Is Lying Ever the Right Choice?

Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, fake news, Enron, Barry Bonds, Lance Armstrong, Ted Haggard, and countless other examples prove that lies are a major problem on the front page of the news and in the church.

Most people would agree that lying is wrong. But while we don’t trust or want to associate with liars, the truth is that most of us lie every day.

In 1996, Dr. Bella DePaulo and her colleagues at the University of Virginia performed a psychological study of lying.

They recruited 147 adults (18-71 years old) and asked them to keep a record of all their social interactions for one week and to note any lies that they told in those interactions.

The study found that people told an average of one to two lies per day, roughly 20-30% of their conversations.

The most common lies were about their feelings, actions/plans/whereabouts, and achievements.¹

We may not all be lying about big things like affairs, fraud, or cheating, but what about the little white lies?

What about when we compliment someone’s bad haircut, sleep in and blame our tardiness on traffic, or say we have plans when we want to avoid something or someone?

Are all lies really all bad—even if they spare a person’s feelings or save a life?

What is a lie?

To answer this complicated question, we must first define what a lie is.

A lie is a deliberate, false statement intended to deceive.

Lies can be either verbal or nonverbal. So we can lie in speech, writing, or gestures—such as nodding our head or pointing in a false direction.

So communicating false information is not a lie if you do not know it is false, because it’s not deliberate.

A hyperbole is not a lie, such as saying, “I ate a ton of ice cream.” Taken literally, that would kill you!

Hyperbole is a common form of exaggerated speech. It is not a lie because it is not intended to deceive.

Silence or withholding information is not a lie, because the absence of a statement cannot be a false statement.

Also, certain trickery that allows someone to draw false conclusions is not a lie if you don’t give a false statement. So leaving a light on while we are on vacation might allow a robber to conclude that we are home, but it’s not a lie.

And when God led Gideon and his men to surround a large Midianite encampment with torches and trumpet blasts to allow the enemy to conclude that they were outnumbered (Judg 7), it wasn’t lying.

Possible Views

There are only four possible conclusions about the morality of a lie.

Lying is either:

1. Amoral (neither right nor wrong)
2. Always right
3. Sometimes right
4. Never right.

All Christians who trust in the authority of God’s Word can eliminate the first two views with a quick survey of what the Bible says about lying.

The primary debate among Christians surrounds the third and fourth views.

What Does the Bible Say?

The Bible says a lot about lying. We don’t have time to examine them all here, but there are three basic principles we must understand.

1. The Bible forbids lying.

• “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit” (Ps 34:13).
• “You shall not lie to one another” (Lev 19:11).
• “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord” (Prov 12:22).
• “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth” (Eph 4:25).

Most notably, lying is forbidden in the in the ninth commandment: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exod 20:16, also Deut 5:20).

Some may argue that the ninth commandment is only speaking about false witness, not lying in general.

While this may be true, John Frame is correct in concluding, “We may understand the ninth commandment to be the foundation of the general biblical polemic against lying.”²

Just as Jesus extends the sixth commandment against murder to also apply to the underlying root of anger (Matt 25:21-22), I do not think it is wrong to see the ninth commandment also extending to the underlying root of lying.

2. The Bible promises that liars will be punished.

• “A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish” (Prov 19:9).
• “Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment” (Prov 12:19).
• “You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man” (Ps 5:6).
• “No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes” (Ps 101:7).
• “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death” (Rev 21:8).

Liars will suffer the same terrible fate as murderers, idolaters, and other sinners.

God rewards the truth and punishes lies.

3. Honesty is a mark of God’s people, not lying.

• “As long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, my lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue will not utter deceit” (Job 27:3-4).
• “The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies” (Ps 58:3).

Paul sets the standard of truth as a mark of the church.

• He instructs the church of Ephesus, “having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another” (Eph 4:25).
• He commands the church in Colossae, “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Col 3:9-10).

Honesty is a mark of righteousness, and lying is a mark of wickedness.

So lying cannot be considered amoral or always right since it is forbidden and punished.

Based on mountains of biblical material, it’s almost impossible to argue that lying is even sometimes right.

None of these verses would lead us to believe that lying is ever God’s will for us.

God’s Nature and The Origin of Lies

God is the standard of perfect holiness. Moral behavior, following God’s law, is a reflection of God’s nature. Therefore, it is right to follow God’s ways, and wrong to contradict his ways.

So what is God’s nature in regards to lying?

The book of Numbers tells us, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” (Num 23:19).

In other words, he is “the God of truth” (Isa 65:16).

With this in mind, we can see why Proverbs 6:16-19 lists seven things that God hates and two of the seven are “a lying tongue” and “a false witness who breathes out lies.”

Since God is truth, he “never lies” (Titus 1:2).

All that is true comes from God, and all that is false must come from somewhere else.

Satan is the original liar.

The first lie recorded in Scripture emerges from the mouth of the serpent in Genesis 3:4.

This is why John 8:44 says the Devil “was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

If truth is of God’s character, and lies are of Satan’s character, then lying aligns with Satan, not God.

A lie is no small thing. All sin entered the world through Satan’s lie.

Dallas Willard says it well:

Try picturing a world where lying doesn’t exist. Imagine that human beings became constitutionally incapable of telling a lie in word or behavior. Almost all evil deeds and intents are begun with the thought that they can be hidden by deceit…. Suddenly we can see how the kingdom of evil rests on lies, and why Satan is called a liar and the father of lies.³

If we believe that lying is sometimes right, then we are saying that it is sometimes right to act more like Satan than God.

What an absurd thought!

Are Lies Ever Necessary?

Imagine this: You are hiding Jews in your house in Nazi Germany during World War II.

Nazi soldiers knock on your door and ask, “Are you hiding Jews?”

How would you respond?

If you tell the truth, innocent people will likely be killed. If you lie, they might live. What’s the right thing to do?

This is a classic, historical example used to argue about tragic moral choice. You have an almost impossible choice.

Do you sin to save lives (and possibly your own), or sin by handing innocent lives over to die?

Many reputable scholars use this example to argue that it is sometimes right to lie.

According to Norman Geisler, “In real, unavoidable moral conflicts, God does not hold a person guilty for not keeping a lower law since he could not keep it without breaking a higher law.”⁴

John and Paul Feinberg say, “we agree that there are prima facie duties and that sometimes they conflict. We agree with… Geisler that obeying one and disobeying or neglecting the other is not sin.”⁵

In these situations, according to Geisler and the Feinbergs, there are certain laws that are higher than others. So if we choose the higher law, we are not held accountable for breaking the lower law.

But here’s the problem with this view: How do we know which laws are higher than others?

The Bible does not give a list of the pecking order of God’s laws.

Geisler would say that love of God and love of neighbor is an example of a hierarchy of laws, but all of God’s laws fit into these categories.

So should we love God more by reflecting his character of truth, or love our neighbor more by lying to save them?

This doesn’t solve the dilemma.

The Feinbergs admit the weakness of Geisler’s solution, but their solution is not any better:

We are not sure it is possible to discover from Scripture or elsewhere an answer to how duties relate to one another in a preset hierarchy. Nor are we certain that if one did construct a hierarchy, it would be applicable to every situation, regardless of the factors involved in each case. Hence, we hold that one must evaluate each situation separately. In a given situation, one duty may clearly have priority. In that case, one must obey it. In other cases, both duties may appear to have equal priority. In those cases, the agent is free to obey either one.⁶

Essentially, they are saying that the decision of which choice to make is up to us. And if the choice is not clear, we can do either.

But again, there’s no biblical basis for this conclusion.

What about people in the Bible who were commended for lying?

Those who argue that it is sometimes right to lie might point to some of the stories in the Bible where people told lies and are commended for being righteous.

For example, the Egyptian midwives lied to Pharaoh to save the lives of babies (Exod 1), and Rahab the prostitute lied to the men of Jericho about the Israelite spies she was hiding on her roof (Josh 2).

In both cases, Scripture looks favorably on these women. So does the Bible approve of their lies?

No, the Bible never condones the act of lying.

Regarding the midwives, we read, “So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families” (Exod 1:20-21).

The midwives are commended for their fear of God, not for lying.

Likewise, concerning Rahab, Hebrews 11:31 says, “By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.”

James also asks, “ And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?” (Jas 2:25).

But once again, Rahab is not commended for lying. Hebrews approves of her welcoming the spies, and James approves of her receiving the messengers and sending them out a different way.

A third way?

The problem with arguments about tragic moral choice is the assumption that there are only two options. But life is far more complicated than that.

When we are put on the spot, we may believe we have no option but to choose the lesser of two evils. But if we think long and hard about the situation, we often find that there is a third and better way.

Scripture promises that when we are tempted, God “will always provide a way of escape” (1 Cor 10:13).

Therefore, when these God-fearing women in the Bible chose to risk their lives to lie to save lives, it’s possible that there may have been a better third option that avoided sin.

Perhaps they could have remained silent, hid, or answered in a shrewd way that did not directly answer the question.

For example, when Jesus was tested with trick questions, he often replied with a question (Mark 12:13-17, Luke 20:1-8, Mark 10:2-3).

So it’s possible that Rahab could have saved lives and avoided lying by replying, “What spies? Why would a spy hide here? Do you really think I would risk my life to do something that foolish?”

None of these are lies because they are not statements. We could argue the same for the situation of hiding Jews from Nazis.

Therefore, since the Bible clearly opposes lying, never affirms lying, and there are always more than two choices, we must believe that it is always wrong to lie—even with good intentions.

The End Result Of a Lie

In a 2016 study of brain activity while lying, researchers found that activity in the amygdala, where unpleasant emotions are processed, registered high for the first lie told, but the activity decreased with each following lie.

The researchers concluded: “The findings uncover a biological mechanism that supports a ‘slippery slope’: what begins as small acts of dishonesty can escalate into larger instances.”⁷

These findings should not surprise us. Paul wrote long ago about “liars whose consciences are seared” (1 Tim 4:2).

Both science and Scripture prove that the more you lie, the weaker your conscience gets, and the more likely you are to lie again.

Therefore, although lies often start small, the more you tell them, the more they will grow.

We know this from experience. If you tell one lie, you often have to tell another lie to keep the lie going.

If you lie to someone that you can’t hang out because you have to study for a test, they might follow up later asking how studying was. You will be pressed to lie again to avoid looking like a liar—even though by lying again you are becoming more of what you don’t want to be perceived as.

Before you know it, you’ve turned one small lie, into a chain of many lies.

Plus, when Christians lie, we hurt our witness to others.

Just think about the fallen pastors who have caused such damage because they were caught living a lie.

Not only are people in their church hurt, but many skeptics will point to the story on the front page and say, “See, I knew Christians were liars!”

Lies not only break God’s law and lead to more lies, but they damage our reputation, and worse, they tarnish God’s holy name.

Is lying ever right?

Based on a mountain of Biblical commands, the nature of God, the fallacy of tragic moral choice, and the end result, lying is never right.

Even the smallest lie breaks God’s commands, contradicts his nature, and sullies his name.

As Wayne Grudem concludes, “the overall testimony of Scripture is that lying is always wrong in every situation and every circumstance of life, and this will be true for all eternity.”⁸

Just as Satan masquerades as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14), so would he like us to believe that lies can be good.

White lies are a myth. They all drip black with sin.

1. Bella M. DePaulo et al., “Lying in Everyday Life,” JPSP 70 (1996): 979-95.
2. John M. Frame, The Doctrine of the Christian Life (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2008), 830.︎
3. Dallas Willard, The Spirit of Disciplines (New York: HarperCollins, 1988), 229.
4. Norman L. Geisler, Christian Ethics: Contemporary Issues and Options (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010), 104.
5. John S. Feinberg and Paul D. Feinberg, Ethics for a Brave New World (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 39.
6. Feinberg and Feinberg, Ethics, 40.
7. Neil Garrett et al., “The Brain Adapts to Dishonesty,” Nat Neurosci. 19 (2016): 1727-32.
8. Wayne Grudem, “Why It Is Never Right to Lie: An Example of John Frame’s Influence on My Approach to Ethics,” in Speaking the Truth in Love: The Theology of John Frame (ed. John J. Hughes; Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2009), 778-801.