Ephesians 4:25 - The Problem with Lying

 

A pastor once told his congregation, "Next week I plan to preach about the sin of lying. To help you understand my sermon, I want you all to read Mark 17." The following Sunday, the pastor wanted to know how many had read Mark 17.  A good number of hands went up. The pastor smiled and said, "Mark has only 16 chapters. I will now proceed with my sermon on the sin of lying." A wise woman reminded him that he lied to the congregation as well!

Previously we saw that being a Christian means becoming a new person, with new values and standards. We put off old habits and put on new habits.  In Eph. 2:1 Paul reminds the Ephesians, that they “were formerly dead in their sins and transgressions... but were made alive with Christ even when they were dead in sins and   transgressions."   A Christian is not a person who has made a new start in life, but a person who has received a new life to start with. We are made alive…

We saw that church life is not only a call to unity (4:1-16), but it is also a call to purity (4:17ff). This is because we are "created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (4:24).The subject of unity and purity needs constant re-emphasis and reminder. Paul writes these practical reminders because he knows that churches easily become compromised in these two areas.  Destroy unity and you destroy the church.  Neglect purity and you invite Satan into your midst! Can you see why an emphasis on the new birth - conversion and discipleship is so necessary? Can you see why requiring a testimony of conversion and membership classes and membership interviews and maintenance of ordinary church discipline are so important for church membership?  If we don’t guard our gates with an insistence upon these, we will soon be in the hands of the unconverted, the ungodly, and Satan.   

And now, from 4:25ff  onwards  we are reminded  concerning a number  of  practical issues  with respect  to   the  purity of the church.  Today we will consider 4:25:  “Therefore, having put away falsehood (lying), let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbour, for we are  members  one of another.”   From this we learn three things:

·         A strong commitment to “put away falsehood”.

·         A strong commitment to “speak the truth”.  

·          A strong reason for  doing this :  “… for we are members one of another”

  1.      PUT AWAY FALSEHOOD  (LYING)

Let me give you a general idea from the Scriptures   how serious lying is in the eyes of God.

a.      God hates lies  

·         “Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, but those who act faithfully are His delight. [Prov. 12:22]

·         “There are six things that the LORD hates…among which is a lying tongue” [Prov. 6:17 – 19]

·         The sin of lying is implied among the acts of the sinful nature in Gal. 5:19 – 21. Note the warning in v. 21

·         Lying has no place amongst God’s people  – Eph. 4:25 see also Col.3:9 - “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self  with its practises…”;

·         Psalm 34:13:  “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit”.

b.       God punishes those who lie

·         The punishment for all liars shall be the lake of fire [Rev. 21:8].

·         “A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish.” [Prov. 19:9]

·         “You destroy those who speak lies; The LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.” (Psalm 5:6 - see the greater context  in Psalm 5: 4 – 9!)

·         Psalm 12: 2-4 “Everyone utters lies to his neighbour;  with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,  the tongue that makes great boasts, those who say, “With our tongue we will prevail, our lips are with us; who is master over us?”

c.       The root of lying is hate! “A lying tongue hates its victims, and a flattering  mouth works ruin.” [Prov. 26:28]

d.      Lying is a futile exercise!  ”Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.” [Prov. 12:19]

e.      Jeremiah  9:1-9 -   case study  of a nation  of pathological liars and God’s  response.

I trust that you can see from these selected scriptures that God is not indifferent to lying - whether it is lying to ourselves or lying to others. If you are a Christian and lying is a habitual problem, you must hear the warning of the Holy Spirit now and repent. Lying is contrary to kingdom principles. It may mean that you will not inherit the kingdom of heaven.  

Many years ago I had counselled a family with profound problems. One of the problems was  that each  one had become so skilled at lying, that when I spoke to any individual, I  thought  “surely this one is telling the truth“  -  until what they said was contradicted by the next family member. Each family member was a compulsive liar. Lying was part of their family culture, and as one might have expected, it drove them apart.

Paul says here that falsehood (lying) is a characteristic of the "former manner of life” (4:22).   This helps us to understand where it comes from.  It comes from our old nature, which is corrupted by darkness in our understanding, ignorance, hardness of heart and sensuality (4:18,19). Our old nature was controlled by Satan, the Father of lies (John 8:44).  His nature is our nature before we were converted.  

When lying is habitually done by many it becomes a feature of our society. Such a society, says Paull is darkened, ignorant, hardened, insensitive and driven by sensuality.  Sadly, we see it everywhere in the world. Every day our newspapers are reporting fraud, corruption, lying and betrayal in families, commerce and society.  People even lie under oath in our courts.  Why is this? Because there is no moral compass.  There is no ultimate accountability to truth. Proverbs  29:18 says, ”Where there is no prophetic vision (NIV revelation) the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law”. The more a society is  law abiding and affected  and reformed by  the truth as it is in Jesus (4:21), the more the rot stops.  This brings us to our second observation.

2.      A STRONG COMMITMENT TO  SPEAK THE TRUTH

When we become a Christian we put off our old self which belongs to our former manner of life, which is corrupt through deceitful desires and we are renewed  in the spirit of our minds. We are called  to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God  in true righteousness an holiness. (4:22-24). Timothy, Paul’s son in the faith struggled with a fearful spirit. He was converted with this mind-set. But Paul had to remind Timothy that he was not a slave   of his natural fearfulness and timidity. He reminds him that “God gave us a spirit not of fear,but of power  and love and self- control”[2 Tim. 1:7]

Christians are no helpless pawns in the hands of Satan.  Christians have received His ‘incomparably great power’ (Eph. 1:19).  Later, in  Eph. 5:8, Paul reminds the Ephesians  that they no longer live in darkness, but in the light. They have received power and strength  and a new nature to  escape  the darkness  and futility of this life.

I want you to see a pattern in Ephesians 4 & 5. The Bible not only teaches us not to do certain things any longer, but the Bible asserts that we have received power from God  to  replace  the old life with the new life.  Peter says, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him…” [2 Pet. 1:3].

The influences that have shaped our past are undoubtedly  very strong. Mere will-power will not help us to overcome these.  We need God‘s resurrection power to overcome sin. The new birth makes the difference.  Having been born again helps us to replace old habits with new godly habits.   If you have been addicted to fear, or  anxiety,  or alcohol or drugs  or pornography or any other life dominating sin, and you have received Christ, you must  put these away  and replace  that   void with  the truth as it is in Jesus.  We must understand that replacement of old ungodly habits with new godly habits  is utterly essential.  In  Luke  11:24-26  we find a vivid  application of this in the case of demon possession. We  cannot  drive evil spirits  out of people, without  having the assurance  that the void left will be occupied by Christ  - otherwise 7  more evil spirits will come back to that empty house, and they will be worse off . And so falsehood must be replaced with truth. Anger must be dealt with before the sun goes down;  stealing must be  replaced  by honest work and by working to meet the needs of others; unwholesome talk must be replaced by positive up-building talk ; un-forgiveness must be replaced by forgiveness  etc. The remedy to lying is to be steadfastly committed to telling the truth. Telling the truth begins in our minds. That is why  4: 23 is so important - “the renewing of the spirit of our minds“. The battle for the lie versus truth begins in the mind. Satan put doubt into Eve’s mind: “Has God really said?“ (Gen. 3:1).  When anxious  about anything must learn to  affirm in our minds  whatever is true, honourable, just, pure, lovely … (Phil 4:8). Out of  such a commitment  to the truth comes a lifestyle of  righteousness and holiness.

3.       OUR REASON FOR DOING THIS : We are  all members of one body

Remember the context of this letter. It is written to the church at Ephesus. Paul is concerned with godly relationships in that body. And the first purity producing quality of life in that body is the matter of   dealing with falsehood. The members of your natural body do not lie to each other. When my big toe gets hurt, the nerve endings in that toe  inform my brain, and my brain  tells my voice box  “ouch!”. The terrible thing about leprosy (a disease that kills the nerve endings in our extremities) is for instance that if your foot gets hurt, the nerve endings do not respond. You can stand on hot coals, and your brain will not register the pain. That is why you see these terrible pictures of leprous people with malformed extremities. Leprosy lies to the body. That is what sin does, and that is a picture of what happens in the church when falsehood and deception rules. The whole body gets hurt.  We have seen this all too many times.

Summary and application:

Lying is part of the corrupt old nature. Its roots are satanic. Therefore it should be  put off in its many forms, whether it be plain  lying, or hypocrisy, or deception, or  exaggeration, or evasiveness.  We must avoid this at all costs  here at Eastside. Instead,  we must learn to  deal  with each other honestly, candidly,  plainly,  frankly, openly, accurately and truthfully  and above all -  in the spirit of love (4:15). 

The beauty of our Christianity lies in the taking care of the  small   details  of our lives. These small details tell great  truths.   We may be looking great on the outside, but the ultimate test of our church is a test like this: Do we lie  to one another? Therefore put off falsehood, and speak truth  to one another  for we are members  of Christ’s body.