What is a lie? Is it simply not telling the truth? Certainly it does mean this but is that it? What does it really mean to tell a lie? Lying is the conscious act of disorting reality by stating that something corresponds to reality when in fact it does not. When a person lies, he or she states a reality that is not true. For example, if my two year old son Will stated that he did not hit his younger brother and yet I saw him from across the room do the very thing he is denying then he has told a lie. He wants me to believe that the truth is that he did not hit his younger brother.
So, why is this so dangerous? Why is it so sinful? Think about this for a moment. When you and I tell lies we distort what is true and what corresponds to reality. In essence, we "play God" and proclaim that something is true when in fact it is not. God created the world in 7 days. Each day He spoke and things happened. When God speaks, He only speaks what is true and He dictates reality through His very words. Because God Himself is Truth, He Himself is the ultimate correspondance with truth. He is the ultimate source of it.
As such, when you lie you state that you are a source of truth and that God is not. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, Satan approached Eve and stated a lie by saying that "you will surely not die" (Gen 3:4) when you eat of this fruit but rather you will be like God knowing good from evil (Gen 3:5). It was true that by eating the apple that they would know good from evil. It was not true that they would not die. In fact, stating this was stating the very opposite of what God had said would happen. God had told Adam and Eve that they would die (Gen 2:17).
This is also why God's allowing man to name the animals was such a powerful thing. God gave His authority to name the animals. Genesis 2:19 states "Out of the ground the Lord formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name." (NASB - emphasis mine). Adam evoked God's authority by naming the animals. Whatever name he gave to them became reality. Adam, in a sense, created truth in his naming because God allowed him to do so. God gave to Adam a gift and an authority from Himself. Yet, Satan used that gift and the image of God that Adam had been created in to turn it against him. He did so by lying and stating to Adam that there was an additional source of truth - him and that Adam himself could define truth if he would simply question God.
Therefore, Satan's sin was to claim that He and not God was the source of authority. He wanted Adam to belive that his statement was really truth and it, not God's, truly corresponded to reality. It is for this reason that Jesus called Satan the father of all lies and the Pharisees by that same description. Each attempted to create reality through their words.
A modern day example of this is advertising. Why is advertising so powerful and yet often so deceptive? Because advertisers know that often "perception is reality". If you think that their product can do certain things, you will believe it. If the incredible new stain remover appears to be able to remove any stain then that perception becomes true. The image is implanted and reality to the consumer is that this product can do it all!
Such techniques as false advertising are illegal for that very reason. They offer suggestions that do not correspond to reality. The same is true with lying. It is a defiant, unholy, and wicked attempt to usurp the authority of God and to claim that there is another source of truth in this world - yourself. You have the ability to be God. You can define what is true. You live by the model that "that may be true for you but not for me."
Truth is singular. It is not negotiable. It is therefore not determined by human beings. Only God is the true source of all truth and only His truth ultimately corresponds to reality. Remember this the next time you are attempting to lie and instead tell the truth. It is what it is and it was created by Almighty God.
Lying is the ultimate expression of a life turned against its Creator. I pray that God will forgive me for the times in my life in which I have willfully done this.
Joshua
