Proverbs 6:16-17 - Homilies By W. Clarkson

The Divine dislike of deceitfulness

(See Proverbs 12:22 .) God hates "a lying tongue;" "Lying lips are abomination to the Lord." We must consider—

I. WHAT IS THE DECEITFULNESS WHICH GOD DETESTS . It is evident that the "lying tongue" and the "lying lips" are mentioned as the principal instrument of the soul in the sin which is rebuked. It is the sin itself which is the object of the Divine displeasure. That sin is deceitfulness; conveying false impressions to the mind of our neighbour, the wilful blinding of his eyes by untrue words or by false actions. This may be done by:

1 . Downright falsehood—the most shameless and shocking of all ways.

2 . Covert insinuation or innuendo—the most cowardly and despicable of all ways.

3 . Prevarication, the utterance of a half-truth which is also half a lie—the most mischievous, because the most plausible and last detected, of all ways.

4 . Acted untruth—one of the most common forms of falsehood, and perhaps as hurtful to the sinner as any, because it avoids apparent guilt, while it really is as culpable as most, if not as any, of these manifestations of deceit.

II. WHY IT IS SO ODIOUS TO THE RIGHTEOUS FATHER . What makes it "hateful," "abominable in his sight"?

1 . It is inherently heinous. The soul has to make a very decided departure from rectitude to commit this sin. We may say of it, "Oh, 'tis foul! 'tis unnatural!" It is a "strange" thing in the view of the Holy One and the True. It is something which comes into direct and sharp collision with his Divine principles; which, in its own nature, is a painful, oppressive spectacle to his pure spirit. He loves and lives and desires truth—"truth in the inward parts;" and with the same intensity with which be loves truth, he must hate, with immeasurable abomination, every shape and form of falsehood.

2 . It is ruinous to the soul that practises it. Nothing so surely leads down to spiritual destruction as this sin. It breaks down the walls and breaks up the very foundation of all character. For those who habitually decline from the truth, in word or deed, are constantly teaching themselves to consider that there is nothing sacred in truth at all; they are sliding down the incline at the foot of which is the sceptic's question, "What is truth?" A man who is false in language or in action is poisoning his soul by degrees; he is a spiritual suicide.

3 . It is mischievous to society. "Putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour; for we are members one of another. " Human society depends on truthfulness in its members for its prosperity, comfort, and almost for its very life. What if we constantly doubted one another's word? The men of truth and trustworthiness are the salt of society. The men of lying tongue are its pest and its peril. Our neighbours have a right to claim of us that we shall put away lying lips and shall "speak the truth in love." God, who cares for the well being of this human world, hates to see his children weakening, wounding, endangering that world of man by falsehood and deceit.

III. WHAT GOD WILL DO WITH THOSE WHO ARE GUILTY . He will surely punish them. He does so