Lieing about Lies

John 8:44 (NKJV)
⁴⁴ You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

The old political joke answers the question, “How can you tell when a politician is lying? The answer is, “When his (her) lips are moving.” Sometimes the word “politician” is replaced with “lawyer.” They do not fairly depict all persons in these professions, but there is enough truth there to make the depiction believable.

Oliver North lied under oath regarding the connections between drug trafficking and the source of money used to purchase weapons for Nicaraguan rebels. Records released after they left office revealed that every President wantonly deceived his colleagues, the press, and the populous at large.

As a matter of public record President Clinton practiced deceit when he emphatically denied having “sexual relations with that woman, Monica Lewinsky. “ He later justified himself by explaining that he never performed a sexual act on Miss Lewinsky, who was twenty-two years old at the time she was, on nine occasions, giving sexual pleasure to the President of the United States. This is itself a deception. Here is what he said to a Synod Grand Jury, under oath.

Well, if you look at everything from a hyperfactual standpoint, it might appear as if I had sexual relations with Miss Lewinsky. But what about the non-facts? There are a finite number of facts, but an infinite number of non-facts. If you want to understand reality as a whole, you can’t simply stick to the facts. And when I said I did not have sexual relations with Miss Lewinsky, I meant from the perspective of reality as a whole, and not just the facts.

Here is the most telling part of the public’s response to Mr. Clinton’s words: many believed his explanation; many believed his conduct was a private act and he had the right to lie about it to protect his privacy. Many selectively chose a set of facts to believe and another set of facts to ignore.

I have known liars in my life. It is my opinion that every statement, anyone speaks, has an element of deception. They differ only by degree and intent. Most lies are unconscious. By this I mean, we deceive others in order to make ourselves look better than we actually are. For example, the other day, my wife asked me what I had been doing that day. (I'm retired, while she is still working.)  I wanted her to think that my time was spent productively, so I listed three or four tasks I had completed. I did not disclose that those activities took about ten percent of my total day. Ninety percent of my day was spent on non-productive activities. By withholding this fact, I intended to leave her with the false impression that those three or four productive tasks consumed 90% of my time. This was a lie I spoke so casually, it hardly registered as deception.

How many of our relationships are spent following the father of this world and not our Heavenly Father. One is the embodiment of deception, while the other cannot lie and can only express what is true?

Then there are those who practice deceit with a “high hand” or “willfully, with malice and forethought.” There are some folks I know who would rather lie even the truth is non-threatening to them.

 

The proper response to this devotional is to seek the truth carefully and speak it boldly - but wisely and with innocence.

A half-truth is a dangerous thing, especially if you have got hold of the wrong half. Myron F. Boyd

A man can’t always be defending the truth; there must be a time to feed on it. C. S. Lewis (1898–1963)

About money and sex, it is impossible to be truthful ever. One’s ego is too involved. Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–1990)

For the truth-teller and truth-seeker, indeed, the whole world has very little liking. He is always unpopular, and not infrequently his unpopularity is so excessive that it endangers his life. Run your eye back over the list of martyrs, lay and clerical; nine-tenths of them stood accused of nothing worse than honest efforts to find out and announce the truth. H. L. Mencken (1880–1956)