What Does the Bible Say About Lying?
Lying lips are abomination to the LORD — and truth is part of God's own character. What Scripture says about honesty.
The Bible’s standard is stark: “Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight” (Proverbs 12:22). Truthfulness is grounded in God’s own nature — he “cannot lie” (Titus 1:2) — while lying is the devil’s native language (John 8:44). Believers are commanded simply: “Lie not one to another” (Colossians 3:9).
Truth is a family trait
Honesty in Scripture is not first a rule but a resemblance. God cannot lie; his word is truth; Jesus calls himself the truth. Conversely, Jesus traces lying to another parentage altogether — the devil “is a liar, and the father of it.” Every act of speech, in the Bible’s view, takes after one father or the other. That is why the ninth commandment stands among matters as grave as murder and theft.
Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
The put-off and the put-on
The New Testament treats truthfulness as part of the new self’s wardrobe: lie not to one another, seeing ye have put off the old man — and “putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.” The reason is communal: a body whose parts send each other false signals cannot function. Trust is the connective tissue of every relationship Scripture cares about.
Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
Truth in love, not truth as a weapon
The Bible’s honesty is not bluntness for its own sake — the command is “speaking the truth in love.” Truth without love wounds; love without truth flatters, and Proverbs warns against both the flattering mouth and the deceitful kiss. The aim is words that can be trusted completely and are aimed at the hearer’s good: “yea, yea; nay, nay,” said Jesus — a plain yes that needs no oath to prop it up.
But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
Quick answers
- Are white lies okay?
- Scripture doesn’t carve out a “harmless” category — Proverbs 12:22 covers lying lips generally. Kindness sometimes means restraint (not every truth must be spoken), but love and truth are allies, not alternatives (Ephesians 4:15).
- What about people in the Bible who lied?
- The Bible records lies — Abraham’s, Jacob’s, Peter’s — without endorsing them, and usually shows their bitter fruit. Rahab’s lie is remembered for the faith behind her protection of the spies (Hebrews 11:31), not held up as a model of speech.
- What is bearing false witness?
- The ninth commandment (Exodus 20:16) forbids false testimony against a neighbour — courtroom perjury first, and by extension every misrepresentation that damages another: slander, spin, and deceitful silence included.
