To Tell the Truth

“An honest person has respect for the Lord. But a person whose paths are crooked hates him.” Proverbs 14:2

Whenever my mom suspected I had lied but had no confession forthcoming from her oldest son, she would almost always say, “You can keep it from me, but God knows if you are telling the truth or not. And, your ears always turn red when you lie.” I had to agree with her about the God bit; it was reasoning that I could not escape. The red ears I still wonder about, though. Whether or not they turned color when I lied as a child, I am exquisitely aware when I feel their blush now, all from her attempts at motherly interrogation.

When we respect the Lord, it greatly affects our relationship to the truth. The simple notion that nothing can be hidden from God should be enough to keep us walking the straight path of honesty. Yet, even my mother’s straight-forward attempt to make me spill the beans in the light of the Lord’s all-seeing eyes.

I’ve never given it a great deal of thought, why the threat that God knew the truth had little effect on my young mind. Perhaps it was easier to hide something from my mother I could see than worry about details of my life the God I couldn’t see knew. Or, maybe I thought it just didn’t matter that much to Him. Mom was making a big deal out of something small, and God knew the reasons I wasn’t coming completely clean.

Like David answered when God offered him a choice of three different punishments; one which included being overrun by enemies, and one a plague; he chose the plague. “I’d rather be in God’s hands than entrusted into the hands of my enemies.” Even though I didn’t know the story at that age, perhaps my young mind reasoned, “I’d rather God deal with me; mom’s blowing it way out of proportion. She’s gonna ground me for a week, I’ll leave it in God’s hands.”

I’m not making light of honesty, not in the least. But I do think we excuse ourselves out of openness with people because we aren’t all that sure God will do anything about it. We see people get by with deceit every day. It starts when our best friend gets away with lying to their parents about why they got home so late, and no one ever being the wiser. The lie seems oh so less painful than the consequences for admitting the truth.

Our observations take us all the way through college and into our jobs. We all know people who cheated on tests, misrepresented their hours on their time sheets, or didn’t report cash earnings to the government. Not only have we seen many of them avoid any penalty for their deceit, but they often have lovely rationale for their ways. We all know the government has far more money than it needs, and misspends what it does have; missing my tips (or other cash income) isn’t going to hurt a thing, and I can use it far better than the government. (And we excuse more and more little lies with proofs and examples of how our lie actually made life better.)

But this little proverb doesn’t tackle any of that. Yes, it mentions God’s relationship with the honest person. But the reasoning is not, “God knows what I do and say, I better not try to get away with anything.” No, it says the honest person “respects” the Lord! The truth is important to this person because the Lord Himself is important!

One of God’s characteristics emphasized over and over in Scriptures is His faithfulness. The Book of Numbers says that God is not a man, that He should lie! How often, when dealing with other people, do we really wonder if they are dealing straight with us? Are they withholding something important or misrepresenting things just enough so we are misled somehow? We never need consider that with God!

He is always truthful, always honest. We can count upon His Word time and time again without worrying about being misled. Jesus said about Himself, “I am the truth!” Anyone who claims to follow Christ has committed themselves to have a lifelong relationship with truth. The follower of Jesus carefully eliminates falsehood and misleading language from their vocabulary. They have learned that deception in even the smallest portion is to mock the God who is the very definition of Truth.

That is why the person whose path is crooked hates God. To be confronted by God Himself is to forsake every crooked way, to stop hiding and come out into the light. This is one of the ways to tell the difference between religious behavior and a true commitment to Christ. The religious person uses God and spiritual experiences as a way to cover up personal defects, while the one who respects the Lord is drawn toward truth, even in things that seem insignificant.

To follow Jesus is to have a lifelong love affair with truth. And, though this honesty and openness to the searchlight of God’s purity is sometimes painful, it always bears good fruit. Just as hiddenness and lies always result in emotional illness, an honest heart is one that growths healthier day by day.