Nazis at the front door? And what about the Hebrew midwives who did not tell Pharaoh the truth? And Exodus 1:20 says, “God dealt well with the midwives.”
And what about Rahab, in Jericho, who hid the Hebrew spies in Joshua 2? And Hebrews 11:31 says, “By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.”
There are grays. Not many but some. In addition to the midwives and Rahab, the life of David (in 1 and 2 Samuel), both before he was king, and in his old age, was attended with what we might call “gray” scenarios.
First, when King Saul was trying to kill David. From the beginning, the prophet Samuel anticipated how Saul would handle another being anointed king, and so in 1 Samuel 16:1–5, Samuel stood ready to deceive Saul, at God’s instruction. And in 1 Samuel 20:6, David and Saul’s son Jonathan, who were dear friends, strategized about a deception they hoped would help preserve David’s life under threat from Saul. So, also, David, when on the run from Saul, and in danger among the Philistines, would deceive Achish, king of Gath. When Achish asked, “Where have you made a raid today?” David would say, “Against the Negeb of Judah,” or, “Against the Negeb of the Jerahmeelites,” or, “Against the Negeb of the Kenites” (1 Samuel 27:10), rather than telling him the truth that he had actually raided other Philistines.
But perhaps the closest scenario to the Nazi question comes in 1 Samuel 19:11–17, where Michal, who is David’s wife and Saul’s daughter, saves her husband from her father: Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him, that he might kill him in the morning. But Michal, told him, “If you do not escape with your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.” 12 So Michal let David down through the window, and he fled away and escaped. 13 Michal took an image and laid it on the bed and put a pillow of goats’ hair at its head and covered it with the clothes [note deception through an act]. 14 And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.” [not deception through word] 15 Then Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.” 16 And when the messengers came in, behold, the image was in the bed, with the pillow of goats’ hair at its head. 17 Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me thus and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped?” And Michal answered Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go. Why should I kill you?’”
Then, later in David’s life, when his son Absolom rebels against his father and tries to seize the kingdom, David again uses what we might call “righteous deception” to thwart Absolom’s plans. In 2 Samuel 15:34, David says to his servant Hushai, “If you return to the city and say to Absalom, ‘I will be your servant, O king; as I have been your father’s servant in time past, so now I will be your servant,’ then you will defeat for me the counsel of Ahithophel.” Hushai does. The plan works. David lives to fight another day and eventually regain his kingdom.
So also, just two chapters later, again similar to Nazis and Jews, two of David’s servants are on the run from Absolom’s servants and need to hide in a well. Which requires help. This is 2 Samuel 17:19–20: the woman took and spread a covering over the well’s mouth and scattered grain on it, and nothing was known of it. 20 When Absalom’s servants came to the woman at the house, they said, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” And the woman said to them, “They have gone over the brook of water.” And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.
So, what do we say about these gray scenarios? Are there times when it may be righteous not to tell the truth? Because truthtelling is so far and away normative, the burden of proof should be on deception, not on honesty. (Frame: “the ninth commandment places the burden of proof on those who seek to justify deception.”) Here’s three observations about these Old Testament scenarios:
These are exceptional circumstances, not normal. They are highly unusual and extraordinary. The Bible is a big book, with hundreds and hundreds of historical accounts. The Hebrew midwives, Rahab, and the protection of David from Saul’s and Absolom’s threats on his life are unusual and rare.
In these gray scenarios, the person who is righteously deceived presents as enemy, rather than neighbor (“do not bear false witness against your neighbor”). And as an enemy, they are not posing a mild threat at that. In each scenario, the threat-level is severe, even deadly. Life and death were at stake.
Note also in most of these scenarios, a righteous person steps forward to act on behalf of another: the midwives, Rahab, Michal, Hushai, the woman covering for David’s two servants. The one doing the righteous deception is not saving her own skin, but coming to the life-and-death rescue of another.
Truth in Full Color
But the note to end on is not the very rare, highly unusual, extraordinary scenarios where we may have a chance to deceive an enemy and save someone else’s life. Most of us will not face a scenario like that. Those scenarios are not where we get our bearings related to truth-telling. Rather, as Christians, our aim is not minimal truth but maximal trustworthiness.
“Speaking the truth in love,” Paul says in Ephesians 4:15, “we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” Ephesians 4:25: “having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”
This is who we want to be known as — as pastors and as a church. We care about truth. We delight in it. Truth is precious to us. We are the kind of people who are willing to die for truth, because we live through it and because of it. And we want you to know us pastors as men who keep our word. Men who let our yes be yes, and our no be no. We want you to know us as pastors who are utterly reliable. Not squishy. Not angling for technicalities about righteous deception. Our assumption and prayer is that we don’t end up in such highly rare gray scenarios. We want to be utterly reliable. Like God. That’s who he is for us — utterly reliable.
We want to exemplify Paul’s words in 1 Thessalonians 2:2–4: “we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. 3 For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.”
We want to embody the vision of 2 Corinthians 2:17: we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.
And best of all, just a few paragraphs later in 2 Corinthians 4:2 (may God make your pastors like this, and may we be this as a church) — this is truth in full color: we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.
That’s our aspiration. That’s our dream, in color, not gray. Renouncing disgraceful, underhanded ways. Refusing to practice cunning or deception. Refusing to tamper with or twist God’s word. But — feel the freedom and joy in this — “by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of our God.” May God make it so.
And may we as pastors, and as a church, always remember that when Jesus’s hour came, he didn’t maneuver to deceive his enemies and preserve his own name, and life.
No Deceit in His Mouth
As much as Westminster says it’s right and proper to defend oneself against lies, it’s not the only righteous course. Jesus didn’t defend himself before Pilate. Nor did Jesus deceive or mislead his enemies to save himself. Even though he had the right to defend his name, and the right to deceive his enemies.
“He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” (1 Peter 2:22–24). When wrongly treated, you are not required to imitate him. But you might.
Table of Truth
His Table is one of truth and a good place to bring your many failures. The longer we linger over the ninth commandment, the more we all are exposed and condemned. But because Jesus “bore our sins in his body on the tree,” we can come to him and live, rather than die.
And here at the Table, inspired by the self-sacrifice and grace of Christ, we can rededicate ourselves to taste the joy, like him, in telling the truth in all its color.