PT-1 "From Lying to Speaking the Truth" (Eph. 4:25)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/7/2019 9:47 AM

 

My Worship Time                                          Focus:  PT-1 “From Lying to Speaking the Truth”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 4:25

 

            Message of the verses:  “25 Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another.”

 

            We talked about the word “therefore” in our last SD and as we look at verse 25 we see the second “therefore” found in this 4^th chapter of Ephesians.  “17 This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind” (Eph. 4:17 NASB).  I mentioned that in the NASB95 version that the word “therefore” is not found in verse 17:  “17 So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind.”  At any rate the “therefore” in verse 25 provides an anticipated response to the general description of the new life in Christ described in verses 20-24 and thus it introduces the first specific command for the new walk in Christ.

 

            There is an interesting verse found in the 21^st chapter of the book of Revelation, which happens to be the chapter that I am working on for our Sunday school lesson.  The chapter speaks of the New heaven and earth, and new Jerusalem, but towards the end of the chapter we are told who and who will not be allowed here:  “Re 21:8  "But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.’”  As you look at these different categories of sinfulness, and compare them to “liars” one may think that lying does not really fit into these categories of sinfulness.  That would not be true as the Bible talks about liars especially in the poetic sections of the Bible like Psalms and Proverbs.  Lying is something that can keep a person out of heaven for if someone is preaching a false gospel then the people who believe these lies will end up in hell, and woe to those who preach false gospels.

 

            Even believers can fall into lies just as he can fall into any sin, but if his life is a habitual flow of lies that proceed from a heart that speaks of deceive, he has no biblical basis for believing he is a Christian.  The person who continually lies shows that he is a follower of Satan “44  "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).”  MacArthur adds “Satan lies about God, religious system apart from Christianity is built around various deceptions of Satan.  Even the few and limited truths that may be found in human religions are scheming parts of a greater network that seeks to deceive.”

 

            John MacArthur writes “Our society today is so dependent on lying that if it suddenly turned to telling the truth our way of life would collapse.”

 

            MacArthur writes more about lying “Lying includes more than simply telling direct falsehoods.  It also includes exaggeration, adding false hood to that which begins as true.  Some years ago a Christian man became widely known for his powerful and moving testimony.  But after several years he stopped.  When asked why, he replied with some degree of integrity, ‘Over the years I embellished the story so much that I no longer knew what was true and what was not.”

 

            Things like cheating in school or perhaps on income tax returns is also a form of lying.  If you make foolish promises or betraying a confidence, flattery, and also making excuses are also forms of lying.

 

            We will talk more about Christians and lying, Lord willing, in our next SD.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  If I even think that I may not be telling the truth, then my conscience stands up and speaks to my heart.  I do not like it when someone lies to me and I do not want to ever tell any lies, for that makes me like the father of lies who is Satan.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Humility and lying do not go together.

 

Scripture verse that goes along with yesterday’s quote is from James 1:17 and once I quote this verse I want to quote the way that I wrote it when I studied the book of James:  “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation of shadow of turning.”  “If I understand what Dr. Wiersbe says about this verse it could start out something like this:  “Every gift that God gives us is perfect, and the way that He gives it to us is perfect, and He keeps on giving us gifts all of the time, even when we do not realize that He is giving them to us, and God is not like the moving of the planets and stars, for He never changes because He cannot change for worse because He is holy, and He cannot change for better because He is perfect.”

 

5/7/2019 10:28 AM