Some books are lies frae end to end,
And some great lies were never penn’d:
Ev’n ministers they hae been kenn’d,
In holy rapture,
A rousing whid (exaggeration) at times to vend (vent),
And nail’t wi’ Scripture.
—Robt Burns, “Death and Dr. Hornbrook”
“A man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last" (Acts 4:36-5:5).
Heavens to Murgatroyd! One lie, you die!
Well, not exactly. This was a one-off to put down a marker: lying is serious sin.
People who cheat, even a little, are generally dishonest in other areas. People know that and can’t fully trust them. "I’m not upset that you lied to me,” Fredrick Nietzsche lamented. “I'm upset that from now on I can not believe you.”
The fundamental reason to be truthful is Paul's reason: "Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator" (Colossians 3:9,10). God is the God "who cannot lie” (Titus 1:2). God's children, like their Father, are true through and through.
Satan is the “father of lies." God is “the Father of light (truth)…” (James 1:17). So, I ask myself, "Who's my daddy?"
David Roper
3.17.22
3.17.22
