To Lie or Not to Lie, That is the Question

     We had an interesting conversation recently with some friends.  The topic was ' Are there any circumstances when it would be acceptable to lie?'   Our friends said " No", but I disagree.  Can't you hear the choir of gasps?  " She thinks that it is acceptable to lie!!!"  Lying to cover up a sin or to destroy some one's reputation or harm them  is wrong but lying to save a life... can that really be wrong?

  In I Samuel 16, God commands Samuel to anoint David.  Samuel tells God that Saul will kill him if he hears what Samuel did.  God then instructs Samuel to take a heifer with him and say that he has come to sacrifice to God (which he did). 

In Exodus 1: 15-22, Pharaoh commanded the Hebrew midwives to kill all the baby boys. The Hebrew midwives disobeyed these instructions .  When Pharaoh asked the midwives why they had saved the babies, they said that Hebrew women deliver quickly and have no need of a midwife. The passage goes on to say,

" Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty. And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that He made them houses."  Exodus 15: 20-21 

In our effort to live according to God's law, we attempt to make things black and white.  Christ frequently chastised the pharisees for living according to the letter of the law and not the Spirit of the law.  Any time we replace God's requirements, whether it is requirements for salvation or sanctification, we are living our lives legalistically.  Lying falls into this category.

The German pastor and martyr, Bonhoeffer, wrestled with this issue as he attempted to undermine the Nazi government.  He finally came to the point of believing ...

         "To be true to God in the deepest way meant having such a

          relationship with Him that one did not live legalistically by 

          "rules" or "principles".  One could never separate ones actions

          from ones relationship to God.  It was a more demanding

         and more mature level of obedience, and Bonhoeffer had

         come to see that the evil of Hitler was forcing Christians to

         go deeper in their obedience, to think harder about what

         God was asking.  Legalistic religion was being shown to

         be utterly inadequate." (Bonhoeffer:Pastor, Martyr, 

         Prophet, Spy p. 367)

Once Bonhoeffer came to this realization he became a double agent and entered the conspiracy to kill Hitler.  He was even willing to pull the trigger himself.


So, what do you think about lying?