When Jesus described Satan’s character, He specified two chief characteristics—he was a murderer and a liar.
“You [the Jewish leaders] are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” John 8:44, 45
Lying has become so commonplace that people do not believe those in high positions in the church, in business, or in government because they have been lied to so many times. You may have caught someone in your family, church, school, or workplace in a lie.
Lying isn’t always telling a “whopper,” an outright, bald-faced lie—like the man or woman involved in an adulterous relationship, and when suspicion falls on them they deny, deny, and deny. That’s an outright lie. But there is also the “little white lie” that intends to deceive. “The check’s in the mail,” but it hasn’t been written.
Before you succumb to this most successful temptation of the devil, read Revelation 21:8, 27; 22:15. The Lord warns us that no liar will be in the kingdom of heaven.
God hates lying. Satan deceived one-third of the angels in heaven by lying, causing the first war—in heaven (Revelation 12:7-9). And by telling a series of lies, Satan deceived Eve, bringing sickness, pain, suffering, and death to the inhabitants of this world.
In Proverbs 6, we find the seven things that God hates. Two specifically involve lying, while the other five are almost always involved with lying.
“An intention to deceive is what constitutes falsehood. By a glance of the eye, a motion of the hand, an expression of the countenance, a falsehood may be told as effectually as by words. All intentional overstatement, every hint or insinuation calculated to convey an erroneous or exaggerated impression, even the statement of facts in such a manner as to mislead, is falsehood. This precept forbids every effort to injure our neighbor’s reputation by misrepresentation or evil surmising, by slander or tale bearing. Even the intentional suppression of truth, by which injury may result to others, is a violation of the ninth commandment.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 309
One of the greatest joys of following Jesus is that He always tells the truth, for “it is impossible for God to lie.” Hebrews 6:18