Walking with the Wise #127: Truth Matters

“Truthful lips endure forever,
but a lying tongue is but for a moment.”
—Proverbs 12:19

Jesus is the everlasting truth of God, and whenever we testify to the truth, in some measure we testify to the nature of God. Truth is the standard by which lies are measured. There can’t be a lie without the establishment of truth, just like there can’t be a bad without the establishment of a perfect good.

God has decreed that truthful lips—lips that testify to that which is true, will endure for all time. Truth will endure forever, but not so with lies. Lies attempt to establish an alternative world, a world in which that which is true is inconsequential. It is in this world that sin will give us what we desire without any consequences whatsoever. But lies, like a bad middle school play, will assuredly end. Like the wax fruit on my grandparents’ dinner table, it may look good, but take a bite and the reality it attempted to create will be exposed for what it is—fake and hollow. A lie will not and cannot last, because inevitably it must do what one wants it to do—satisfy. But just like the wax fruit, it is not until we bite into it that we really know what it is. The same is true with a lie. We may see it and believe it to be true, but try and bite into it, try and get from it what it claims to do, and we will feel angered and short-changed.

Lies endure for a time, as long as the devil runs free. Since he is the father of lies (John 8:44), lying will endure until the time when Christ will come again, and then all lying will cease (cf. Revelation 21:8). We must endeavor to be children of light, walking in the truth of Christ, making every effort to speak the truth in love, and putting lying away from us, so that the Son of God might be unhindered and grow up in us (Ephesians 4:25; 5:8). Amen.