True to Yourself

(Pro 19:5 KJV)  A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape.

Proverbs has a number of themes that keep coming up and we need to realize that they come up all through the Bible.  Proverbs is not an island of wisdom in a sea of fluff.  It is a focus.  One point of focus is on telling the truth.  It would seem obvious that there are two groups here, liars and truth tellers.  That is true but it isn’t always clear.

The reason for confusion is that often the person we lie to the most is ourselves.  We have a lot of words for it:  Rationalization, subjective, confusion, forgetfulness.  We have a way of adjusting our memory so that what we want for ourselves becomes a righteous position.  We think we are different that anyone else.  How many people have talked themselves into marrying a pagan and how many different excuses have they used?  How many times have we searched the scripture, not looking for truth, but looking for a picked cherry that will justify what we want to do?

So?  Honesty is better than cleanliness when it comes to being next to godliness.  It is not a coincidence that telling the truth is one of the ten most important behaviors in the Bible.