The Righteous Man's Instinctive Hatred of Lying

A righteous man hateth lying.—Proverbs 13:5

Moral truthfulness is not merely an external rule imposed upon the righteous; it is an instinct born from a soul made right in relation to the laws of its own spiritual being, to the universe, and to Elohim. A right-hearted man cannot be false in speech or life. His prayer echoes the psalmist's cry: "Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me Thy law graciously" (Psalm 119:29).

Moral truthfulness stands as a safeguard against three devastating evils that plague the wicked:

First, loathsomeness. A liar becomes an unlovely and unlovable object—detestable, repelling all who encounter him.

Second, shame. The false must come to shame when rigorous destiny strips away the mask, exposing the hypocrite to the scorn of men and angels alike.

Third, destruction. Wickedness overthroweth the sinner. Those who build their houses upon the sand of fiction find their foundations demolished by the storms of reality.

A Victorian lady learned this bitter truth when she told a fashionable lie—claiming absence to a visitor. That very evening, her husband announced a dear friend's death. The dying woman had summoned her three times, seeking her presence for a final disclosure, only to learn she was "not at home." The lady's anguished confession became her testimony: "How I loathed myself! No more lies for me!" The consequences of deception ripple across eternity.