When Satan seduced the first human beings away from their relationship with God, he introduced the lie. Lies ruin relationships. Anyone who has ever been in a relationship with someone who practices lying knows that this is true. The person who loves or trusts the lie is under the assumption that what he or she is being told is true. This means that decisions and commitments are made based on what someone else wants them to believe is reality. But it’s not necessarily. God can speak and cause things to come into being (Genesis 1 and Romans 4:17). God cannot lie (Titus !:2), and He has all power. God’s word created reality and it also describes it to us.
Liars cannot create reality. They can only distort one’s relationship to it. The ability to use words to truly communicate is a gift from God. Lying is an abuse of that gift. When the Serpent told Eve: “you shall not surely die,” the Serpent was misleading her because he knew she would die. His words did not fit with the real world that God had made and the truthful decrees of God. The liar thinks he is better off if people believe his lies, than if the truth comes out.
The liar will make himself an enemy of the truth, but the truth will ultimately prevail. The more lies that are told and the longer they are told, the more difficult it is to keep from being exposed. One lie will often require a dozen more to keep it afloat. Light exposes things for what they are and thereby aids one in seeing the truth. Lying and believing the lie is a moral problem because it is a rejection of the light that God has given. Jesus said: “and this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men love the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil,” John 3:19.
When one does evil and wishes to escape the consequences, darkness always seems to be available. Studies have shown that intense streetlights placed around city streets cuts down the crime rate. Property owners who wish to discourage crime use bright lights to deter potential vandals or robbers. This works because people who do evil do not want to be seen. They love darkness because it helps them live one life at night. During the day, when people are watching, they pretend to be law-abiding citizens.
Jesus used this fact to illustrate the love of spiritual darkness that causes people to reject the light of God’s truth that came to them in the person of Jesus the Messiah. Those who do not wish to repent and receive forgiveness want the light to be turned off so that they can continue to live the lie without exposure. The Gospel declares that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. It requires sincere faith in God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead and ended our self-proclaimed right to believe and do anything we want. It involves the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit causing us to be born again from above. It promises eternal life to those who repent and believe. This is the good news to be proclaimed to every person on this planet Earth.
My weekly prayer is that the reader of this commentary becomes spiritually inspired of God. Contact Expressions of Faith at P.O. Box 330127, Nashville, Tenn. 37203; or e-mail <watsonwr68@gmail.com>. God bless!
