How much damage can a little lie do?

Probing Proverbs 14:5 An honest witness does not lie; a false witness breathes lies.

Trust! This is one of the key foundations in every relationship! This Proverb communicates a warning that should give us a pause. Notice the “intensity” in the description of the false witness. His very breath is filled with lies. Does this mean that this person never tells the truth? Obviously not, however, the difficulty is that when a person has a habit of lying, when can you trust them?

   

 

Trust is a very fragile commodity. A consistency in life is the only way to keep it, and once lost will take some time and effort to regain. I know this from first hand experience. I have a fallen nature and I have given in to it at times. One of the manifestations of that nature is to lie. Oh, it may not be a bold outright lie, but even if it is a manipulation of or a small shaving of the truth…it is a lie! I have regretted when I have done that, and it required me to begin from scratch building my credibility. Truth is like obedience, if it is not full obedience, it is disobedience! There is no “little” lie; it is either true or false.

I have also experienced the results of being lied to. It is difficult to work with individuals that say one thing in front of you, yet very different things to each other about you when you are not there. Not only is trust lost, wounds are inflicted.

Jesus encouraged us this way:

Matthew 5:34–37 “But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet…Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. “But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.

To see the damage, just consider our politicians and media today. Who can you Trust? They pick and choose what facts and even how much context they will share as they try to persuade us or report to us. Look at our nation…at war with each other…yet in reality we really do not know what the truth is because all that we do know depends on the source we received the so-called truth from.

There is one thing we can do…make sure that we do our best to speak the truth in love. We cannot control anyone else, but we can control ourselves.

The So What: Have you lied to someone? Do you need to go and correct that? Have you been lied to? Have you forgiven? Remember forgiveness is not the same as trust. Have you asked God to enable you to be a person of integrity?