June 1, 2022

Genesis 12: 13 (NIV)

“Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”

So I decide that the rightness of my position justifies the wrongness of my action . . .*

Today’s journalists could learn a lot about their craft from the writers of the Bible. The reporter who filed this story about Abram (Abraham) and Sarai (Sarah) just conveyed the facts. He didn’t condemn, speculate, or make excuses. Abram lied to save his life, he reports, and we are left to make our own judgments. 

Is it ever right to lie? Is a half-truth okay? Sarai really was his half-sister but if Abram thought that leaving out the information about her being his wife would save his own neck, what did he suppose were the possible consequences for Sarai? (Read the entire story if you aren’t familiar with it or need to refresh your memory.) 

We can’t hop into our tricked-out DeLorean and travel back in time to see what would have happened if Abram had been completely honest. (In the Back to the Future movies, tinkering with the “time/space continuum” could have dire consequences!) We can’t know how (or if) Abram’s telling the truth would have changed history any more than we can be certain of how our own decisions about truth and lies could alter the course of our lives, but we can be sure that: 

· Lying is never not a sin, not even to save a life. 

· God does not need us to lie in order to accomplish his purpose. 

· God uses imperfect people – even liars – because that’s all he has to work with, not because he approves of sinful methods. 

I hope that none of us is ever forced to make a choice such as Abram thought he faced: lie or die. If you were faced with such a dilemma, would you think it was up to you to save yourself or would you trust God to deliver you?

Man must not stop to ask himself which is best, right or wrong; he must do right.*