God-Fearing People Lie Perfectly

Don’t kid yourself. It’s not just criminals attempting to escape punishment. It’s not just a teenager who missed curfew and is coming up with excuses. Not just the employee who walks in the door an hour late, full of ‘reasons.’ Or the employer who takes advantage of employees and creates ‘plausible explanations.’ They all will lie, but so do people who look perfect on the outside. People who attend their church every Sunday they can. People who truly love their God with all their heart.

Lies pour out of all our mouths for a lot of different reasons. With fear being the main reason why folks will shade the truth a little, or just downright create a whole ‘nuther truth out of thin air.

But what about my statement that ‘god-fearing people can lie perfectly?’ I am talking about people who would absolutely NEVER even consider cheating, lying, stealing, or any of the other ‘…ings’ they have been taught are wrong. Yep, they can lie with the best of ‘em, and it all starts with lies to themselves.

Here’s some real scenarios to illustrate my point.

“I do not use my tongue to hurt others, I would never do such a thing!”

Or this one. “I will not lose my temper ever again, ‘cause I made a promise to myself.”

But the Bible says in James 3:8, “But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” Hmmmm….caught in our own lie right there.

How about this one: “I have decided to always honor God by keeping my thoughts totally pure, like He wants.” But Scripture says in Isaiah 64:6, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” Ouch. No matter how much we try to monitor and protect our thought life, our thinking betrays us. Doesn’t matter who we are.

Make no mistake, we can, and do lie to ourselves, and we dislike having to admit that. We like to see ourselves as honorable, caring, trustworthy… or at the very least that’s the person we try to present to the world. But according to our Creator, we have uncontrollable tongues and thoughts, and our brains and tongues a good cleanup every day of our lives. So, He provided the bristle brush to do just that. But no bristle brush just automatically does the work without someone picking it up and using it. We have to apply it to ourself.

Check out what He wrote for us in 1 John 1:8-9, “. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Great stuff.