How to properly lie and deceive

A false witness will not go unpunished, And he who tells lies will perish.    Proverbs 19:9

This is great proverb we discussed and learned this week. As with  every truth I teach our kids, I want to make sure I don’t just give them  rules to live by but explain why lies are harmful and why God  hates liars.

The best way I found to do this was to explain when lies and  deception are good and righteous. This wasn’t hard for them to  understand, I asked them first if they could think of an example. They  thought of a scenario where a stranger was trying to get them to go with  them and that making up a lie to dissuade him, telling him their  parents were right around the corner. I applauded them for their  excellent and clear moral thinking.

Lying to Nazis – good. Lying to daddy – bad

The example I gave was also a bit of a history lesson. Heroic Germans  who hid Jews in order to protect them from murderous Nazi soldiers is a  great example of the need for lying and a skilled art of deception in  order to protect the innocent. Unfortunately, heroes like Corrie TenBoom  struggled with this idea that lying was wrong in and of itself rather  than the intent of the heart behind the lie.

Again, even in the Bible the Hebrew midwifes where glorious, God  honoring liars by telling the Egyptian authorities that they could not  murder new born boys because “Hebrew women give birth too quickly”.

Of course, the vast majority of lies are told from a self-centered  and wicked heart. These lies are meant to hide wrong doing or to get  away with crimes both big and small. God doesn’t hate the lie and will  not punish the lies. God hates and punishes liars.

Kids? Are you liars? If so confess your sin and turn from it.