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

An invitation

I'd love to hear Jeff's, Dave's, Anna's, Arthur's and Tamie's views on all this as well.

A clarification of a fun discussion

There's been a big bunch of discussion on all things sin and depraved going on lately between Simon (here and here + comments) and Nathan (here and here + comments) and myself.

My thoughts (here and here + comments) aren't actually centred on quite the same focus as Simone and Nathan's, from what I can tell. My point is merely to give an anthropology which gives an acceptable approximation of the Scripture's testimony about us. In so doing, I've dealt with the area of sin as a matter of necessity.

My point, though, hasn't been to create a method for dealing with temptation. No how-to guides here.

And so, in this way, I say a hearty 'amen' to many of the points made by both Nathan and Simone. Particularly, to many of the things that Nathan said from Romans 6 in his post on righteousness.

I'll try to engage with their thinking on temptation (which, to me, seems ultimately to be the context for Simone's thinking) and the 'stance' of the Christian life in general (which seems to be the context for Nathan's thinking) in the next couple of days.