The Importance of Truth / The Danger of Lies

Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Saviour, and my hope is in you all day long. (Psalm 25:5)

​I was reading an article recently where the importance of truth was being discussed in relation to communication. It said, “Imagine what it would be like living in a society in which no one expected the truth. How could a person discern what is accurate and what is a falsehood? On what basis could a person make important decisions if there was no expectation of the truth? 

"Life would be chaotic without the norm of honesty.” (Why Truthtelling Is Important Article / Produced by TOW Project).

​‘Truth’ is mentioned many times in Scripture; in fact, it occurs 235 times in 222 verses of the King James Version of The Bible. The fact that it is mentioned so frequently indicates that it is important to God and important for us if we want to draw closer to Him. Jesus Himself spoke of truth on several occasions for example:

“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (​John 8:31,32)

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth. (John 4:24)

Truth can produce the following:

•  peace
•  hope
•  freedom
•  joy
•  trust
• respect from others
• self-respect

The opposite of truth is lies.  Like truth, lying is spoken of in The Bible. Of the seven sins in Proverbs 6 that the Lords ‘detests’, two of these are lies.

he detest.. a lying tongue. (Proverbs 6:16,17)

he detests… a false witness who pours out lies. (Proverbs 6:16, 19)

​A lie can cause long lasting suffering in many fronts. For example it can result in the following:

• pain to friends and family
• breakdown in relationships of friends and family
• distrust of others
• disappointment
• hatred
• loss of respect
• injustice (an innocent person gets punished because of your lies)

Someone has noted that...

• the average person tells lies several times a day
• lying is one of the first sins a child commits
• lying has shown signs of being detrimental to health. This is due in part to the fact that lying adds stress to your life, which can take a huge toll on your physical well-being.
• our brains adapt to lying, and this can actually cause us to lie more as time goes on…”Lying is like a plant, the more you feed it, the larger it grows. “
• people who lie to others, often lie to themselves too! 

There is a destructive power behind lying. There is creative power in truth.

Curiously, the Hebrew word for ‘truth’ is ‘emet’ and it is spelled with the first, middle and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The rabbis came to the conclusion that:

‘truth upholds the first and the last of God’s creation, and everything in between.’ (Jonathan Cahn)

We each have a choice to make in our words, thoughts and actions. Let’s strive for truth in all of these.

​Pauline Anderson