Biblical Reflections: DECEPTION and HALF-TRUTHS

Typically we can all say that we understand the difference between the truth and a lie.

This is because we are usually taught since sometime during our youth that it is wrong to lie, and this is often when it has been circumstantial where we tried to avoid discipline (and had to learn from our mistakes).

Regardless of how we learnt this, we tend to know that if we say one thing – like the sky is green – but this is simply not correct, we are lying.

But what does the Bible mean when it talks about half-truths? And how do we know if we are doing the wrong thing if we are sort of honest amongst our friends or family?

Well one thing is clear.

If you have ever been caught up in a web of deception and you have been withholding complete truth from people around you over a course of time, it is exceptionally tricky to keep the lie alive.

On the other hand, you may have experienced this kind of deception from a close friend or family member and over time, found yourself hurt by their words or actions.

When someone deceives or misleads another, there is nothing good in it and we dwell in a world of half-truths and open doors for the enemy to work alongside us.

We know this because in John 8:44 (AMP) it tells us about how deception and lying positions us to be like a family member of the enemy.

The truth is that if you makes these choice, it says “You are of your father the devil, and it is your will to practice the desires [which are characteristic] of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks what is natural to him, for he is a liar and the father of lies and half-truths.”

So with this in mind we can understand that half-truths are just as deceptive and damaging to those around as a bold lie.

What is worse, is that deception is a silent evil.

Unlike a straight lie that can be quick for someone to catch out, half-truths take time for people around them to work out.

And worse still, when they do figure out the truth, the deception leaves more damage than a sudden lie, because it leaves a trail of lying over a long course of time – destroying relationships between the people involved.

Deception is known as a statement or act of hiding the truth, especially to get an advantage.

So not only does this include a list of suggesting one thing, but meaning another – it also includes not saying something in order to get an advantage in a situation or circumstance.

Further definitions of Deception:

2) A statement or action that hides the truth.

3) Dishonest or illegal methods that are used to get something, or to make people believe that something is true when it is not.

So what do we mean by this? What would this kind of deception look like?

– Sometimes it might be suggesting your homework is finished to your parents when a few small items still remain, but you think you will get to them later.

– Sometimes it might be telling your spouse that you spent more money than usual because their birthday is coming up, but you also bought a few things for yourself.

– It might be suggesting to a customer that their job was harder than usual so it will cost them more, but really you charged more hours than it took to do.

– What about someone telling their church leader that they want to serve more on team because they feel called to be there, but really they hope to be more popular amongst their your friends?

– Another might be telling your wife or husband that you were only out having a few drinks with workmates after a job, but you also spent time flirting with someone else at the bar.

Personally, my own experience of building a situation of half-truths was during a time when I was finishing high school, and was waiting for my parents to finalise a decision to move to a new town. For me, this process was strange. I grew up in the same town, in the same house my whole life and I didn’t really know much about the culture of other towns in Australia, because we didn’t really travel much. So I was confident about my decisions and thought I knew what I was doing, but during the 3 months that I waited to move with my parents to another state, I learnt that it was hard to maintain the deception I set up around me.

You see I was a young adult at this point. Ready to take on life beyond school and it wasn’t long before I started getting the attention of young men around me and work and amongst different circles of friends.

Now don’t get me wrong, not a lot of drama unfolded, but see half-truths can still cause a problem and it almost cost me my future husband.

And this happened because I decided it was easier to tell these young men that I was only turning them down when they wanted to start dating, because I was moving away.

It seemed easy enough. No feelings were hurt and I didn’t need to address other issues like the fact that two young men in particular had some unhealthy attachments with their last girlfriends. Do you know what I mean? And we could still be friends amongst friends in the meantime before I left town. It all seemed fine.

But then my husband came long, only I didn’t know it at the time). This young man was something much different than the others and he caught my attention too. So I couldn’t help it.

I was leaving soon, but I started dating him anyway.

However, the other young men were still around in the meantime, so I had a choice to make; to tell the truth and hurt their feelings so I didn’t have to keep up the deception or to keep going?

So I kept going and I quickly realised it was hard to keep hiding the truth from them.

I would be in town dating this young man (that was going to be my future husband one day) and then would shy away if they saw us together. This caused a bigger problem.

I realised I had to choose whether to make up excuses to deceive my new boyfriend about why I was shying away from him in public or tell him the truth? (And I had to decide quickly because he was concerned I was hiding from other young men I was dating. And for some reason, I chose further deception, but he quickly saw through it and he almost walked away.

(And although still we separated for a year anyway because I was still moved town, because it ended with honesty, we found each other again down the track and since married.)

However, because of this experience, I decided that as soon as I moved with my family, I would never live like this again. And I truely believe it was an excellent decision to make.

My husband and I are very trusting of each other. We never concern ourselves about unfaithfulness because we don’t keep secrets.

I can not recommend enough to anyone else to avoid living a life paved with deception. It is damaging to your health both physically and mentally, anxious if someone will figure our your secrets, worried if you’ll accidentally say the wrong thing and give away the truth, anxiously trying to salvage the situation in a flurry when you do.

When Jesus said the truth will set you free, He meant it. Lying and half-truths will do nothing but punish you and others around you, but if you choose to live a honest life Jesus tells us in John 8:31-32 that “If you abide in My word [continually obeying My teachings and living in accordance with them, then] you are truly My disciples. And you will know the truth [regarding salvation], and the truth will set you free [from the penalty of sin].”

By understanding what deception is, we can come to the conclusion that deception and misleading others, only builds a world of darkness around us.

So if we have already built this world of darkness, how do we step out of it? Or if someone close to us has built up a habit of deception, how can we help encourage them to make better choices?

Thanks to Jesus there are answers. And these answers are beautifully guided through the Word which helps us to love and pursue a life of truth and righteousness.

Acts 26:18 (AMP) helps to begin this transition. Here Jesus teaches those who fall into sin “to open their [spiritual] eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness and release from their sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified (set apart, made holy) by faith in Me.’”

The first step here to do is to follow Jesus.

It is not enough to receive advice from the Word of God. (Many people teach principles that stem from the Bible in the secular world, but they fail to recognise where it all comes from – the truth in pursuing a righteous life – and this is choosing to believe that Jesus died for our sins, to seek forgiveness and confess that He is Lord so that we can access the Kingdom of heaven.)

When we give our lives to follow Jesus Christ, we not only access the Kingdom of God in eternity after our time has finished here on earth, but even now as we live our lives on earth, we can access the power of God through the Holy Spirit which was given to us with authority by Christ himself to come against the enemy (Luke 10:19 AMP).

The next step is for us to “turn from darkness to light”.

Jesus said that we need to open our spiritual eyes in order to do this, but what does that mean?

Simply put, opening our spiritual eyes means to recognise and learn the difference between darkness and light (including what is right and wrong), like learning that deceiving others with half-truths is also sin. We can then choose to “turn” from these actions of deception and walk in righteousness by walking in truth, just as God intended.

1 John 1:5-7 (AMP) tells us that “this is the message [of God’s promised revelation] which we have heard from Him and now announce to you, that God is Light [He is holy, His message is truthful, He is perfect in righteousness], and in Him there is no darkness at all [no sin, no wickedness, no imperfection]. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness [of sin], we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we [really] walk in the Light [that is, live each and every day in conformity with the precepts of God], as He Himself is in the Light, we have [true, unbroken] fellowship with one another [He with us, and we with Him], and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin [by erasing the stain of sin, keeping us cleansed from sin in all its forms and manifestations].”

By turning to God we are choosing light, but we cannot just say that we now chose a life with Him. We must also take that final step to make decisions to persistently do the right thing, keeping honest to ourselves and others around us. And this in turn will also insure the forgiveness of our sins.

Typically we can all say that we understand the difference between the truth and a lie.

This is because we are usually taught since sometime during our youth that it is wrong to lie, and this is often when it has been circumstantial where we tried to avoid discipline (and had to learn from our mistakes).

Regardless of how we learnt this, we tend to know that if we say one thing – like the sky is green – but this is simply not correct, we are lying.

But what does the Bible mean when it talks about half-truths? And how do we know if we are doing the wrong thing if we are sort of honest amongst our friends or family?

Well one thing is clear.

If you have ever been caught up in a web of deception and you have been withholding complete truth from people around you over a course of time, it is exceptionally tricky to keep the lie alive.

On the other hand, you may have experienced this kind of deception from a close friend or family member and over time, found yourself hurt by their words or actions.

When someone deceives or misleads another, there is nothing good in it and we dwell in a world of half-truths and open doors for the enemy to work alongside us.

We know this because in John 8:44 (AMP) it tells us about how deception and lying positions us to be like a family member of the enemy.

So with this in mind we can understand that half-truths are just as deceptive and damaging to those around as a bold lie.

What is worse, is that deception is a silent evil.

Unlike a straight lie that can be quick for someone to catch out, half-truths take time for people around them to work out.

And worse still, when they do figure out the truth, the deception leaves more damage than a sudden lie, because it leaves a trail of lying over a long course of time – destroying relationships between the people involved.

Deception is known as a statement or act of hiding the truth, especially to get an advantage.

So not only does this include a list of suggesting one thing, but meaning another – it also includes not saying something in order to get an advantage in a situation or circumstance.

Further definitions of Deception:

2) A statement or action that hides the truth.

3) Dishonest or illegal methods that are used to get something, or to make people believe that something is true when it is not.

So what do we mean by this? What would this kind of deception look like?

– Sometimes it might be suggesting your homework is finished to your parents when a few small items still remain, but you think you will get to them later.

– Sometimes it might be telling your spouse that you spent more money than usual because their birthday is coming up, but you also bought a few things for yourself.

– It might be suggesting to a customer that their job was harder than usual so it will cost them more, but really you charged more hours than it took to do.

– What about someone telling their church leader that they want to serve more on team because they feel called to be there, but really they hope to be more popular amongst their your friends?

– Another might be telling your wife or husband that you were only out having a few drinks with workmates after a job, but you also spent time flirting with someone else at the bar.

You see I was a young adult at this point. Ready to take on life beyond school and it wasn’t long before I started getting the attention of young men around me and work and amongst different circles of friends.

Now don’t get me wrong, not a lot of drama unfolded, but see half-truths can still cause a problem and it almost cost me my future husband.

And this happened because I decided it was easier to tell these young men that I was only turning them down when they wanted to start dating, because I was moving away.

But then my husband came long, only I didn’t know it at the time). This young man was something much different than the others and he caught my attention too. So I couldn’t help it.

I was leaving soon, but I started dating him anyway.

However, the other young men were still around in the meantime, so I had a choice to make; to tell the truth and hurt their feelings so I didn’t have to keep up the deception or to keep going?

So I kept going and I quickly realised it was hard to keep hiding the truth from them.

I would be in town dating this young man (that was going to be my future husband one day) and then would shy away if they saw us together. This caused a bigger problem.

(And although still we separated for a year anyway because I was still moved town, because it ended with honesty, we found each other again down the track and since married.)

However, because of this experience, I decided that as soon as I moved with my family, I would never live like this again. And I truely believe it was an excellent decision to make.

My husband and I are very trusting of each other. We never concern ourselves about unfaithfulness because we don’t keep secrets.

By understanding what deception is, we can come to the conclusion that deception and misleading others, only builds a world of darkness around us.

So if we have already built this world of darkness, how do we step out of it? Or if someone close to us has built up a habit of deception, how can we help encourage them to make better choices?

Thanks to Jesus there are answers. And these answers are beautifully guided through the Word which helps us to love and pursue a life of truth and righteousness.

The first step here to do is to follow Jesus.

The next step is for us to “turn from darkness to light”.

Jesus said that we need to open our spiritual eyes in order to do this, but what does that mean?

By turning to God we are choosing light, but we cannot just say that we now chose a life with Him. We must also take that final step to make decisions to persistently do the right thing, keeping honest to ourselves and others around us. And this in turn will also insure the forgiveness of our sins.

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