Is It Ever Okay for Christians to Lie?

Christian Questions Bible Podcast

“Tell the truth!” For many of us, we can recall that strongly stated advice as coming from our parents when we were caught doing or saying something that we shouldn’t have. The immediate dilemma was obvious. If I tell the truth, then I’m going to get in trouble. If I lie or just tell a part of the truth, I may get away with it. But what if they found out I lied? Then I might be in even more trouble! While we as adults may look back upon such dilemmas and smile, the reality is, we as Christians must always be on our guard to practice being truthful and having integrity every day and in every way. What does this mean? How are we supposed to handle the countless compromising circumstances of life where half-truths and exaggeration come into play? And what about little white lies?

The Bible is very specific about God’s standards for truthfulness.

The Ninth Commandment tells us to not bear false witness against our neighbor. In the book of Leviticus, we are told to not slander anyone. In Proverbs, “a lying tongue” is on the list of the seven things God hates. Obviously, telling lies should not be on our “things that are okay to do” list, but is it really that easy? Are there ever circumstances were hiding the truth is acceptable or speaking a partial truth is okay? Is it ever okay to be deceptive? And what about exaggeration, is that lying?

Based on all these questions, the challenge of understanding how to apply truth telling in many situations is significant. To complicate things, we can find several instances in the Bible where God Himself advised deception or the telling of a partial truth. Now wait a minute. Why would He do that? Why would our God, who hates lying, appear to contradict that hatred by instructing His people to do these things? The key point here is that, taken out of context, God would appear to be contradicting His own character. He does NOT do that, but He DOES give us specific guidelines and examples to adhere to in very unusual situations.

Check out our September 30, 2024 podcast, “Is It Ever Okay for a Christian to Lie?” for more. We dive into the hard questions using biblical examples of God’s guidance at specific times as a backdrop. What we find is a wide variety of applications of how truth works. Make no mistake, none of these examples in Scripture glorify lies in any way. What they do is they teach us how to detect and understand the nuances of life’s challenges. With this understanding we can apply godly wisdom to help us respond with appropriateness to our experiences. While this is challenging, it is also doable. Join us as we navigate these rough waters of truth telling in a dark and evil world. This episode will make you think, as it lays out biblical principles and direction.