A Falsehood Is Not Necessarily A Lie

Common Sense Commentary: Prov.6:16-19 lists seven things God "hates" and two of them are lying.

A lie is a falsehood but a falsehood is not necessarily a lie. False means "not true, wrong, or mistaken" and may be spoken in "ignorance" which means "uninformed lack of knowledge".
"False" refers to the thing said. A "Lie" includes the person saying it.


A lie is never ignorant of the truth of the matter. A lie, to be a lie, must be willfully told ... knowing it is untrue, false information. A falsehood may be told by a liar or by a person ignorant of the truth of the matter, but convinced within himself that it is true when it is, in fact, false. The latter is ignorance speaking falsely. The prior is a liar speaking falsely, to deceive, and knowing it. "A poor man is better than a liar." Prov.19:44. Either way, God's Word says, " The Devil is a liar and the father of it". He is also the father of much false information to make a trap for the gullible and ignorant, especially as it relates to the holy things of God. Even a sincere person can be sincerely wrong and ignorant about much of what God's Word makes plain. Many followers of cults sincerely believe it is true: the leaders seldom do. One is ignorant; the other a liar.

Anything that is not absolutely true is, to that degree, a falsehood or a lie, depending on who tells it, an ignorant person or a liar. A "half truth", quarter truth, or tenth is the same. A little white lie is a BIG BLACK LIE. To add to the truth is to make a lie. "Add ... not unto his words, lest ... thou be found a liar." Prov.30:22.

There must be a hundred words used to camouflage or excuse the lie. Some are sophisticated words, some crude and some disingenuous. It's spurious, a fallacy, or dissembling. It's duplicity, deceitful or montbankery. It is a fabrication, a fib, a story, yarn, exaggeration, a whopper, or bunk. He/she prevaricated, dissembled, or was spurious or specious. They overstated, hyperbolized, amplified the truth, enhanced the truth, maximized the truth or even "magnified God". How, exactly does one do that ? Can we make Him larger or greater or more than He is ? I think that one is used in ignorance, which is, a lack of knowledge rather than a lie. Who would lie about that ?

The real truth, based on facts, as God knows it, is neutral, apolitical and aopinionated. It is exactly as recorded, indelibly, unchangeable in the record books of God ... as it really is, no more and no less. There is one possible exception to the unchangeable record of God. Heb.10:17 "And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." Sin covered by the blood of Christ. Would I ever lie ? I can think of one thing about which I would lie: If "EVIL" was asking a question about which the truth would be so devastating to country or someone's life that my fear of a lie was less than of the truth. An example: If rampaging, insane killers broke into our home, my wife hid in a closet, and these EVIL, vicious killers asked where she was. I would not confess, "She is in that closet", but would say, "She is visiting her mother". I would also have lied to Nazies or Communists about anything to do with our National security. Like it or lump it. If you would do otherwise, don't tell your wife, you may suddenly become .... single. Somehow, I don't think God would hold it against me ..... which He might if I said .... "She's in that closet". Being saved by grace has it's advantages over selfrighteous, works salvation, which is itself a lie. I'm at peace letting God be my judge not sinful prople. Rom.3:4 "God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar ...."

Still, there is no good or bad truth. The truth is the truth is the truth. All truth, past, present and future, is God's honest to goodness truth. God may not like the matter but He loves the truth of the matter. Jesus said, "...I am the truth ...." Jn.14:6. When the Word of Truth speaks, heaven and earth respond in immediate, absolute obedience as they did in Genesis 1 "And God said ....", thirteen or fourteen times, as He created the earth and all that's in it. Tie that with John 1:1-14 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. .... All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. .... And the Word was make flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."Jesus Christ is the living Word of God !

Pass It On. RB