Lying as Satan's Sedative
From 1 Timothy 1 – 1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,
2 Timothy, a true son in the faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia – remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is faith.
5 now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, 6 from which some have strayed and turned aside to idle talk, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.
8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, 9 knowing this: that the law is not made for the righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the unholy and the profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manlayers, 10 for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars…
British statesman Edmund Burke cautions himself and history thereafter, "I must be tolerably sure, before I venture publicly to congratulate men upon a blessing, that they have really received one. Flattery," he asserts, "corrupts both the receiver and the giver, and adulation is not more service to the people than to kings."
Burke's study of men and their times confirms the rot at work in 1 Timothy 1:10. The hot sins on Paul's list, from parental murder, to fornication in kidnapping, may condition us to be startled when we come upon their kid brother we think by appearances relatively harmless. Lying? Why is that so dangerous when the very best of the heritage of our fathers is being expunged or drowned out with the distractions of lust and its gratification?
Lies, to ourselves and to others, distract from the peril in which the sin nature places us. Years of practice have accustomed us to speak to ourselves and our friends in ways that are expertly persuasive, and we are ready to use that developed dialect for distraction. Having even glimpsed the horror of our sins against God Who is both holy in general and good toward us, we want to look away. The lie that allows us to do so need not be momentous. We are already inclined to believe we are not so bad, or that others or worse.
Besides the effectiveness of flattery in distracting from sin, Paul's progression makes sense with imagery provided by Charles Spurgeon in Morning and Evening. He draws from more obvious battles to observe, "the ear in which the cannon has been booming will not notice slight sounds." "By degrees," he laments, "we get familiar with sin."
The cannon has been booming as Paul chronicles assault on God's character by those made in His image. The reader is likely to be deaf to more subtle assaults like lying. By grace through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul as our stalwart sergeant in spiritual warfare makes sure we are not taken unaware. So-called little sins like lying are just as deadly. In Christ's reckoning, Satan as the father of lies is as known for them as for any of his more outlandish efforts.
What then, as we risk delving into the depths of depravity for longer than is healthy? Spurgeon, again in the Morning and Evening, bolsters our resilience just as he candidly explained our peril. “Great thoughts of your sin alone will drive you to despair." Perhaps seeing sin's manifold and pervasive impact, we can be stuck there among a list like that in 1 Timothy 1. "But," assures Spurgeon, "great thoughts of Christ will pilot you into the haven of peace.”
As quickly as the Christian begins to consider Christ as the Truth, as well as the Way and the Life, the lives we have long been accepting and generating begin to lose their power and persuasiveness. As so often happened with His original disciples, He first by grace focuses on leading us to unlearn the falsehoods in which we have so willingly entangled ourselves. With nothing to hide, no sleight-of-hand to perfect or protect, the longer the Christian walks with Him in candid and constant need, the quicker we are to come to Him that he would weigh what we hear, what we see, and what we think to determine the truth or lies therein.
2 Timothy, a true son in the faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia – remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is faith.
5 now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, 6 from which some have strayed and turned aside to idle talk, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.
8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, 9 knowing this: that the law is not made for the righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the unholy and the profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manlayers, 10 for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars…
British statesman Edmund Burke cautions himself and history thereafter, "I must be tolerably sure, before I venture publicly to congratulate men upon a blessing, that they have really received one. Flattery," he asserts, "corrupts both the receiver and the giver, and adulation is not more service to the people than to kings."
Burke's study of men and their times confirms the rot at work in 1 Timothy 1:10. The hot sins on Paul's list, from parental murder, to fornication in kidnapping, may condition us to be startled when we come upon their kid brother we think by appearances relatively harmless. Lying? Why is that so dangerous when the very best of the heritage of our fathers is being expunged or drowned out with the distractions of lust and its gratification?
Lies, to ourselves and to others, distract from the peril in which the sin nature places us. Years of practice have accustomed us to speak to ourselves and our friends in ways that are expertly persuasive, and we are ready to use that developed dialect for distraction. Having even glimpsed the horror of our sins against God Who is both holy in general and good toward us, we want to look away. The lie that allows us to do so need not be momentous. We are already inclined to believe we are not so bad, or that others or worse.
Besides the effectiveness of flattery in distracting from sin, Paul's progression makes sense with imagery provided by Charles Spurgeon in Morning and Evening. He draws from more obvious battles to observe, "the ear in which the cannon has been booming will not notice slight sounds." "By degrees," he laments, "we get familiar with sin."
The cannon has been booming as Paul chronicles assault on God's character by those made in His image. The reader is likely to be deaf to more subtle assaults like lying. By grace through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul as our stalwart sergeant in spiritual warfare makes sure we are not taken unaware. So-called little sins like lying are just as deadly. In Christ's reckoning, Satan as the father of lies is as known for them as for any of his more outlandish efforts.
What then, as we risk delving into the depths of depravity for longer than is healthy? Spurgeon, again in the Morning and Evening, bolsters our resilience just as he candidly explained our peril. “Great thoughts of your sin alone will drive you to despair." Perhaps seeing sin's manifold and pervasive impact, we can be stuck there among a list like that in 1 Timothy 1. "But," assures Spurgeon, "great thoughts of Christ will pilot you into the haven of peace.”
As quickly as the Christian begins to consider Christ as the Truth, as well as the Way and the Life, the lives we have long been accepting and generating begin to lose their power and persuasiveness. As so often happened with His original disciples, He first by grace focuses on leading us to unlearn the falsehoods in which we have so willingly entangled ourselves. With nothing to hide, no sleight-of-hand to perfect or protect, the longer the Christian walks with Him in candid and constant need, the quicker we are to come to Him that he would weigh what we hear, what we see, and what we think to determine the truth or lies therein.
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