“Protective Instinct”

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Is lying for your own safety still a sin?

Sincerely,
On The Defense

Dear On The Defense,

God hates lying (Pr 6:16-17), but you don’t have to tell everyone everything about your life.  Even Jesus ignored His brothers’ request to know His comings and goings on occasion (Jhn 7:8-10).  Jesus never lied (Tit 1:2, Heb 4:15), but He did deflect their question because what He did (or didn’t do) wasn’t any of their business.  In a life-or-death situation, you have every right to deflect someone from the truth in order to preserve life.

It is worth noting that good christians are of mixed opinions on this issue.  Some believe it would be perfectly appropriate to deceive or deflect because you would be protecting human life – preserving human life is of great importance (the Egyptian midwives of Ex 1:15-22 are often cited as an example of this)  Other christians believe that it would be better to die and go face God.  Both sides have good arguments, and in such extreme circumstances, each person would need to choose what they believed was the most faithful and godly option.

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