Avoiding dishonesty and the spread of falsehoods has to be a priority in our lives if we are to faithfully follow Jesus Christ. Lying, slander, gossip, deceit, etc. should not and must not exist among us. We are to be people who love the truth and speak the truth.

There are a number of acts referred to as “abominations” in Scripture. These acts are called abominations because they are extremely serious sins. Among the abominations mentioned in Scripture are acts such as child sacrifice, sexual acts with animals, and homosexual acts (Lev. 18:20–30; 20:13), idolatry (Deut. 12:29–31; 13:13–14), divination, sorcery, and necromancy (Deut. 18:9–14). Many conservative Christians are happy to acknowledge that these acts are serious sins. There is one sin, however, that many professing Christians commit on a regular basis without recognizing that it too is an abomination.

Along with the sins listed above, the Word of God counts lying lips as an abomination to the Lord (Prov. 12:22). We do not often think about this, but using your words to communicate falsehoods (and that includes using your fingers to type them) is in the same category as sins such as child sacrifice, bestiality, homosexual behavior, and idolatry. That is how evil the sin of lying is.

Consider also the list of abominations in Proverbs 6:16–19:

There are six things that the LORD hates,
seven that are an abomination to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that make haste to run to evil,
a false witness who breathes out lies,
and one who sows discord among brothers.

Notice that communicating falsehood is found in this list twice: “a lying tongue” and “a false witness who breathes out lies.” God hates these things because they are abominations. Over and over and over again, God’s Word makes it abundantly clear that all forms of communicating falsehoods, whether lying, slander, bearing false witness, gossip, and deceitfulness, are evil.

One of the Ten Commandments, in fact, is, “thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor” (Exod. 20:16). Being truthful is central to the moral law of God. It lays the ethical foundation for what we encounter throughout Scripture regarding our words. Consider this small sample:

Leviticus 19:16 — You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people.

Psalm 5:9 — For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue.

Psalm 101:5 — Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly I will destroy.

Proverbs 19:5 — A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will not escape.

Isaiah 59:2–4 — but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.

Jeremiah 9:5 — Everyone deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity.

Matthew 15:19 — For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

John 8:44 — You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He 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.

Romans 1:28–31 — And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

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