Spitting and Lying.
I'm not so sure why the spitting was so upsetting--I won't address that today--we're going to talk about lying.
Lying, or deceit, is the absolute opposite of truth.
Most of us probably wouldn't consider ourselves habitual liars. But, perhaps we lie more than we think we do.
What do we say to someone who is going through a hard time? Let's use, for example, someone who is single and longs to be married. In an effort to encourage or help, we might say something like,
"You'll find the perfect person one day, just you wait. God has someone awesome in store."
Or, maybe someone is unemployed,
"Don't worry. God has just the job for you; you'll get it."
Are these statements true? We might be trying to help, but in our effort to encourage, we are building up false hope, in essence deceiving another, which can lead to great disappointment, most likely directed toward God.
Scripture is full of commands about lying,
"Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit"
Psalm 34:13
"Do not lie to one another..."
Colossians 3:9
These are just two of them, but I'd like to focus on the one in Colossians. We are commanded not to lie to one another. The opposite would be to speak truth to one another.
In our pursuit of having a truth driven heart, we should be making every effort to speak truth to one another.
Paul goes on in Colossians to say,
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God."
Colossians 3:16
As we allow God's Word {the truth} to dwell in us, we will be able to speak to one another in the way that God would have us speak.
Jesus said,
"The good person out of the good treasure in his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."
Luke 6:45
I long for my heart to be driven by truth, and if it is, if I truly treasure the truth in my heart, then my speech will reflect that.
Let's stop lying to one another.
Let's encourage one another with God's truth, knowing that it is in Him and His Word that we find our hope.
For a list of other posts in this series go here.
