The Sunday school lesson not too long ago brought us to the book of Joshua, where Rahab hid the spies and told the Jericho guards "they went THAT way." The interpretation of Rahab and her actions has always been something like this: Rahab lied to the guards in order to protect the spies. She was putting her faith in the hands of God but didn't know enough to trust God completely. God honored her faith and used her lie to protect the spies.

I'm not completely comfortable with saying Rahab sinned. I'm especially uncomfortable when the conversation turns to those brave people who sheltered and hid Jews during the Nazi campaign of eradication. Do we really believe it was a sin to not turn them in, knowing that they would go to their deaths?

What I think is happening is we are misunderstanding the word "lie" and applying the word to circumstances where it doesn't fit. Let's see if I can reason this out.

One problem we have is that the word lie has taken on an absolute definition. My dictionary defines lie as "A false statement deliberately presented as being true; falsehood." This is true but, I think, is too broad when looked at through a Biblical understanding. So what does the Bible say?

Exodus 20:16 Thou shalt not bare false witness against thy neighbor.
Exodus 23:1 Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.

Notice that the Bible doesn't say “Thou shalt always tell the truth” or even “Thou shalt not lie” even though that's what we assume it says (Full disclosure: Out of 5 English translations, only the Contemporary English Version uses the word lie: Thou shalt not tell lies about others. This leaves open the possibility of telling lies about yourself and is, in my opinion, not very trustworthy). So what is a false witness?

There are a few possible ways to be a false witness:

1. Appear better than we are

2. Avoid punishment or consequences

3. Cause harm to another

4. Get rich at another’s expense

If you’re a preacher and like alliteration, we can boil these down into 3 points: Glory, Gain, and “Get even”.

If it’s personal accolades we’re after then we may tell a little white lie. For example: Did you know I got a Letter in baseball my freshman year of High School? It’s true. I still have it somewhere with my yearbooks and other stuff from back then. Not may freshmen get a Letter. Pretty impressive, isn’t it?

What I left out was the fact that I ran the scoreboard, helped pick up after practice, and a few other little chores. The only time I picked up a bat was to put it away and for that, I got a Letter.

So I was a little deceptive and left out some details. Is it a big deal? Yes, because of my pride I wanted you to think something that wasn’t true. Ananias and Sapphia are probably our most famous couple for this sort of sin. Acts Chapter 5 records their story:

But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.

Sapphira makes the same mistake as her husband just a few minutes later. They sold some land and gave some of the proceeds to the church. Unfortunately, they decided to say they were giving ALL the proceeds. Had they been honest and said, “We would like to donate this much” they may not have been honored but they would at least lived. You have to read between the lines a little but I get the impression they played this up pretty good. “We sold all our land and we’re giving the ENTIRE PRICE to the church. Yes, it's a great scacrife, but we want to SHARE.” They desired the praise of men more than honesty.

Leviticus 19:11 Breaks things down for us a little bit more: Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. Theft is pretty obvious as it is the taking of something that is not yours. But what about dealing falsely? That’s still theft, just a little more crafty.

Suppose I sold you a section of land that I said was 5 acres but when you measured it only came up to 3? You overpaid for the property based on my word. I’ve gained while you lost. Lots of shady businesses advertise one thing then switch for another product, and we all have a certain idea of the Used Car Salesman, willing to do anything to make a sell. These are classic examples of dealing falsely – lying – for monetary gain.

In a court of law we may accuse someone of doing wrong in order to get them in trouble. We may also withhold evidence that would prove our enemy innocent. Like a scene out of a Perry Mason episode, someone says, “Joe may not be guilty of this but he’s guilty of other crimes.” The court system then becomes a vehicle for revenge.

Jesus is the best example of this, in Matthew 26:59-60:

Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death; But found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses,

The chief priests already had a problem with Jesus and weren’t really interested in a fair trial. They were out to “get him” but wanted some justification, any at all, for their actions. So someone lied and Jesus was convicted.

In the same way we may bare false witness against ourselves in order to avoid punishment. My Little Guy is already saying “I didn’t” or “I already did” when asked to do something.

Pick up your toys. “I already did.” No you didn’t. They are still on the floor.

Does anyone else have the “Not Me” ghost in their house? Who knocked over the plant? “Not me.” Our natural inclination as humans is to avoid punishment. From Adam on down, we either hide or try to lie our way out.

So, I’ve looked at lying for Glory, Gain and “Getting even”. Are there any Biblical examples of when it was OK to Lie? Let’s find out.

Genesis 38 has an interesting tale of Judah and his daughter-in-law, Tamar. Basically, after Tamar’s husband(s) died, she was to be given to Judah’s other son, Shelah. When this didn’t happen, Tamar pretended to be a harlot and got pregnant by Judah. Judah, not knowing he’s the father, wants to burn Tamar for her sin. But then he finds out the truth in verse 25:

When she was brought forth, she sent to her father in law, saying, By the man, whose these are, am I with child: and she said, Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet, and bracelets, and staff. And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more.

Here we have a liar being called righteous. You could argue that because Judah wasn’t very righteous his pronouncement doesn’t carry much weight. Let’s discount Tamar then and move on.

We’ve already mentioned Rahab and her deceiving the soldiers in Jericho. Again, we’ll discount her too, because she’s the start of this whole exercise. Is there someone else?

Elisha was a man of God, a prophet. The king of Syria send his army to capture Elisha and 2 Kings 6: 18-20 tells part of the story:

And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the LORD, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria. And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, LORD, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the LORD opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.

Elisha clearly lied when he said “This is not the city.” It certainly was the right city, for Elisha was there. He continued to deceive the soldiers by leading them straight into captivity in Samaria.

Gideon also deceived the Midianites when he took his 300 men and circled the camp with torches and horns. Was this a sin?

What shall we say then? Should Christians become situational ethicists and say it’s OK to lie in some circumstances? Not exactly.

I propose we redefine our terms. If we want to say that all lies equal sin we can do so, provided we don’t mean “all forms of deception.”

If we insist that all forms of deception must be sinful then we run into some problems logically. For instance, if I’m planning a surprise birthday party for you, or even if I know someone else is planning it and I don’t tell you, I’m sinning. It must be a sin because I’m either deceiving you actively or else passively by not revealing the truth since we stated that all deception is a sin. If you don't speak up then you are allowing the decption to continue.

I can’t agree with saying suprise parties are sinful. Nor can I agree that providing false information to the enemy in war is a sin. I’ll go back to WWII for an example. Part of the preparations for D-Day included convincing German forces that the landing would take place not at Normandy but somewhere else. We know in our hearts this can’t possibly be a sin yet we must declare it so because we insist on the notion that all deceptions are sinful.

I believe the problem is not with God’s commandment but with our interpretation. Like the Pharisees, we have added too much to the commandment and expect everyone to follow our ideas instead of God. God’s Word is very specific and tells us exactly what He means. We don’t have to add to it.

This may seem like much ado about nothing but I’ve heard too many Christians wondering if they could be “faithful” to God by turning over Jews to Nazis or if they’d lie to protect them. Fortunately, this is all hypothetical and I pray we never have to make such decisions again. But we cannot let ourselves be deceived into thinking we must aid the enemy by always telling the truth.