Lying By Omission is Sin

Did you know "lying by omission" is actually a sin. We may be telling the truth, but leave out information that actually gives the hearer the opposite impression of the event, causing them to end up believing a lie.

For instance someone may say "I went to the store yesterday and bought a banana", but in fact they bought a lot of other things too, failing to mention the other things.

The purpose was that, perhaps the spouse of the shopper asked them not to spend a lot of money until payday, but rather than honor the request of the spouse, the shopper buys what they want without regard for the amount and relays the message to their spouse that they bought "a" banana, which they did.

We may say the sin was the purchasing of more things than we agreed with our spouse. However, the real sin was not the money so much as the disregard for the desires of our spouse. The shopper disregarded the person by disregarding their desires. It was a demonstration of disrespect through dishonesty and lack of empathy for the feelings of someone else. It was about loving and respecting the person.

It was true they bought a banana, but they actually gave the impression that the banana was all they purchased, leaving the spouse with a half truth that was very different from the whole truth.

Whenever we deliberately leave out information to change the perception of an act, a half truth, we have just told a whole lie.

Whenever we choose to withhold information for the purpose of controlling others, we damage a relationship. Eventually those we do this with will catch on and begin to distrust us. When the trust in lost, that someone will not always tell us the truth, then the relationship goes down hill from there.

Trust can only be regained when the party who tells half truth lies, admits their sin of deception, then we know they are serious about not repeating it.

Without confession there is no assurance that a behavior will stop. It is the embarrassment of having to confess that works as a deterrent to repeat offenses.

1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Notice in the 1 John verse we see that we can only be cleansed of a sin if we confess it. God will not do a work in us until we have admitted our sin. One has to want to be fixed to receive forgiveness and cleansing.

James 5:16 "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working."

Not only are we to confess to God our sins, but also to any person whom we have offended. As believers we are in relationships, one of those relationships is with Christ and the others are with those around us.

When we have offended a believer we are to reconcile with our brother or sister to be restored to the relationship. When we have offended a non-believer we are to confess to restore our witness as a follower of Christ.

My motto: Just admit the sin, ask forgiveness and take our lumps.

A truly humble person is not focused on whether or not someone will forgive them, but rather on their own heart and what needs to be done. If someone chooses not to forgive, it might make us sad, but it will not make us rage because we know we deserved it.

If someone is not forgiven and they rage over that, then they were probably only manipulating in the confession. True confession is sorry they harmed someone and is willing to take whatever is dished out for them.

We hope others will forgive, but that should not be the purpose, the purpose is to humble ourselves and obey God.

Proverbs 28:13 "Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy."

We cannot change our attitudes and actions until we have to go through the process of confession of sin. God will not change our heart if we have no desire to be changed.

Psalm 35:5 "I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah"

Acts 19:18 "Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices."

James 4:17 "So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin."

Psalm 51:1-5 "To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to never grow spiritually or emotionally? The answer is because they will never admit their need for change, they have a far too elevated view of their own importance and will not take the chance on being discovered as imperfect. It is the same "god" status that the devil displayed when he was thrown out of heaven.

Bottom line: confession not only brings spiritual growth and maturity, it also cleanses us to be free from the guilt of our sin. If we do not confess the guilt remains, grows and festers, causing a continuing hardening of the heart. If this process of ignoring guilt goes on too long, we become hard hearted possibly without the ability to feel guilt anymore.

1 Timothy 4:1-2 "1But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, 2by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,"

Do not allow your heart to be hardened through prideful resistance to confession. There is much more to be gained by going through the confession and forsaking process as laid out in Scripture, than we thought we would ever gain by hiding our sin, continually having to cover it, produce more lies to cover the first lie, it is a slippery slope without any benefits.