We need to always be asking ourselves, “Did I just tell the whole truth, or just part of it?” Recognizing half-truths Of course, it may well have placed her in greater jeopardy! Such is the problem with half-truths. Satan basically told her enough of the truth to hook her, and left out enough of the lie to make it seem like a “win-win” choice.Ībraham used a technicality about his wife in order to call her his sister in situations where he felt it would be safer for him ( Genesis 12:10-20). It opened the door for humanity to choose Satan’s way of thinking, not God’s way. Satan mixed truth with a lie with expert cunning.Įve’s eyes were opened, but her experience of knowing good and evil was far from being like God. Half-truths in the BibleĪs if the blatant lie Satan told Eve (“You will not surely die”) wasn’t enough, Satan also used a deceptive half-truth about the fruit of the wrong tree to further entice Eve: “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” ( Genesis 3:5). Satan deceives the whole world ( Revelation 12:9) and often mixes truth in with his lies. Words that have a sliver of truth may be persuasive ( Colossians 2:4), but are still empty and deceptive ( Ephesians 5:6). Make no mistake these are an enemy of honesty and God hates them. Half-truths avoid what is actually meant and live in technicalities and “portions” of truth. Telling the “whole truth” can be very difficult in many situations, leading to half truths such as: “Technically, I was still working when I billed for that expense” or “I didn’t eat all the cookies like you said see, there’s one left.”
Half-truths are sinister because they involve just enough of the truth to make the lie seem less obvious or offensive.
This is why we have the word perjury: human beings have trouble telling the truth even when they say they are telling the truth. Unfortunately, just because defendants and witnesses are told to tell the whole truth before they get on the witness stand, that doesn’t mean they always do. We recognize this phrase, whether we’ve been in a courtroom or just seen one depicted on television. “The whole truth, and nothing but the truth. What are these sinister lies? how can we avoid telling them or allowing others to influence us with them? The second enemy of honesty is telling half-truths.