Lies #4 - Why the truth matters pt2.

Nathan, forever my valued interlocutor, asked in an earlier comment in this series whether I could point to a place in Scripture where God commands his people not to lie.  I think the answer to that is 'yes'.

Let's look at a few examples.

The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful. (Pro 12:22 NIV)

You could suggest that this is wisdom literature, not law, and so carries the weight of what is good rather than what is necessary.  So let's go to some law.

Do not lie. Do not deceive one another. (Lev 19:11 NIV) 

Seems fairly clear.  But you could suggest that this is the OT and perhaps there's more 'freedom' in the New Testament on these sorts of issues where wisdom suggests that bending the truth may perhaps bring a better outcome.  So let's go to the NT.

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. (Col 3:9-10 NIV)

Now one could further again argue that perhaps there is an escape clause here in that the command seems to apply only to discussion within the Christian community.  So Christians could technically lie, but only to non-Christians?  Yet, lying in general seems to be a sin that God suggests leaves its exponents culpable:

But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars--their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death." (Rev 21:8 NIV) 

Now, I'm generally not one who likes to build my case based on one-verse prooftexts, but having been challenged to do so I don't think that the Scriptural evidence points away from my central thesis.  Even if you're building your ethics from a very flat view of the 'divine command' approach, you're really going to struggle to think that it's godly to engage in any sort of deception without very serious prayer and reflection on why these commands might not apply in that particular case.

Distancing ourselves

I personally find the idea of distancing myself from the culture out of which extremist Christian groups such as Westboro Baptist have emerged as quite enticing.  The kinds of arguments that emerge from those kinds of extreme (and even milder) groups who claim Christianity are many of the reasons my friends would claim as their reason for rejecting Christianity.

I thought this piece from The Onion was quite a cool idea, if not quite implemented as funnily as I'd have hoped from such a promising idea.  Its concept has Almighty God holding a press conference in which he distances himself from the Christian right in the US, and several of their intolerant policies.

I'd like nothing better than to have my totally legit and logically airtight reasons for my faith totally distanced from the lame arguments that my friends ridicule (read into that as much bravado and/or tongue-in-cheek humility as you see fit).  And I often do so when talking to said friends.

Further, some of my friends have been hurt by a 'ask no questions, just submit to these rules' type of Christianity that seems to find greater traction within that culture.  I'd like to distance what I think is a right expression of following Christ from that perspective also.

And yet, I'm not sure that I want to distance myself from the Christian right in the way 'God' does in this article.  In fact, I'm not sure if I can.

Doesn't that sound scandalous?  I think it is.  But it's the scandal of grace.

Not because I'm supposed to show them grace or anything noble like that, but because I am equally in need of grace.  I have no moral advantage over the worst of the Westboro lot that would give me any sort of 'in' with God.  I have in common with them the need to be rescued from my perverse views and foul actions.  And for many people who are part of that culture I also share with them a connection as we are both connected to Christ, sinners made righteous in Him.

Ultimately, to distance myself from the Christian right, while very tempting, is to distance myself from the God of grace who embraces foul people.

In the cross, God didn't distance himself from foul people.  He came near to them.  And when he did, we were so foul that we killed him. And Jesus knew we would.  And yet he says of foul people who killed him:

"And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."  (John 12:32)

Now, this post could contain many caveats about how we practically deal with such massive differences, the calling out of false shepherds, discussion of genuineness of conversion based on evidence of the fruit of the Spirit, etc.  But we can discuss those in the crumbs, cos this crumb is about God not distancing himself from me, when the moral gap between me and God makes the moral gap between me and Westboro look pretty darn insignificant.

Lies #3 - Why the truth matters pt1.

In my next few posts in this series I'm going to work a few different angles on bits of Scripture that show how important truth is.  So hopefully there'll be a few of these, in quickish succession, but they should each be reasonably short.

The first angle I'm going to work from is that that the ethics of creatures proceed from their Creator.

So, who is our Creator?

God is not a man,a that he should lie... (Num 23:19 NIV)

He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie (1Sa 15:29 NIV) 

God, who does not lie... (Tit 1:2 NIV) 

...him who is holy and true... (Rev 3:7 NIV)

Just and true are your ways, King of the ages. (Rev 15:3 NIV)

... is called Faithful and True. (Rev 19:11 NIV) 

But do we need to try and be like God in this respect?  Or is truth an 'incommunicable' attribute of God?  One that He possesses, but we're not commanded to emulate?  Well, Colossians specifically combines the command not to lie with the destiny of the believer to be like his/her Creator:

Do not lie to each other,a since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. (Col 3:9-10 NIV) 

This is not only our future, but also the expectation of the character of our lives now:

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.  24 God is spirit,a and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth." (Joh 4:23-24 NIV)

 And this in anticipation of our future.  As John sees in Revelation:

Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. ... No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless. (Rev 14:1-5 NIV) 

So while we may not necessarily act truthfully instinctively, honesty is the direction the Christian must be pointed towards because it's what conforming to the image of his/her Creator looks like.

Our ethics flow from the nature of our Creator.

Lies #2 - What is a lie?

In the discussion with Nathan that followed my first post in this series, he suggested that offering a working definition of a "lie" may be  a helpful next post in this series.  And as Nathan is a genuine authority on blogging, here we are.

Defining something like 'lying' is difficult.  Well, that's a lie.  But it is difficult to define well.

This is in large part due to the complexity of human interactions and the variety of contexts and cultures within which they occur.  So let me start with a negative description.

Is not telling the truth lying?

I don't think that withholding the truth is inherently a lie. This is because not all truth is appropriate for all people to know at all times. The intimacy that is shared by lovers is not something that one shares with all and sundry. In fact to do that would destroy that intimacy that is made so special by its exclusive nature.

Similarly, I don't think there's any moral imperative to be a pedant.  It is perfectly legitimate (particularly in a counselling setting) to simply nod your head and say "right" when someone shares with you their perception of events, even when you 'know' that they're wrong or deluded. Doing this acknowledges that this is their perception of events. It doesn't validate it as true. It communicates acceptance of the person and their experience of an event. Choosing not to contradict a person is not lying.

So what is a lie?

I reckon a decent description of a lie is intentionally representing a false statement as true.

Does that work for persuasive communication?

This is some fairly grey territory.  What if, by making statements that are individually true, I represent a situation or product in such a way that isn't a full or fair reflection in all aspects?

What has happened here is that we're shifting the scope of evaluation from single propositions to entire pieces of communication.  Here, I don't think the label of 'lie' is the most helpful descriptive category.  It's not a label the generally makes sense when applied to, say, a newspaper article as a whole.

I think here we need to ask: "Is the piece of communication faithful to the truth as believed by the author at the time?"  Some points with respect to this:

• As discussed above it doesn't need to disclose all facts, but in these cases a more general grading of faithfulness to truth is more appropriate than the binary term "lie". 
• To be "faithful", the premises in a piece of communication ought to truly support the message (which may be explicit or implicit) of that piece of communication.

Ok, so that's some definitional/descriptional stuff.  It's not meant to be arguing for anything, just laying things down as I'm using them so what I write makes more sense.

Do you like these descriptions?  No?  Help me out a bit and let me know what you'd add/change in your crumbs.

Ethics of the truth #1: Lies

I hate lies.  Even though I do sometimes tell them, sadly.  This series is my attempt to propose some thoughts that I hope will be some light on the truth about lies.  I'll really need your thoughts to round this discussion out, though, so please comment here or on FB.

This first post is about the double-reason that particularly gets my goat.

The first reason I hate lies is because we so readily resort to them.  Stuck in an awkward situation?  Got asked if someone's bum looks big in a pair of pants?  Will get found out if you admit the truth?  Or if you admit that you've not been telling the truth previously?

We so readily resort to lies in all sorts of situations.  The thing is, I reckon it's just laziness.  We're too lazy to work out what love looks like in truth, and we too readily assume that the only way out is lying.  It's just laziness.  And it makes me angry.  Because lies hurt people.

That's the second part of this double-reason.  Lies kill.  The devil is a liar, and has been so from the beginning, and his mission is to kill and destroy.  Lies kill people.

I'm speaking quite strongly here, I know.  It's because I feel this strongly.  Please don't let that stop you from feeling able to comment or even to disagree.  This is a chat I'd love to have.

Stay tuned for more.

Kutz

Help with my position

Working with a couple of mates on a statement re the environment.

What's your position on the environment?  What do you think a biblical position is?  What's your key paradigm?  Your key text?

I'd love your thoughts.  Feel free to post either here or on FB.

The wisdom of the ages

Greetings, once again.  This time, a crumb I picked up from a friend's trail.

Went to Murwillumbah Pressy on Sunday, and was greatly blessed by Chris Lindsay's exposition of Proverbs 8 and 9.  So good.

I was going to write a beautifully eloquent summation of all the excellent things he had to say.  But I'm not sure I have time.  And perhaps just listening to the talk yourself would be more edifying anyways.

So I'll just mention a couple of things.  Literally.

• The wisdom offered by Lady Wisdom is something that pre-dates the creation of the world.  It, in fact, undergirds the creation.  If you're looking for transcendent wisdom or ancient and deep truth, Lady Wisdom offers something deeper than the most ancient sage or sect.

• Though so often we choose Lady Folly over Lady Wisdom, the logos, the reason, the logic, the unifying principle, the word of God has come to be Wisdom for us.  So that in Him we are truly wise and all else is made to look foolish.

Much more theological gold in there that'll make you want to read the rest of Proverbs.  Go get it.