Why God Hates Lies

Mike Hosey, Elder

I have always told my children that I hate lying. In fact, I’ve explained to them many times over that lying will get them (at least) double the punishment.  The reason is twofold.  First, they are going to get chastened for the wrong they committed.  Then, they are going to get disciplined for the second wrong of lying about what they did. If they tell me the truth from the beginning, they are only going to get punished for the one thing they did wrong.

In human terms, there’s a very clear and understandable reason for my severity regarding untruths: lying destroys trust.   I explain to them that since I am not all knowing, a lie destroys my ability to entrust them with responsibilities or privileges in the future.   And I explain to them that such trust issues will bleed over to their other relationships as well. At some point, I argue, lies will render their friendships and kinships unreliable, and possibly treacherous.  

But these are all human reasons.  Our relationship with God is a bit different than our relationships with others.  Proverbs 15:3 tells us that God sees everything.  There is nowhere that we can go, and there is nothing we can do, and God not know about it. When we lie to God, the issue is not about trust. This is because God already knows whether or not we can be trusted.  The issue is one of respect.  If we tell God we did not do something, knowing that He was there to see the whole thing unfold in its naked truth, then we are showing God complete disrespect.

Unfortunately, the husband and wife team of Ananias and Sapphira learned this the hard way (Acts 5:1-10).  The congregation of their church was selling off property and giving it to a communal pool for distribution to the poor.  The congregation did this willingly and without coercion. But Ananias and Sapphira lied to God about the price for which they had sold their property. Perhaps they were trying to avoid the social judgment of their fellow church members. In any case, their disrespect was met with death.

Any time we lie to God we are disrespecting Him.  Anytime we lie to ourselves, or to others, we are disrespecting the image of God.  And with each lie, a bit of whatever goodness we have dies, as we find it easier and easier to lie.

Thankfully, we worship a God who is able to raise us from the dead.