A child doesn’t need to be taught to lie but he or she does need to learn the difference between the truth and a lie. Truth takes responsibility but a lie passes the buck with an easy way out – ‘it was someone else, not me!’ For some, lying can become a way of life, even to the extent of becoming ‘compulsive liars’. The more lies a person tells, the better memory that is needed to avoid getting caught out in the web of deception that has been spun. It’s not something that is pleasant to admit but we’ve all done it – lied to impress or get out of trouble for a quick fix. AND YET … and yet rather than bringing us freedom from jail it actually gets us into that dark inner space shackled behind bars. When we lie to others, we’re actually lying to ourselves making it hard to know who it is that looks back from the mirror. The deeper we go, the harder it is to find the way out.
- ‘Nobody trusts anyone in authority today. It is one of the main features of our age. Wherever you look, there are lying politicians, crooked bankers, corrupt police officers, cheating journalists and double-dealing media barons, sinister children’s entertainers, rotten and greedy energy companies, and out-of-control security services’ – Adam Curtis
- ‘Honesty is more than not lying. It is truth telling, truth speaking, truth living, and truth loving’ – James E Faust
- ‘The essence of lying is in deception, not in words’ – John Ruskin
- ‘The three kinds of people I dislike most are Gossips, Liars, and Hypocrites’ – Carole Radziwill
Multiple politicians have been found out like Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon resulting in them losing their public office. Others claim anything they don’t like is ‘fake news’. Nick Leeson’s fraudulent trading led to Barings Bank collapsing in 1995. ‘Piltdown Man’ was the remains of a supposedly unknown early species of man by archaeologist Charles Dawson in 1912 – it conned the world of science but was then discredited by the jaw of an Orangutang! Dutch painter of the 1600s Han van Meegeren is best-known not for his own work but for his forgeries of the great 17th Century artist Johannes Vermeer. Right at the start, it was deception by Satan that landed humans on the wrong side of truth. Down through history, the problem has continued. TV soaps like ‘Traitor’ have thrived on this.
Elizabeth Holmes (born February 1984) is an American biotechnology entrepreneur who was convicted of fraud in connection to her blood-testing company, Theranos. Her claim to have revolutionized blood testing by only needing a fingerprick of blood fooled even big pharmaceuticals and cost billions – she was sentenced to 11 years in jail beginning May 2023. So do you think life is black and white or shades of grey? In a court of law, people can make affirmations or traditionally place their hand on the Bible whilst saying, ‘I promise to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God’? Imagine a world where that was the reality – no more flattery, no exaggeration, no deception and no cover ups.
- ‘Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground’ – Genesis 4:8-10
- ‘Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him”’ – John 18:37-38
- ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’ – John 14:6
- ‘If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us’ – 1 John 1: 8-10
It is not just words that can now mislead us. Now images and videos can do the same using ‘green wallpaper’ (also referred to as ‘choma keying’). We can see something done by someone that they never actually did! Add in Artificial Intelligence (AI) that gets technology to come up with answers and humans are being penned in. Getting back to honesty offers a better and safer way – words meaning what they say and actions being real. If we are to get out of a disillusioning self-imprisonment, then the only way is to start being truthful to self, to others and to God. At that turning point, you can hear the locks turn in the handcuffs and in the prison door – this is why Jesus came … ‘to set the captives free’ (Luke 4:18).
Leanna Crawford has a helpful song to mull over on this topic: ‘The truth I’m standing on’
For more reading: https://connect4life.org.uk/c4l-boosters/jubilee/