For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Jennifer Rothnie
A good psalm to read related to this topic is Psalm 34. It was written by David, specifically to commemorate God delivering him from Abimalech when he pretended to be mad in front of the king. (1 Samuel 21:10-15) This would conventionally be considered a "Lie" under the modern definition (pretending to be something you are not to get out of trouble), but there are points to consider in the psalm:
-David sought the Lord, and it was the Lord who is given credit for delivering Him (vs. David's ingenuity). (Psalm 34:4-7)
-David gives all the praise and glory to God and actually uses the incident as a reason for all to praise God together (Psalm 34:1-3)
-"Taste and see that the Lord is good;
blessed is the one who takes refuge in him." (Psalm 34:8, 17-22) David took refuge in God, He was not acting of his own strength
-David equates the incident and his reliance on God for deliverance as 'fear of the Lord'. Rather than seeking to appease the foreign king, or trusting to his own power to rescue himself, David rested in God's power to deliver (PSalm 34:9-11)
-David uses the incident as a call to obedience to the Lord, and even specifically a call to "keep one's lips from telling lies". This would be hypocritical if God had considered his actions before Abimelek a lie. (Psalm 34:12-14)
Casper Mcconnell
I would add that the bible injunctions of Exodus 20 & Collosians 3:9 is not to lie to ourselves, nor to others whom we trust (implied). It does not say "never lie". God cannot lie, but He can delude, darken hearts, hide the truth, harden the will of Pharaoh and others to do the wrong thing.
We are sensibly guarded when speaking to folk we cannot count on, so hide, pretend, fake confidence or authority, in fact we cannot be open honest and truthful to all men.
1Jn1:8 reminds us that the truth is not in us when we start to think of ourselves as knowing truth in our own strength, later in 1Jn2:4 he adds that to know truth we must be obedient to the laws of God, walk in His presence, and only then by truly getting to know Him can we recognise a lie. Until we live like this, we are probably even as Christians a dangerous mix of truth and lies. Dangerous because, like Eve, we think we can know the difference all by ourselves guided by conscience and a garbled habit of dogmas, and not that truth experienced from just knowing the Person.
Danny Hickman
It's hard to believe that there's an effort here to make lying a matter of culture, or whether the deception is "modern" or not. If David pretended, he was engaged in deception. Deception is used when the truth would be too costly, or wouldn't deliver the needed results.
I'm not a proponent of the absolute merits of what's right and what's wrong. The law said it was unlawful to help a runaway slave. That meant it was wrong. But was it? Like I said, right and wrong don't top the list of what I believe about how we make out here. But if a person hiding a slave lied about it, it was a lie. PERIOD. Was it WRONG to lie? That depends on our definition of "wrong." Is "wrong" a synonym for "unlawful"? I say it isn't, but I'm only one person.
"Unlawful" and "sinful," are they the same? Some people think so. It's easy to figure out. Did Jesus do anything that was unlawful? I think He did.
The Pharisees adjudicated the law of Israel. They were the governing body. They said it was unlawful to heal on the Sabbath. The only reason they didn't arrest Jesus long before they did was because they feared what the people following Jesus would do. They didn't want to provoke a revolution. Clearly, He was thumbing His nose at the law of the land. We also know He never sinned. That's because He never deceived anyone for any reason.
Lying is deception, which is laced with sin. Is it "wrong"? Not always. Wrong is a matter of opinion. Sin isn't.
Shirley H
Well said! Sometimes, I think, the Bible even tells about incidents in which "righteous" lies are told. Not that the Bible contains lies, but people in the Bible, such as Rahab, lied for a good reason. We must always remember, God is God. He knows the heart.