Rēad to Read …Again
Daily Reading: I John 1-5
I John 1:10
If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Those who read these devotions every day know well that very seldom do I make personal remarks. Today I break this rule. Frankly, I do not want to write this devotion. After all, it is Christmas Eve, right! But here it goes. Consider a nuanced theme in I John about lying and liars. Being raised in the south we wouldn’t just come right out and say someone is a liar, we would use softer words, kinder words, more polite words. John the apostle though was not from the south. We may say, “He is a little loose with his words,” or “That person’s comment is short on truth and long on falsehood,” or some other contrived, gracious, way to communicate that someone is a liar. Not John. He lays it on the line.
Think about the complete writings of John, he perhaps wrote about love more effectively than any other. In this small book he uses the word “love” a greater number of times than any other book in the Bible except for “The Song of Solomon” (both use the word twenty-three times). But surprisingly, he also used the word “liar” more than any other. That ugly word is only used in thirteen verses in the entire Bible, more than half of those, seven, are in John’s writings, and of them five are in the small book of I John.
John lists five startling facts about liars.
I John 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
I John 2:4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
I John 2:22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
I John 4:20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
I John 5:10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
William Shenstone, a late 1700’s English poet wrote this about liars; “They begin with making falsehood appear like truth, and end with making truth itself appear like falsehood.” A great word picture about liars is this: “Liars would rather climb a tree and tell a lie than stand on the ground and tell the truth.” The saddest issue about being a liar is that ultimately the liar will begin to believe their own lies that they lie to themselves. To wake up liars John uses harsh words, it is as if he is throwing cold water in their face to wake them up to their sad condition. The only hope for those who tell, love, and believe lies is Jesus Christ, after all, He said of Himself, I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6).
In parting, let me end where I began by interjecting a personal question, the same one Paul asked the Galatians 4:16, Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?
Dr. William T. Howe
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