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Whether to keep ourselves out of trouble or to make a tall tale even taller, everyone has told a big fat fib. But lying isn’t just as innocent as catching a fish that was “THIS big, I swear!” Left unchecked, lying can poison our relationships and isolate us from the light of God’s truth, which all of us need to walk in Christian freedom.
We Lie Because We Think It Will Work Better Than the Truth
Lies are often easier than truths, which is one of the reasons truth-telling can be hard. There are two main reasons people lie:
- Self-serving lying. This is a lie we tell to make ourselves look better to others or to protect ourselves from embarrassment or negative consequences.
- Kindhearted lying. This is a lie we tell to save someone from embarrassment, to protect them from a painful truth, or to keep a social engagement, like a conversation, moving smoothly and easily.
Whether we are being self-serving or kindhearted, lying always causes us to trade one thing for another. If we build financial wealth with lies, we will always be fearful of being found out and losing the very security we thought wealth promised. If we constantly try to protect a person who we find boring or awkward by lying about being “interested” in them or what they’re saying, we end up in a “friendship” that is based on lies and is anything but.
We might not always lie for bad reasons, but it always comes down to the belief that in a given situation, it seems better to us to lie than to be honest. This is a trap (1 John 2:4).
The Devil’s Plan for Your Life Is to Get You to Lie
Satan is a liar and the father of lies. Jesus said this of him:
John 8:44 For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.
One of Satan’s traps when it comes to lying is that the more you lie, the more you have to lie. You have to tell new lies to cover your tracks for the old lies. Eventually, your entire life is built on card castle of lies – only one or two need to be found out before the whole structure crumbles. The worst part is that when we do this, we may be fooling others for a while, but we are making fools of ourselves in more substantial ways.
God’s Plan Is to Set You Free with the Truth
God’s plan for all of us is that we would change more and more into the people he is creating us to be in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17-21). One of the ways he does that is to set us free with the truth. The first truth is trusting Jesus for our salvation. But this greatest truth ripples outward into all other spheres of our lives.
John 8:32 And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
If you want to be done with lying, you can get on the path of repentance with these three steps:
Come clean to yourself. Admit you’ve made mistakes and own up.
Come clean to God. He wants honesty for you and from you because it’s what’s best for you. He will help you if you turn to him (1 John 1:8-9).
Come clean to others. Whether you’ve hurt others intentionally or unintentionally or whether you just need a fresh start, letting other people know about a lie is an important step toward healing and accountability (James 5:16).
As the old saying goes, “The truth hurts.” Sometimes it does. But as Jesus says, “The truth will set you free.”
- What is your initial reaction to this topic? What jumped out at you?
- What was the most outlandish lie that you told when you were a kid?
- What are some of the reasons that you are tempted to tell a lie?
- Read Ephesians 4:21-25. Make a list of what this passage says about life before Christ and what it says about life after Christ?
- How does lying reveal a lack of trust in God?
- Why do you think the devil chooses lies as a way to attack Christians?
- Read 1 John 1:9. What does this verse teach us about confessing our sins?
- Read James 5:16. Why do people tend to avoid confessing their sins to others? What is the blessing that you can receive if you confess your sins to others?
- Write a personal action step based on this conversation.
This is part of the My Big Fat Mouth series. Click here for sermon resources.
