is lying ever okay for Christians?
what's important is what tempts us to be dishonest. it is possible to be a person who fears the Lord, walks by faith and yet feels constrained in extreme, life-threatening situations to oppose evil by lying.
there are even stories in the Bible about this. like the Hebrew midwives and Rahab. when pharaoh decides to kill every Hebrew newborn, the midwives lie and tell pharaoh that the Hebrews have given birth before they even arrive, saving thousands of people. but they're not rebuked, they're blessed. when the spies in jericho are found out, they go to rahab and she hides them and when the king's messengers came, she lies and tells them that the spies went else where. she was saved during the destruction of jericho.
the bible never commends lying.
although the midwives and rahab were blessed for their faithfulness, their lying is not explicitly approved.
God hates lying.
the deceitful desires that lead us to lie need to be replaced with the truth of Christ that will lead us to truthfulness. i think it's the motives that matter. are we lying because it's necessary to defeat a certain evil or are we lying for personal gains?
everything changed for me when i heard that bonheoffer lied to the nazis to save the lives of jews.
liar, liar.
it take one to know one.
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Hey Britney,
ReplyDeleteI think what you wrote is just great, but I just wanted to share this point of view with you- I 100% agree with you that God doesn't commend lying.
I was taking Old Testament Survey this semester, and some of my classmates gave 5 min devos in the beginning of class, my friend did it about Rahab. I mean, Rahab was actually blessed, because she was suppose to die with the rest of the city. And we question that, because that's not suppose to happen... lying is a sin!
But... what my friend said was that maybe because her motives were good, God looked at that, her heart and found it acceptable.
So, maybe that's not 100% on track and on point, and I personally wouldn't put all my believes in it, but I just like it because it's definitely something to think about! =]
yes, i believe that since God knows our hearts, He's not going to send us to hell for lying to a burglar that you have no money or that a creeper is looking for a loved one. or you killed in self defense.
ReplyDeleteand the fact that grace is an extremely powerful gift. :)
thanks for reading my dear friend.