Is Lying Always Wrong?

by Edward Fudge

A CHRISTIAN MINISTER in the Northwest asks a question which he has encountered in pastoral counseling. “Is it ever okay (from God’s perspective) to lie?”

One of the Ten Commandments forbids bearing “false witness” (see Deuteronomy 5:20). Jesus himself commanded his followers to be so known for truth-telling that oaths are wasted on them (see Matthew 5:33-37). Paul admonishes believers always to tell the truth (see Ephesians 4:25). John reminds us that “we know him who is true, and we are in him who is true” (1 John 5:20). The Bible closes with a warning that liars will have their part in the lake of fire (see Revelation 21:8).

In light of such Scriptural teaching, I do not know how anyone could seriously say that lying is ever “right.”

On the other hand, people who live in a fallen world sometimes have to choose between the lesser of two evils. When Corrie ten Boom’s family was hiding Jews from the Gestapo in Nazi-occupied Holland, I should think their lying to German soldiers about the presence of Jews would be a far lesser evil than delivering the Jews over to certain death. One might face a similar choice on a slightly different scale when confronting a violent or abusive individual, whether an alcoholic, drug addict, street criminal, or white-collar outlaw.

Rahab lied to the Jericho authorities after hiding the Israelite spies, and by doing so, she saved the spies’ lives and ultimately her own family’s (see Joshua 2:1-21). Did she do wrong? I think she did—in a theoretical and absolute sense. Did she make the right choice? Apparently she did that as well, for she considered and acted in light of the larger good and the smaller evil.

This is entirely different from “situation ethics,” a philosophy set out in the 1960’s by liberal theologian Joseph Fletcher. Fletcher argued that love is the highest value and the ultimate good, and that the person who acts “lovingly” does not do wrong when he commits adultery, or when she tells a lie, or does anything else that violates traditional rules of morality. Such an ethic invites abuse, for sinful humans can always justify whatever they wish to do—especially by such a wispy standard as “love.” In fact, whoever truly loves God and neighbor chooses not to violate God’s law but rather fulfills it (see Romans 13:8-10).

No, lying is never “right,” even though there might be rare times when it seems clearly the lesser of two evil choices. In such limited situations—which involve the protection of human life, for example, and not merely avoiding personal pain or obtaining personal pleasure or profit— the person who lies still needs to beg God’s forgiveness for having done something which, in itself, is never morally right.