Ephesians 4:25 Why putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another. Not only is the Second Person in the adorable Trinity revealed to us as the Son and the Word of God, but He is also exhibited as the archetypal Verity. "I am the truth," saith our Lord of Himself, and when He was made flesh He dwelt among men, "full of grace and truth." That inherent attribute which had been in God from the beginning, which had been exercised in the beneficent act of creation (for "all His works are faithful"), was in the last days shown forth to mortal eyes in the lowly guise of the Carpenter of Nazareth, as their God in truth and in righteousness (Zechariah 8:8). Now if truth be thus — not only a part of that righteousness in which God constituted all things — but actually a form and mode of the Divine Being Himself; if it be, not only that, in which God caused all things to be according to their law, but the manifestation of Himself in His Blessed Son; it will follow that anything contrary to this truth will be of the most abominable nature. If truth be the exhibition of the Son of God Himself, we shall not wonder at the whole constitution of the world being founded in it. The condition on which society holds together is perfect truth. The nearer we approach to perfect truth in any society, the more perfect is the credit, and the more sure is the basis on which that society stands. I. The opposite of truth is a lie; and in order to get at our duty on this head, it may be well to inquire into its NATURE AND KINDS. The common division of lying is into pernicious lies, those that are said with an evil intent — officious lies, those that are said to screen a fault or with other less culpable object — and lastly, lies of jesting, which may be dismissed in one word of the apostle — that they are — "not convenient," being at best of a very low style of wit, and always dangerous. But I think that a fuller and more complete distinction of these may not be without advantage. 1. The first and most heinous of all lies are those that are perpetrated in religion. A falsehood concerning God is the worst form of this sin. 2. And connected with this — is the heinous iniquity of what are called "pious frauds," where a religious system is propped up by deceit of any kind, false miracles, false legends, and the like. 3. The next most heinous form of deceit is the lie of malignity, where a falsehood is told with the deliberate purpose of injuring the happiness of another. Remember you have no right to spread any report till you have taken, some means to test its authenticity. If you give currency and fresh importance to a false report, you commit a great sin, and owe a heavy debt to the person you have helped to calumniate. The law prevents our being lied out of property, but who can arrest the evil effects of backbiting? who can restore the friendship it has broken? 4. The next kind of lying is that lying for lying's sake, which we find sadly prevalent among certain individuals and certain nations. 5. We now come to the case where the lie is told to obtain some immediate or eventual good. It is a very wide subject, because from the simple lie to serve an immediate purpose up to the difficult question of casuistry, whether a man may tell a lie to save life or reputation, the circumstances and degrees are various to infinitude. Of course we affirm broadly that a man may not tell a lie to obtain for himself any good, and that if suffering follows on telling the truth, a man must be contented to suffer. The whole question turns on this: Is there anything more valuable than the soul? if there be, you may lie to obtain it; but if God has said that He "will destroy all such as speak leasing," it is clear that we may not commit that sin for anything which the world can give. It is staking our eternal welfare against our temporal good. The matter becomes more difficult, when the object for which a lie is told is a fine or noble one, like the faithful servant well known in Scottish history, who perjured himself before the judges to save his master's life. Yet even here the same law of distinction comes in, which is the more valuable — this world or the next? St. maintains that you may not say what is untrue, even if that untruth were to save a friend's life, because your friend's temporal life is less valuable than your own eternal life forfeited by the lie. If persons in pursuit of one who has thrown himself upon your mercy for concealment, demand of you where he is, you may not deny that you have seen him, but you may refuse to answer; you may throw the pursuers off the scent by any ingenious escape, but you may not say what is untrue, even in such an extreme case. You will recollect that noble fiction in which a person of low estate refuses to save a sister's life at the expense of a lie, and afterwards obtains her pardon under circumstances of unparalleled energy and exertion. The morality here is perfect. It is best to leave the issue of things in the hand of God, and not to do evil that good may come. 6. We next proceed to a less heinous sort of lying, that which arises from the desire to please man — the lie of polite society. Here no one is injured, very deep interests are not affected — the subjects lied about are trifles — the motives are amiable or innocent — and yet here is positive sin. A desire to shine in society may not be wrong, but it must not be compassed by such means. Or the love of society may take the shape of boastful falsehood. 7. A more excusable form is that lying which comes from fear of offending those we live with. This is the special sin of some weak natures, and belongs rather to cowardice of character than to actual deceit. It often arises from the injudicious severity of parents, and the rough discipline of a public school, or from that feeble temperament which never should have been sent there. It is as much a misfortune as a fault, and is to be met by strengthening the moral character generally, and by seeking to bring out in the disposition all those habits of self-respect, which, under the Divine blessing, give dignity to man. 8. The last and most venial form of falsehood consists in those slight inaccuracies which slip out in the haste and thoughtlessness of conversation. These can hardly be called lies, because they are not uttered with the deliberate intention of deceiving, and are intellectual rather than moral faults. Some have very incorrect memories, others have quick minds which lead them to speak before they think, or even without thinking at all. Some persons find it impossible to repeat a thing exactly as they heard it, and without conscious deceit convey a different impression in their narration. Many of strong imagination unconsciously colour facts which in other respects they rightly describe. In short, there is a large region on the confines between truth and falsehood which requires some vigilance on our parts. People should be cautious about this inaccuracy, because like all bad habits it is apt to increase. II. And now that we have defined these different sorts of lying, let us think of THEIR GRATITY AND THEIR CURE. The record of the sacred Scripture is very strong against this sin. Nothing but the presence of the Blessed Truth, which is Christ Himself, in the heart, can give that pellucid and crystal soul which will bear the light at every angle. He who speaks the truth from worldly motives is only careful about that which the world censures, and in cases where the conventional morality of society allows of false vows and protestations, has no feeling about these; but the true Christian, while he is not over-scrupulous about trifles, has a conscience which ever announces the approach of fraud, for he is stayed on God, who is the immutable Truth, who cannot be deceived. (Bishop A. P. Forbes.) Parallel Verses KJV: Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. |
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