Step 12: Falsehood

“The man gifted with fear of the Lord has given up lying, for within him he has conscience, that incorruptible judge”

--St. John Climacus

“God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.”

--John 4:24

One of the characteristic features of the Gospel of John is the sharply contrasting imagery that is used to describe the difference between God and his kingdom and those who oppose God.  Probably the most prominent image is that of light and darkness.  Jesus is the light of the world coming to those who live in the darkness of separation from God.  Another image that the Evangelist uses is the contrast between truth and falsehood.  Jesus is the embodiment of truth.  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Lying then, must be seen as the antithesis of who Christ is and what he stands for.

We lie for many different reasons; to impress others, to get ourselves out of trouble, to get what we want, to hurt others or to protect others from being hurt.  Many times our lies are about trivialities and sometimes we lie for what might be considered good reasons.  But if God is Truth we cannot take falsehood lightly.

St. John Climacus says, “Hypocrisy is the mother of lying and frequently its cause.”  It’s hypocrisy, being one thing and pretending to be another, that gives rise to the lies we tell.  Hypocrisy is the real disease and lying is a symptom.  Transparency and honesty with God and with ourselves are essential to our spiritual health.  When we practice deception we get so good at it that we can even deceive ourselves.  But no matter how good we get at it the truth usually comes out eventually and when it does it can cause more damage than would’ve occurred if we hadn’t lied in the first place.

Ultimately, lying is useless.  The one person who matters most cannot be deceived.  We can’t impress God by lying, we can’t get around him and we can’t avoid him.  The good news is, we don’t have to.  God knows us better than we know ourselves.  He knows all our secrets, even the ones we keep from ourselves and he loves us anyway.  Being honest with God and with others makes it possible for us to deal with the things that trouble us.

Prayer:

O God, you can neither deceive nor be deceived.  Help us to be honest with you, with our neighbors and with ourselves so that all of our relationships might be built on a firm foundation of truth, through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.