What is bad about a white lie! This is not a question but a statement.
What does God say about lying? If you are a habitual liar, where will that get you? Stop and think for a moment about the nineth commandment. If mankind was able to eradicate even this one sin, do you know what a better place this world would be?
Try to imagine just for a moment what a different place this world would be if just one of the Ten Commandments was kept by all of mankind-just one kept perfectly out of the ten. Perhaps we could imagine what a different place this would be if there was no murder in our society, or maybe how nice it would be to do away completely with adultery.
It's in the news a lot these days. What if everyone truly honored his father and mother? Wouldn't it be nice if no one ever stole from his or her neighbor? Not to mention, of course, honoring God and keeping the Sabbath day holy, if everybody was keeping the Sabbath at this time. Let's start with just one of the Ten Commandments, the 9th commandment, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." In other words, don't lie.
Once again, in the news a lot these day, people won't tell the truth. We see that each of us is guilty when it comes to the 9th commandment, and we need to be on our guard as a result.
Stop and think for a moment about this commandment. If mankind was able to eradicate even this one sin, we know what a better place this world would be, don't we? Even our children, perhaps, will listen up and learn some things and learn to improve along these lines as well.
What does God say about lying? well it's pretty straightforward. There is not too much gray area when it comes to this because God says, "Don't lie," period! There are no ifs, ands, or buts. Stretching the truth or exaggerating maybe pushing the lying envelope over the limit as far as God is concerned.
Deut. 5:20 - You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
That sounds pretty straightforward, doesn't it? Now, we're all familiar with the cute stories that parents tell their children about the Easter bunny, Santa Claus, the tooth fairy. Do you think that's stretching the truth just a little bit? Lying to our children has become an accepted practice. Even an acceptable practice, something you're expected to do! But it even goes further than this. We find it infecting most aspects of human life. So imagine this, the thought and possibility that everyone in the whole world would always tell the truth, would never bear any kind of an even small false witness. It's almost overwhelming, if you could think just how far that would go. It would profoundly change the way our whole society operates. Unfortunately, that's not the case; and often we can't trust what our neighbor says.
The Bible, the scriptures gives some pretty stern warnings about lying.
Prov:6:16-19
These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.
So a white lie is a lie no matter how you deny it, or how you tell it differently or how you stretch it or cover it.
