Featured Ethics Question

My response, that you're so casually deriding, was to a post about those that disagree with the position that lying in certain situations is acceptable are legalists.

Of course, if that's how you also believe, then your derision is understood -- as should be my response, which shows the opposite ludicrousness of the point.

 

Are you kidding me? Do you actually think I would be lying if I said, "Please don't hold a gun to my head. I hate it when that is done"???? And he deceived himself by misinterpreting my actions. That is precisely the point of misdirection: creating a situation wherein the opponent deceives himself.

The simplest kind of misdirection is a shoulder feint in boxing. The boxer simply moves his shoulder in such a way that the opponent thinks a certain punch is coming, and reacts. The first boxer then gains information about his opponent's style. But surely no one in the world would call a boxing feint a lie!

Well of course the criminal's misdirection would be sin!! Why in the world would I think otherwise?? "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin."

 

Okay, I'll go this far to agree with you. It was more honoring for Christians to lie as a means to protect and hide the Jews, then it would be for someone to tell the truth and thereby send an innocent person to their death. We have a Christian responsibility to protect innocent people (Prov. 24:11-12).

 

Look, I understand what you're trying to say. I think we should be like David, and be men (and women) after God's own heart. But that doesn't mean I should be exactly like David: I shouldn't commit adultery, I shouldn't murder a woman's husband so I can have her for my own, etc. Or should I?

Hebrews 11 also commends Abraham for his faith. Does that mean we should tell others our wives are our sisters, so that we won't be murdered?

Hebrews 11 also commends Moses' faith; but does that mean we should be able to murder a man and hide his body in the sand?

Were each of these rewarded for their acts? Or were they rewarded for their faith?

All I'm saying is that the argument presented that lying can be acceptable is based on the premise that faith "excuses" certain acts--in the case of this thread, lying. If that's true, then what acts are excused, as long as we have faith? Shouldn't pedophilia be excused? Abortion? As long as the individual performing the act has faith--as long as we can show that performing such acts somehow honor God--shouldn't they be excused?

 

I think in your scenario you forget one possibility and that is you could remain silent and not tell them anything and honor God by paying the consequences of your silence yourself instead of lying and dishonoring God with the lie. No lie of honoring God. Let me ask you this in regards to this same scenario. You hide them and you know the possibilities that someone will come by and ask if you know anything. Why not just shoot or stab the person who comes and asks and hide their body? If doing the good justifies or nullifies the sin then the type of sin should not matter.

 

You said it better than I thought of. Recently I read a book where the author talks about how far our words can heal and how far they can hurt. In the book he wrote about the idea of truth not being the highest aim. I had to think about that a lot and it made me think for several days about the far reaching impact our words can heal. So then I thought about what our highest aim should be. I came up with one thing--honor God first.

As I thought about things more I began to think about the idea of Satan as a deceiver and should I play into his hands by telling him what he wants to know when he wants to know it?

So far I have come to the conclusion that my words and actions must honor God first. I must think about what he would want most. It is the idea that God places certain things above others.

 

Did I say that? No. I explained that 'misdirection' if done for an evil motive is equally as sinful as a lie in the same situation would be. Its about the motive. Plus, who decides what is a lie and what is purely misdirection. I think a good analogy was used earlier in the thread where someone spent money given for a oil change on going to the bar. That person never lied, but his use of misdirection was tantamount to a lie because of the evil motive behind it.

Exactly. The exact same act done for an evil intent is sin, thus why couldn't that act be done with a pure motive (protecting innocent life, as you admit in the follow post) and not be sin?