Why do we lie? Who does it impact? Let’s talk (I know you probably won’t join the chat, but I can always hope).
Reading…Esther 1-2/Acts 5:1-21
Peter said, “Ananias, how did Satan get you to lie to the Holy Spirit and secretly keep back part of the price of the field? Before you sold it, it was all yours, and after you sold it, the money was yours to do with as you wished. So what got into you to pull a trick like this? You didn’t lie to men but to God.” (Acts 5:3-4)
Peter wants to know how Satan gets Ananias to lie. How does Peter know it’s Satan who starts the lie? Jesus tells him so:
You're from your father, the Devil, and all you want to do is please him. He was a killer from the very start. He couldn't stand the truth because there wasn't a shred of truth in him. When the Liar speaks, he makes it up out of his lying nature and fills the world with lies. (John 8:44)
In Peter’s cosmology, from the very beginning, Serpent Satan is the source of all deception (Genesis 3:4). His Master Jesus, on the other hand, is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6).
Peter exposes Ananias deception. Then he traces Ananias’ deceit back to its source.
There are situations where we might need to lie to protect others. I describe such situations over a year ago in a previous Substack called “Family Values”.
We sometimes lie to protect others. It appears, however, that Ananias lies to protect himself? Is it his money? Is it the loss of his reputation he fears? We don’t know for sure.
Writing…
Peter exposes Ananias’ deception. The Washington Post does something similar with Donald Trump in his first term.
In four years, President Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims the Fact Checker’s database of the false or misleading claims made by President Trump while in office. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/Updated Jan. 20, 2021
In Trump’s second term, he succeeds in silencing the Fact Checkers at the Post. However, he doesn’t appear to have succeeded in silencing his own lies. In order to do that, Trump would have to be willing to heed the following admonition from I John
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. (I John 1:8)
Building…
I’m not holding my breath for Trump.
I do continue to pray for him. However, I also include myself in those prayers. I acknowledge my own penchant to listen to the lies of the Serpent. Worse yet, I sometimes come up with some lies of my own.
I journal as an investigative journalist. With the help of the Holy Spirit, I search my own heart to see if there is any wicked way in me (Psalm 139:23-24).
I believe that if lying is a cancer that can kill me, the Holy Spirit is the Physician who can heal me. After I John 1:8’s diagnosis, I claim the promise of a prognosis: If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9).
I will continue, with Peter’s persistence, to expose Trump’s lies. However, I won’t stop there…
How about you?
I, unfortunately, could not cast a stone at a liar. Most of the lies I have told, however, I can justify, but those few that were done for self-preservation, I can not erase from my mind. When it comes to Presidents, I would assume that every one of them in our lifetime has been guilty of lying... some more than others, and some more than ALL of the others put together. Lies, especially those that affect the lives of many, must be exposed, and the persons responsible held accountable for the damage their lies have inflicted on others.