Proverbs 29:24 Whoever is a partner with a thief hates his own life; He swears to tell the truth, but reveals nothing.

A basic logical question I love to ask, if lying is a sin, then why do it? If someone is behaving foolishly for example, and we hold our tongue in essence telling the person they aren’t behaving foolishly, this is deemed a lie.

Proverbs 26:4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Lest you also be like him.

Solomon says “do not answer a fool according to his folly”. Now some might immediately think, “well this means we should not answer”. But this is not what the command is, you aren’t to answer according to the folly, meaning an answer is to be given, but not in the same foolishness. The key words here are “according to”. This means if someone is speaking foolishness, we call them a fool, we don’t call them intelligent or smart which would be answering according to his folly.

In today’s society if one who is convicted by the word of God, if you do point out a sinful behavior by brutal honesty, you will get most likely “do not judge lest you be judged” line. This being out of context again, because the person illogically then is asking you to lie, and then be judged by God for lying. We are to judge with a righteous judgment (John 7:24), meaning we are not to lie and provide the truth.

You will be torn at times with the emotional appeals “You are a hater”, “You are just being mean”, etc., but don’t allow that to tempt you to lie by being less than honest in your discernment!

How to make sure you are on the right side of the equation? Stay in the word of God, study Scripture!