When I think about why the Bible teaches us to always tell the truth, my mind goes to two places. The first place is that our God is a God of truth. He always tells the truth. There is zero untruth in him. Every part of his being is truth. For this reason, we can take it to the bank every word he says in the Bible. It makes no sense for us to say God is God of truth, and we call ourselves his children, but unlike him, we do not tell the truth all the time.
Numbers 23.19
God is not a man, that He should lie.
Hebrews 6.17–18
In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.
Conversely, there is no lying in God – not even the slightest bending of the truth. No part of him is a lie. We are not children of God if we lie. Rather, we are children of the Enemy, because the Enemy is the father of lies.
John 8.44
You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
The second place that comes to my mind when I think about why the Bible teaches us to always tell the truth is that our God knows best. Allow me to explain. When God says we must always tell the truth, I want to believe that he knows what he is saying. Telling the truth all the time is good for us. We should tell the truth all the time. This also means we should not tell any lies, at all. In our minds, sometimes we may reason that telling the truth is exactly what we should not do. God doesn’t see it that way. Something tells him we should not think like that. Telling a lie is never the right thing to do. It erodes trust between individuals. It causes division and produces a weaker church. People get hurt from lies. I can see many reasons why God doesn’t want us to lie at all to one another, but I want to believe there are more. God sees things that you and I cannot see. He knows we must not lie to each other.
If we say it is okay to lie when telling the truth is hard, uncomfortable or awkward, then we are no different than the people of this world. People of this world already say that too. They do not lie to deceive or hurt someone either. They do not lie to cheat or take advantage of someone either. But they would lie when things become hard, just like us. You and I have been set apart. It makes no sense for the Bible to say you and I must not lie to each other, and yet no one can tell us apart. We lie some of the time, just like what the people of the world do.
What is the main idea? We do not get to decide when and where it is acceptable to lie. God decides that. He says it is never acceptable to lie. It is always wrong to lie. Can you imagine having a friend who never tells lies? People don’t want to hang out with other people who tell lies, any form of lies.
Telling the truth does not mean we will always get the results that we have hoped, and that things will turn out the way we have expected. Sometimes, the results are downright unpleasant. This is why we won’t do it. If telling the truth always gave us the results we always wanted, you and I would always tell the truth, and I have just wasted my time writing this. Many times we tell the truth, and we don’t like the results we see. But in the end, if we have told the truth, if we have prayed, and if we have done everything with the right motivation, then we have been obedient, and we are able to say to our God we have done the right thing. God has accepted us. Our relationship with him remains intact and strong.
As you know by now, telling the truth all the time is not easy. It is right for you to find telling the truth all the time super hard, uncomfortable and awkward. But even if it is hard, uncomfortable and awkward, let’s do it. Even if it doesn’t give us the results we hoped for, let’s do it. Let’s pray to God and ask him for his help to change us. You encourage me to be set apart and to tell the truth always, and I encourage you to do the same.
Psalms 31.5
Into Your hand I commit my spirit;
You have ransomed me, O LORD, God of truth.