1. Truth: the Only Foundation
We begin this book by looking at truth in speech because truth is the very foundation of every aspect of what we say. If we do not speak truthfully, then the power of our words is short-circuited, twisted, and ultimately used for evil and not for good.
Sadly, much of the modern world has rejected the nature of truth and believes that there are no absolutes, and that all truth is relative or subjective. Of course, some "truth" is subjective – if my wife and I are in our house I may say "It's hot in here!" and my wife may say "I'm freezing!" Statements like these are obviously subjective and represent relative "truths," but that does not mean absolute truths do not exist. The statement "the universe exists" is absolutely true, just as the statement "a hot stove can burn you" is an absolute truth. The Bible states absolute truths when it tells us that "God is love" (1 John 4:8, 16), that God is a "God of truth" (Isaiah 65:16 ESV, etc.), that "it is impossible for God to lie" (Hebrews 6:18), and that God commands us not to lie also (Leviticus 19:11).
Most Christians accept the absolute nature of such truth and God's insistence that we walk in truth (2 John 1:4). Problems only arise when, through either weakness or lack of understanding, we lie and end up hurting ourselves or others. In this chapter, we will look at how we should handle the truth by examining the three areas covered by the old courtroom protocol of speaking "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."
Speaking the Truth It is no coincidence that in our culture witnesses in courtroom cases are traditionally "sworn in" by having them promise to tell "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" while placing their hand on a Bible. The Bible's insistence on the evil of lying and the necessity for truth are indisputable. There are hundreds of scriptures which tell us in one way or another that every one of us must "speak the truth to one another" (Zechariah 8:16 ESV) and "you shall not lie to one another" (Leviticus 19:11 ESV).
The Bible also makes it clear that not speaking the truth is not a small matter. First, because any practice of lying is inherently evil – as Jesus himself emphasized when he spoke of the devil as "a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies" (John 8:44 NLT). Notice how Jesus linked Satan's murderous nature with his lies, as a practice of lying always has harmful repercussions.
It is possible, in fact, that throughout human history more harm has been done by lying than by any other sin. That may be why the book of Revelation flatly states that "everyone who loves and practices falsehood" will have no part in the kingdom of God (Revelation 22:15) and that "liars …will be consigned to … the second death" (Revelation 21:8). So there is ample reason to root out lying in our lives and to avoid untruth whenever possible. We must do this in a number of ways – for example:
1. We must say only what we know to be true: "So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth" (Ephesians 4:25 NLT). 2. We must not speak one way and act another: "If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth" (1 John 1:6 ESV). 3. We must keep our word if at all possible when we have promised something: "The one who lives blamelessly … keeps his word whatever the cost" (Psalm 15:4 CSB). 4. We must not speak differently to what we think: "evildoers, who speak in friendly ways with their neighbors while malice is in their hearts" (Psalm 28:3 CSB). These few examples show that the simple principle of telling the truth can be applied in a number of ways, and we must all watch our own lives carefully to see that we are in fact speaking what is true. The Whole Truth? The next aspect of truth that we must consider is that of speaking the "whole truth." It is possible, of course, to not lie in what we actually say, but to speak deceitfully by not giving all the facts necessary for a proper understanding of a situation. If we withhold information that shows the innocence of someone, for example, we essentially lie without even speaking. But this does not mean that we should always speak all the truth. Naturally, in a legal situation, if we give our word that we will tell the whole truth that is what we should do, but life is not a courtroom and voicing everything we know is not always necessary.
Some people become proud of the fact that they are "not afraid to speak their mind," but this is all too often synonymous with not being concerned that they hurt others. The Bible tells us explicitly that "A fool brings out all his mind" (Proverbs 29:11 LSV) so "speaking our mind" is certainly not something of which we can be proud. If what we say needlessly discourages or hurts others, it is often better not to say it. Sometimes this is a matter of timing, and things that may be true may nevertheless be better left unsaid until a better time. We see Jesus himself applying this principle when he told his disciples "I still have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now" (John 16:12 ESV).
Sometimes, telling all the truth we know may have unfortunate or even serious consequences – as in situations where someone is asked if they know the whereabouts of innocent individuals being hunted by those who want to harm them (as in World War II Nazi hunts for Jews in hiding). Most Christians can see the need for withholding known facts in situations like this, and there are biblical precedents for such behavior.
The story of the midwives protecting the newborn male Israelites in Egypt (Exodus 1:15–21) and the woman Rehab protecting the Israelite spies (Joshua 2:4–6; 6:17, 25) are two such cases which involve people protecting others by saying less than they actually knew. But the clearest example is where God himself instructed the prophet Samuel to tell King Saul that he was going to Bethlehem to offer sacrifices and to omit the detail that he would anoint the young David as king while he was there (1 Samuel 16:1–5). Had Samuel told all the truth to Saul in this situation, his life may well have been endangered – as well as David's. A similar situation is found in Jeremiah 38:24–27 where the prophet Jeremiah, although asked, does not repeat all the details of a conversation that could endanger him.
We must realize that some commandments are more important than others (Mark 12:28–31; etc.) and the command to protect others always overrides commandments regarding lesser issues. Sometimes that means we do not tell all we know. We see this careful withholding of information in the Gospel accounts of the life of Jesus. John's Gospel tells us that prior to a religious festival in Jerusalem Jesus told his family members: "You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come" (John 7:8). However, a few verses later we read that "after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret" (John 7:10). The secrecy involved in Jesus' actions shows that he may well have gone separately in order to protect himself and also his family members from the danger he knew he might bring on them; but John makes it clear that in order to protect them in this way it was necessary for Jesus not to tell them all the truth regarding his plans at that point.
While it is relatively easy to see the morality of withholding information in such cases, what about situations where lives are not endangered, but telling everything we know may cause unhappiness if not actual harm? We must be particularly careful in situations such as these, but as we will see later in this book, there are biblical examples that show it is sometimes not wrong to withhold part of the truth – without saying anything untrue – when all of the truth might be hurtful or distressing. In exactly this way, as parents we might not give our young children all the facts of a medical report or what a doctor tells us regarding a child's illness. The Bible shows that this, of itself, is not lying.
Nothing But the Truth When we say we will tell "nothing but the truth," we mean that what we say will be the truth without any addition or alteration. This is as important in Christian living as it is in any legal context. Unfortunately, it is a human tendency to embellish the details of situations – especially when the embellishment makes us look better in some way.
We have all heard jokes and stories of anglers describing a "huge" fish that they caught or almost caught – that somehow grows with every telling of the story – but we can be just as guilty of exaggeration in the way we describe situations in our lives. Any time we add to, alter, or exaggerate the facts regarding a situation we are just as guilty of lying as if we say something that is completely untrue.
The root of the Greek word that is often used in the New Testament for "lie" (pseudomai) carries the meaning of any type of falsehood. But it is frequently used of those who say and do things that give a false impression of themselves – those who exaggerate in order to claim to be something they are not. The root word is used, for example, of false prophets (Matthew 7:15), false teachers (2 Peter 2:1), false apostles (2 Corinthians 11:13), and even false Christs (Matthew 24:24).
Some may do this kind of thing intentionally (as in Psalm 50:19 CSB – "You … harness your tongue for deceit"), but even if it is not consciously intentional – if we add to, exaggerate, or otherwise change the truth in any way in order to justify ourselves or to make ourselves look better than we really are – in essence we are acting as false Christians. On the other hand, if we think about and control what we say in order to be careful not to shade the facts, project untrue images, or mislead others, we use the power of speech wisely and righteously.
When we do this and we speak the truth in every way, we fulfill what the apostle Paul tells us in an important scripture that we will look at again later: "We will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church" (Ephesians 4:15 NLT). This is a vital lesson that every Christian must learn – if we are to grow more like Christ, we must make truth (as well as love), a deep and essential part of our speech and our lives.