Who is really lying?
Few people shake their fists at God and verbally blaspheme Him by calling Him a liar. But many people do it without saying, even lying themselves without realizing it. Here are some examples where we need to be especially careful…
Adding to God’s Word. “Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, lest He reprove you, and you be found a liar” (Pr 30:5-6). Adding to God’s word implies that we know better than God, that either He was wrong about something or that He should have said something that He didn’t. We don’t know better than God and to claim that we do makes us liars!
Majority Rule Truth. “For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but ever man a liar. As it is written: ‘That you may be justified in your words, and may overcome when you are judged’” (Ro 3:3-4). The disbelief of others does not change God or truth. God is right even if saying it means everyone else is wrong (or liars). Majority rule opens the door to believing and becoming liars.
I Have Not Sinned. “If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 Jn 1:10). Anytime we deny or contradict what God says we imply God is a liar. His word is not just take it or leave it advice – it is Truth (Jn 17:17). Rejecting it says something about what we think about God Himself.
Saying But Not Doing. “He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 Jn 2:4). Confessing the truth, but disobeying is hypocrisy – living a lie. When our lips confess a relationship with God but our actions deny that we walk with Him it’s not true – it’s a lie.
The motivation for this article is found in 1 John 2:21: “I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.” I’m not implying that you don’t know the truth. In fact, I’m writing because you do know it. Like John, I’m writing because wrong decisions and sinful actions can make God look like a liar when it’s us who are actually living a lie – a deadly lie. dd