An article in “Money” magazine recently caught my eye. The title was “Should you lie about your salary?” It stated that 23% of job seekers have lied or would lie during the interview process. The author stated that “even the experts admit that being too honest can be to your detriment.” He went on to suggest that dancing around the facts, inflating your actual salary figures and focusing on changing the conversation were all the best course of action.

Mark Twain popularized an interesting saying about lying in his 1906 work entitled “Chapters from My Autobiography” His semi-famous quote is, “there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” I assume he was trying to prove that most anything can be framed in such a way as to appear to be the truth.

The problem is our society has a big problem telling the pure unadulterated truth. Business people lie on applications, expense reports and exaggerate their part in successful ventures. College students fabricate their university applications by insisting that they are in a disadvantaged group so they can meet “social engineering admissions criteria.”

A survey of almost 30,000 high school students revealed that almost half of the boys and over a third of the girls lie to save money. And 93% of those same students said they were satisfied with their personal ethics. Most of them added, “When it comes to doing what is right, I am better than most people I know.”

It seems that many folks buy right into the adage, “Always tell the truth…even if you have to make it up.”

Maybe this week you and I should start a “Truth Revolution.” Instead of picking our way through three kinds of lies, let’s band together and commit to tell “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

As new creatures in Christ Jesus, believers should not behave like their counterparts in business, instead let’s state the truth and let it stand. Let’s hold all our kids to a higher standard of honesty, regardless of the circumstances. Let’s teach them by example that it is not ok to “fudge,” tell little white lies or stretch the truth to cover ourselves.

Let’s take to heart a passage in Colossians 3:9 where Paul is admonishing his readers to get rid of junk in their lives. He says “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is renewed in knowledge in the image of it Creator.”

There may be three kinds of lies, but there is only one kind of truth! Let’s tell it!

By His Grace and for His Glory,
Sherry L. Worel