Lying Ain't Peanuts! Especially
about People or to Judicatories.
Posted 1/31/2009
The following is from the Christian Education Report presented to Synod in 2002
and 2003. It was not adopted except the first page in 2003. The whole report
may be found at
Christian Education
Report
Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we
are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down
upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no
more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good,
that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that
it may minister grace unto the hearers.
If we are to be a part of the heavenly conversation, we must first quit our
lying. We must not lie about God (false doctrine); we must not lie about
ourselves (hypocrisy and guile); we must not lie about each other (slander and
falsehood).
Members of each other. This
is true because we are members of the same body. Christ has no disassociated
body parts. To use a physical analogy, the animal body cannot function unless
the nervous system is whole and uncorrupted. Drugs and alcohol, and certain
diseases, disrupt the nervous system and the body becomes uncontrollable.
In order for the body to work properly, it must be connected to the head and
all of the parts must be connected to each other. Words of love and truth
cement our connection to each other; lies disrupt the connection. The words of
the Gospel in Scripture connect us to Jesus Christ and the words of the
Scriptures teach us to love one another, forbear one another, and forgive one
another in Jesus Christ.
Grieve Not the Holy Spirit.
Because we have been baptized into Christ, it is the Holy Spirit who works
faith and love in the children of God, and seals us unto the day of redemption.
Evil communications grieve Him:
And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of
redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil
speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath
forgiven you. --Ephesians 4:30-32
Instead of grieving the Holy Spirit, we are called to confess with our mouth
the Lord Jesus and to believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the
dead. We are called to confess Him before men, to confess our sins, and no
longer deceive ourselves by walking in the lies of self-righteousness and
self-justification. We are to trust in Christ for forgiveness of sins and so be
restored to fellowship with God through Jesus Christ.
Without the Triune God, how lonely is the life of man! The modern man has no
speaking God, no fellowship and communion with God. The only voice that modern
man hears is the Babel of his own wilderness.
God has provided all things for His church. It is through His promises that we
escape the corruption that is in the world through lust [II Pet. 1:4]. It is
also through the promises that we have fellowship with Him and with one another
[IJohn 1]. This fellowship begins in the church, for without the church there
is no fellowship with God and no living fellowship with one another. Without
the church we are lost in a communion of death, dancing the dance of death,
speaking the words of death, working the works of death. The stench of death is
about all
we do.
Only in Christ, in the living body of Christ, do we find life, and peace, and
service. The church is a living temple made of living stones. His communion is
the communion of life because He endured death for us and rose up from the dead
to bring us life forevermore. Shall we be wiser than God? God has ordained the
means for us to have fellowship with Him: we do not seek some other way, for
our Shepherd comes by the door of the sheep and those who climb up some other
way are thieves and robbers. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the
unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord" [Isaiah
55:7] As long as a person clings in pride to his own opinions and his own
stubborn ways, there is no hope for fellowship with God, who resists the proud,
but give grace to the humble. The proud talk only to themselves, for God does
not hear them.
I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them;
because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but
they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not. Hear
the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated
you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but
he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed. Isaiah 66:4,5
The Lord hears those who take His word seriously and tremble.
Speaking the Truth in Love (Ephesians 4:5)
Paul expands on this idea from Ephesians 5:19 to the end of
the epistle. Verses 19,20 give the outline.
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and
making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things
unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting
yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
We are to speak to one another, and to speak to God in thanksgiving and praise,
echoing Psalm 50, cited above. The Christian life is a joyful conversation with
God and with each other. Involved in this conversation is the necessity of
joyful submission one to another in the fear of God, who has called us out of
darkness into the glorious light of His Son. (I Peter 2:9) In terms of this
submission, the apostle speaks of the relationship between husbands and wives,
parents and children, owners and labor. He ends by speaking of our conflict
with the evil conversation of the world, which can only be overcome by the
armor of the Spirit:
Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to
withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore,
having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of
righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench
all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the
sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in
the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for
all saints. --Ephesians 6:13-18
The armor of God is not for protection against bombs and guns and clubs. God
has fashioned those carnal weapons and they cannot do more than His word and
wisdom permits. As we read in Isaiah 54:
Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that
bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to
destroy. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue
that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the
heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith
the LORD.
Jesus put it this way, "Man does not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God." (Matt.
4:4) It is not that man should not live by bread alone, but that man does not
live by bread alone. Apart from the decree and wisdom of God man cannot so much
as move. We have no independent existence, for in Him we live and move and have
our being (Acts 17:29). We cannot even raise our fist in defiance of Him
without using the strength, the mind, the self-consciousness that He gives us.
In our sin we turn His gifts against Him, and it is only His patience and
long-suffering that holds back the punishment that we deserve.
