Faithful or false? Which one will you be? You see, every single one of us is called to be a witness. We have been called to tell the truth. The question is, will we be a faithful witness or a false witness?

What’s the difference? Well, the book of Proverbs makes the difference very plain and simple in chapter 14, verse 5, when it says, “A faithful witness does not lie, but a false witness breathes out lies.” So, the difference is the presence of lies. A false witness lies. A faithful witness does not. A faithful witness tells what is true. A false witness does not.

Beloved, God is not happy when we lie, and I don’t think this is news to anybody. Being a faithful witness is so important to God that it made his “Top 10 Sins to Avoid” list that we know better as “the 10 Commandments.” In the 9th commandment, God said, “Do not bear false witness.” Indeed, God hates a false witness according to Proverbs 6, where God says, “There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him” and then lists those seven things, and one of those things that God hates is a lying tongue. And liars will not go unpunished. Revelation 21:8 says that “all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” So, beloved, please be a faithful witness instead of a false witness. Please be a truth-teller instead of a liar.

Now, we all know what a bald-faced lie is. It’s an outright lie, clearly a lie, completely a lie. But, there are also what we could call sneaky lies. They are lies that we don’t normally think of as a lie. It’s lying by almost not lying. It’s a lie mixed with some truth. Let me point you to three common sneaky lies.

One common sneaky lie is the half-truth. A half-truth is a deceptive statement that includes some element of truth. It might be partly true but twisted with a lie. Or, the statement may be totally true but not the whole truth because we conveniently leave something out. Avoid this sneaky lie.

A second common sneaky lie is the exaggeration. An exaggeration represents something as better or worse than it really is. Yes, exaggerating is lying, and we should avoid it.

And the final common sneaky lie I’ll point you to today is the minimization. A minimization represents something as smaller or less important than it really is. Yes, that’s lying also.

Beloved, avoid these sneaky lies and bald-faced lies, and just all lies. Be a faithful witness instead of a false one.

Change begins in you!