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Truth Seekers and Promise Keepers

February 4, 2001

TEXT: MATTHEW 5:33-37

In 1991 a fascinating, yet disturbing book was published entitled: THE DAY AMERICA TOLD THE TRUTH. The book was the result of the study of two men working in the field of behavioral research. Their goal was to determine what Americans really think about the most important subjects in their lives.

They interviewed 2,000 selected Americans representing a cross-section of the American demographic, and over three days they asked these 2,000 people over 1800 questions with the assurance of absolute anonymity. They asked questions about everything from religion to crime, from sexuality to politics. And these people revealed secrets about their lives that they had never told anyone before. The results were amazing.

The writers of the book later said if they discovered any major theme in their research it was this: "The moral authority in America is the individual." Now, that doesn't surprise us all that much - we've known that for a while. But to really understand the implication for a society whose people lead moral lives determined by whatever is good for me, is a frightening thought.

Consider this: 64% of Americans said: "I will lie when it suits me, so long as it doesn't cause any real damage." What caught my attention about this study, more than anything else, was a unifying thread throughout everything that this book had to say - throughout its pages, regardless of the topic that was being discussed, this factor was clear: We are a nation of liars!

Even if all of the statistics in the book were taken with a huge grain of salt (which they probably should) it is still obvious that lying has become an integral part of American culture - a trait of American character. We lie and we don't even think about it!

We are now in an interesting time of American politics. Public opinion polls are shaping legislation. We now live in a time when the American public can watch a President go through hours of Grand Jury testimony, knowing full well that the truth is being hedged at best. And yet the day after, that same President can have approval ratings go through the roof. And when asked why, the public response was a clear verdict: "He's only doing what I would do, if I were in his place."

Those of you who are educators might be familiar with a publication called CHILD MAGAZINE. In it's April 1990 issue, in an article entitled: "The Truth about Lying," they contrasted what they called the "OLD" view of lying with the "NEW" view of lying.

The old view goes something like this: Children were taught in rather black and white terms about lying - all lying was bad and was deserving of punishment. That's the "old view." The view that if you lie your nose is going to grow like Pinocchio (which in itself is a lie, so figure that one out).

But the "new" view of lying is that lying is an indication of development. Some lying, they suggest, is considered normal. Quoting directly from thearticle: "A child's first few lies are seen as an important first step in the child's development of self." Whether your developmental theory be Piaget or Kohlberg, it is clear that our culture no longer sees lying as a big deal.

And yet the Scriptures take a very different view. In fact, the way the Bible sees it, lying is at the very heart of the sin problem. That was true in the Garden of Eden. The serpent told Adam and Eve: "You can be like God." He even tried it out on Jesus. "You can control the whole world if you'll just bow down to me."

You see, deception is at the very root of our fallenness and sinfulness. And so I don't know about you, but it seems to me that the Bible takes the issue of lying very seriously. Little wonder then that it would be included in the Ten Commandments, and Jesus saw it appropriate to address it here.

In order for us to really understand why it is so significant, we need to examine it's Old Testament roots, in particular in the ninth of the Ten Commandments: "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor."

The language of that commandment connects it to the judicial processes of the covenant community. Lying is not just an individual issue - it does not just affect you. It's something that powerfully impacts the health of the whole community. When we lie, we don't just hurt ourselves, we hurt our relationship with God, our families, our neighbors, and our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Telling the truth was so important in the life of Israel that there were stiff, serious penalties for giving false witness in court. As a matter of fact, there were even penalties for refusing to give witness in court when you had information about a particular person or case.

Why was that? Because Israel recognized that the very health and vitality of their community, even their nation, relied on the character of their people, and their commitment to be truthful in all of their dealings. Consequently, the word of witnesses was authoritative.

There is a story in 1 Kings 21 about King Ahaz. The king wanted to buy a particular piece of property that was held by an Israelite. He offered a fair price, but the Israelite refused saying that the land had been an inheritance from his father. Ahaz was despondent. He mentioned the incident to his wife Jezebel. She said: "You're not acting like a king at all. Just let me take care of it."

She concocted a plan - developed a religious observance and invited the "stubborn" land owner. She hired two scoundrels to sit on either side of him. The deal was this: As the festivities proceeded the two scoundrels were to stand up and give testimony that the stubborn land owner had cursed God and cursed the King. Jezebel knew that the result would be that that man would be drug off and stoned to death on the spot. That was the power of witnesses, and the Law stated that the testimony of two men was valid and true.

You can see that in order for that system to work you had to be able to trust the testimony of people, and there had to be strong warnings against giving false witness. Part of the protection for that law was that very often the witness had to become the executioner. Are you willing to stand behind your word or not?

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus goes even further as he begins to talk about the giving and receiving of oaths. The Old Testament context concerning the giving of oaths had two prongs.

The first prong had to do with guaranteeing the truth. And so if a person was going to really guarantee the truth then they would swear by the appropriate person or place. For example, very often you will read in the Old Testament of someone saying: "I swear on the head of my first born son that I'm telling the truth." And in so doing they were guaranteeing that they were offering a genuinely true statement.

The second prong was the guaranteeing of a promise. Again, they would declare an oath on something they were promising to do tomorrow. And so they might say: "As surely as the Lord God of Israel lives, I will never harm your family." And in so doing they were guaranteeing that the promise they were making would be carried out.

The first prong had to do with honesty and the second with faithfulness to keep a promise. In ancient Israel, if you made a statement or a promise and you backed it up with an oath, then not to follow through with that was to break covenant.

Into that context Jesus introduces a whole new arrangement when he says to not make oaths at all. Do not prove your honesty by having to declare an oath! Do not promise by having to swear by something to validate it! Then what are we to do? Jesus says: "Simply let your 'Yes,' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one."

In other words, anything more than straightforward honesty derives itself out of the evil within the world. Why? Because every time we must back something up with, "I swear to God that I will do that," we are presupposing evil, and that indeed we will not back it up except for the oath.

Do you see what is happening here? The Law assumes that dishonesty is a given and forbids swearing a false oath - Jesus fulfills the law by forbiding the use of any false word at all. Jesus is demanding total honesty in all human relationships, because it is God's will that people be absolutely truthful in their words and faithful to their commitments. Wherever that kind of truthfulness and faithfulness are present, they cannot be enhanced by oaths of any sort. Having to swear on anything other than your word simply raises suspicion about the depth of your commitment to telling the truth and to keeping your promises.

In light of that there a couple of questions we need to ask ourselves and ask honestly. One, why do we lie? And two, how do we lie?

I can see four basic reasons why we're motivated to lie.

¨ WE LIE IN ORDER TO ELEVATE OURSELVES.

We want to make our case look better. We want to make our abilities look better than they are. This can be so subtle. Just the way we shade things in our conversations with each other to make our situation look a little better than it really is.

The way we talk about our job and the importance of it, or our standing in our workplace and the authority that we exercise there. The way we casually say we averaged 20 points a game in high school, when in fact it was really only 12. The way that we talk about the reality even of what goes on in our homes. The way we present that to other people in trying to elevate and make it look better than it really is.

Sometimes we even speak dishonestly about our own spiritual health with each other. We misrepresent what's really happening in our own lives in order to elevate our standing with each other. There's a word for that . . . that's a lie.

¨ WE LIE TO PROTECT OURSELVES.

We don't want to take the rap. We don't want to be embarrassed. We don't want to take responsibility. "Yes, officer I had my seatbelt on." When in fact, we didn't.

That kind of deception is nothing new. It started on day one when God came to Adam and said: "Why did you eat of the tree that I told you not to eat?" And Adam's immediate response was: "This woman you gave me." He knew better than that, but when we start living for self, we'll do almost anything to protect self.

¨ WE LIE TO DAMAGE ANOTHER PERSON OUT OF HATRED, ANGER, OR REVENGE.

If someone hurts us, there's something deep within us that makes us want to make them pay. Oh, we'd never harm them physically, but how about a well placed white lie? Shading the truth just enough to make them squirm - just enough to make them feel the sting of betrayal.

¨ WE LIE FOR GREED.

We lie for money, for profit, for business. It happens every day. We play fast and loose with the truth in order to turn a buck.

How do we lie?

¨ WE LIE THROUGH SLANDER. Intentionally and willfully saying untrue things about another person.

¨ WE LIE THROUGH RUMOR AND GOSSIP. People's lives have literally been destroyed from a rumor.

¨ WE LIE THROUGH DECEPTION. Holding back information, shading the truth just a bit to make it work for our advantage.

¨ WE LIE THROUGH EXAGGERATION. "I work 16 hours a day!" When in truth maybe it's more like ten.

¨ WE LIE WHEN WE MISREPRESENT WHAT ANOTHER PERSON SAID.

¨ WE LIE WHEN WE INTENTIONALLY CREATE FALSE IMPRESSIONS. That's when we say "yes," but imply "no" - or when we say "no," but imply "yes." Have you ever been around someone that's able to "tell" the truth, but not "communicate" the truth? Where they say the truth in such a way that it comes out false? I guarantee you that this text is telling us that that is also judged. To speak the truth and imply a lie is still wrong.

¨ WE LIE WHEN WE REFUSE TO CORRECT UNTRUE STATEMENTS.

¨ WE LIE THROUGH FLATTERY. Flattery is saying something to a person's face that we would never say behind their back.

¨ WE CAN EVEN LIE IN OUR SILENCE. Did you know that? Lying can be non-verbal. A raised eye-brow - a shrug of the shoulders. The little cryptic word games we play with each other so as to not be right up front and truthful.

I've had people tell me after a misunderstanding or disagreement: "Oh, everything's O.K. There's no problem between us." And it became obvious later, that indeed there was still a problem between us.

We do not live in a world where a handshake is a person's word or where a person's word means much of anything anymore. But Jesus calls his disciples to be those kinds of people.

Now you say: "Does that mean that if I'm called to take the stand in a courtroom, and asked to place my hand on a Bible and 'swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God' . . . I'm not supposed to do it? I don't think that's what Jesus is saying.

But I do believe Jesus is saying that whether we stand in a courtroom and "swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help me God," or not . . . when we follow Christ, by the very nature of who we are as the people of God, we are "swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help me God." As Christ followers, we are called upon to be truth speakers and promise keepers.

Everything we promise, we promise with integrity and faithfulness. Everything we say, we say with honesty because anything less would deny the very one we seek to follow.

Our word is to be "Yes, yes," and "No, no." We are called not to tell the truth any more in a courtroom, than we are at home, or at work, or at school. And when we make a promise we are called to keep the promise that we made. A promise to a spouse, a promise to a child, a promise to a friend, a promise to a business associate - we are called to fulfill that promise because we follow Jesus Christ and we are kingdom people.

When a Christian says "I will be there," the Christian will be there. When a Christian says "yes," the Christian means "yes." When a Christian says, "I'll be there at this time," a Christian needs to be on time. When a Christian joins a group or enrolls in a course or accepts an invitation, they are simply faithful and committed.

When Christ followers make a promise they keep it. When Christ followers make a pledge they are faithful to it. "Yes" means "yes." "No" means "no." No double-talk. No slippery speech for the Christian.

I guess you could say that a Christian's speech is to be characterized by the twin features of SIMPLICITY and HONESTY. And honesty leads to simplicity, because the more sincerely we speak, the more simply we are able to speak, because others will learn to believe that our word is our word.

Jesus isn't suggesting we not be conversationalists. He is simply trying to tell us to be truth-speakers and promise-keepers. Whenever honesty breaks down in Christian community, community falls apart. We've got to speak truthfully with each other - we've got to be above board with each other - we've got to keep everything on the table, even when it hurts. Reality beats make-believe every time, because when we deal with reality God can redeem our broken lives.

Speaking the truth doesn't give license. We can't just say what we're feeling at the expense of other people. We are always to speak the truth in love, and to use discernment, and pray for wisdom. Anything less than that is just as wrong and just as selfish as bold-faced lie!

Perhaps all of us have struggled at some point with this issue - but there are others of us who are SHACKLED by our lies and our inability to keep a promise!

How do we break free? How do we find the freedom of truthfulness and faithfulness that Jesus wants to lead us toward? Because truthfulness can't be coerced or legislated, because truthfulness comes from the heart.

That kind of integrity and truthfulness of heart is not developed by our own discipline of just trying hard to be good and honest people. That kind of character and integrity is a work that only God can do inside of us, because it involves a transformation - it involves a cleansing. There is a purification of heart that must take place that can only be accomplished through the work of Jesus Christ in us.

It may be that 64% of Americans admit to lying regularly. That may be the truth! But God has called his people to a different way! Honesty may not be the way of the world, but IT IS the way of the kingdom and we are children of the King.

(Repeat with the congregation): "May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, Oh Lord, our Rock and my Redeemer."