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“Put off Falsehood – Put on Truth”
Categories: Christian life, obedience, truth
Last week we looked at Ephesians 4.17–24 and how we are not to walk like the Gentiles walk in the futility of their minds and the callousness of their hearts. Rather, Christ teaches us to put off the old self and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Paul then proceeds to list a series of evil, worldly practices we should take off. But he does not leave it there; we should not be content with trash removal. We are creatures of habit who must do things, and if we are not doing good, we will resort to evil. Therefore, the old sinful habits must be replaced by new holy habits. The old coat may have been laid aside, but we are getting cold. Will we put that old jacket back on, or will we find a new one?
The first thing Paul says to take off is falsehood:
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. (Eph. 4.25)
What would society look like if everyone spoke the truth as a rule? The joke goes: How do you know if a politician is lying? His lips are moving.
But the fact is we all have a temptation to twist the truth to our own advantage. This is a human issue. Liars can be rich or poor, male or female, pretty or ugly, black or white.
Why do people lie? Sometimes we twist the truth out of fear, to cover up something we said or did that we are embarrassed about or that we think might get us into trouble. Sometimes we lie to gain something. Sometimes we lie to hurt another person who angered or hurt us. Some lie simply because they have become addicted to lying; they cannot even tell you why they did it.
God is the Father of truth, and his word is truth (John 17.17). In comparison, Jesus said of Satan, “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8.44).
When we speak falsehood (lies), we demonstrate the character of Satan! We side with the accuser of the brethren, the devil, the dragon of old, who seeks our destruction. When you think about it, you realize falsehoods destroy and damage others. Who wants to make choices based on lies?
There were many, but there was one big lie told consistently through the recent COVID epidemic. Those in charge told us we had to get the COVID shots because it would protect our families and our neighbors and our coworkers. How does it protect them? They first told us that if we got the shot we would not catch the bug nor would we pass it along to anyone else. It wasn’t long before everyone realized this was not true—even if you have the shot, you can still catch the bug and can pass it along to others. Did they change their story? No—in the past few weeks President Biden and Dr. Fauchi have continued to push the booster shots as a way to protect each other. It obviously does not protect others. You may take the shot because you believe it will help you not get as sick from the virus if you catch it, but it will not keep you from catching COVID, and it will not keep you from passing it along to others. How much better would it have been if we were told the truth? What truth could they have told us? They could have said, “We think this will help, but we don’t have enough data to know for sure what is going to happen.” Instead, folks who had the shots thought they were practically invincible and felt free to go everywhere…unwittingly spreading the virus further. And they tended to treat with contempt those who were skeptical of the main narrative. There were political and financial reasons for the lies to be told, and it ended up crippling our nation’s economy and hurting everyone in the process—especially low-income earners, those who were already hurting. Many families are still divided and reeling.
Our own lies hurt others, too, because it encourages others to make life choices based on an empty foundation. If a woman tells her fiancé that she’s a virgin when she’s not…if a man swears to his wife that nothing untoward happened on his recent business trip when, in fact, he spent a couple of nights watching hotel porn movies…if a mother teaches her children that it doesn’t really matter what religion they choose because all roads lead to heaven…if a son tells his parents he’s going to the library when he’s really headed to a friend’s house to party hard… people get hurt. We lie even to ourselves and tell ourselves we aren’t really hurting anybody. We convince ourselves we are doing something good by protecting our loved ones from things that would hurt them if they knew the truth.
Brethren, that was the OLD man, and we have put off that stuff. We have put on the new man, renewed in the image of God, and the new man does not tell falsehoods. We are now among those who “fear the Lord; who swear to [our] own hurt and do not change” (Psalm 15.4).
Among the things the Lord hates are “a lying tongue” and “a false witness who breathes out lies” (Prov. 6.16–19). He hates lying because it is not in line with his character. If we have been made now in his likeness, we should also hate it and it should not be in line now with our new character.
So, brothers and sisters, let us consistently speak the truth with one another because we are members of one another.
