Do not give false testimony against your neighbor.   Exodus 20:16 HCSB

I’ve often heard it said, the truth hurts. Well, I can tell you from personal experience when someone lies against you it can also be painful.

We talked last about the devil and how his lies can hurt us. Our pastor often says when we see “Thou shalt not” in the Bible God doesn’t want to see us get hurt and He knows sin hurts us.

This is why when we fall for the devil’s lies it will only lead to heartache and pain. We spread lies as if they are the truth because we believe they are. This is why gossip is so dangerous. You may get information from what you consider to be a reliable source and share this with others only to find it is a lie.

This information could be hurtful to others. As Christians we are to pray for wisdom and discernment so as not to believe the lies the devil tells us. We also have a responsibility to speak the truth. We talked the other day about how the truth sets us free as we are told in John 8:31. Lies, however, keep us in bondage.

We tend to speak what we believe and what we know. Are you speaking the truth or are you speaking a lie?. We can witness to others without saying a word. We witness by our actions as well as our words. People are looking at us if we profess to be Christians. They are scrutinizing how we live our lives. We are not here to please man and we should not care what others think about us as long as we are doing what God commands us to do.

If we are sinning, however, we are believing a lie and we are spreading that lie. If you spend your Sunday mornings on a church pew but live like the devil on Monday through Saturday, you are believing a lie and you are spreading that same lie. There is no Scripture found in the Bible that tells us we need only to obey God’s commands on certain days of the week.

There is grave danger in lying because God hates lying and considers it to be an abomination (Proverbs 12:22). We must speak the truth, but it’s hard to speak the truth when you don’t know the truth. In order to know the truth, we must study God’s word. I spent many years thinking I didn’t need Sunday School. I thought it was for kids. I had spent my whole life up until the end of my high school years in Sunday School. I thought I knew it all. I had been through all the great historical narratives of the Bible.

That was a lie I believed for a very long time. My mother taught the adult Sunday School class and always encouraged me to come. I resisted. When the man who is now my husband started going to church with me, he asked why I didn’t go to Sunday School. I gave him my reasoning which I thought was pretty good, but he wanted to go. Sunday School really opened me up to all the wonderful things there are to be learned from God’s word.

It helped me to understand how God expects us to live. It helped me to learn the truth and stop believing the lies the devil had been telling me. And now I can honestly say that no matter how many times I read a Scripture passage in the Bible I learn something new from it. I can read the same passage numerous times and glean some new information.

Know the truth. The only way you will ever know the truth is through Bible study. Speak the truth, God does not tolerate lying. He will not overlook it.

As Christians, we are responsible and will be held accountable for sharing the truth with others.

Have a great day!