“If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God.” (1 Pet 4:11, NKJV)
We are currently examining the spirit of lying. In the previous teaching we learnt that all people are, from birth, drenched with this spirit. Perhaps the most important aspect of the godly nature (2 Pet. 1:4) is the counter to this, in other words truth, as this is the marker of his identity (John 14:6). Truth is the only thing that liberates (John 8:32). In John 18:37 Jesus clearly utters these important words: “For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
Jesus embodies this truth; He is after all referred to as “the True One” throughout the book of Revelation. But then 1 John 5:6 also spells out that “the Spirit is truth”. And listen to what John 15:26 has to say about the nature of the truth of the complete Trinity: “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.”
One could thus accept that, as 1 John 1:6 states – “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” There are however clearly children of God who do not walk in this truth (2 John 1:4; 3 John 1:4). A good example of this is Ananias and Sapphira, who lied to the Holy Spirit so that they could keep a piece of the land they had sold for themselves (Acts 5:1-11). We do not have enough of a sense of the fear of the Lord for our lips to become pure sacrifices (Hos. 14:2) for the Lord.
We are all familiar with the ninth commandment: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (Ex 20:16), a commandment which Jesus interestingly enough repeats in Matt. 19:18, which confirms its importance also within the new covenant. For instance in Paul’s letters he also focusses on the fact that a substantial part of the “new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” must be clothed with the truth: “Therefore, putting away lying, ‘Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,’ for we are members of one another.” (Eph 4:24-25).
1 John 2:21 provides a practical guideline when it comes to lies: “no lie is of the truth”. This net is cast wide, to include half-truths, silence, unrighteous emphasis, hyperboles, double standards, hypocrisy, even something as small as flattering someone falsely (Ps. 5:9; 12:2; 62:4), and indeed even white lies.
It is insightful that 1 Tim. 1:8-11 groups together a bunch of inequities that oppose “the gospel of glory”. He then lists those guilty of inequity, and the list is quite scary: murderers, fornicators, sodomites, thieves, and for instance, but also pertinently: liars.
Jacob the deceiver walked a long path with God, but had to eventually get to a point where he could confront his (albeit subtle) lying nature. This happened at the ford of the Jabbok (Gen. 32:22), which in the original Hebrew means, “place of emptying”. It is perhaps time that every person in the Bride empties herself of all lies, so that 1 Pet 4:11 can be manifested in all of us.
- Selah: Confront the spirit of the lie within yourself.
- Read: Lev 14-16
- Memorise: Lev 16:22
- For a more in-depth understanding: Read Mark Chirona’s book You can let go now (with
discernment, please).
