Are 'White Lies' ever okay?

[Dave L]

My husband just told me now that one preacher had said one time that if you didn't wanted to lie nor betray the ones you were hiding, it would be better to not respond at all.

That's sure not such a bad advice as well.

If it is possible, do it. But sometimes it's better to do what love would do than not.

 

[Martyr's Crown]

Well you have just 'lied ' , as it does not say that at all !!

Let's look at Genesis 12:10-20

Abram in Egypt
10 Now there was a famine in the land and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, "Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. 12 Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, " This is his wife"; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you".
14 So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. 15 The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house. 16 He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

17 But the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 And Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.” 20 So Pharaoh commanded hismen concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.

It doesn't look like I lied here. Since I have based my point from this concerning Abraham.

 

[DamianWarS]

And Westerners lie all the time about serious matters ,like a little fiddle of the taxes ,about other cultures because of ignorance ,of other religions for the same reasons ,about themselves and how others see them . Seeing themselves as truthful ,all the time when it is impossible to be like Jesus ,as He could see ALL TRUTH ,when they cannot .
Sorry I agree with your post as I believe 'self delusion ' is a huge LIE and is most common among those who think they never lie .

Jesus was secretive and told people what they needed to hear often avoiding questions.

 

[WorshipArtViolin]

A lie is a lie just like no sin is big or small. We may try to justify it with many scenarios but at the end of the day God hates a lying tongue

 

[Dave L]

A lie is a lie just like no sin is big or small. We may try to justify it with many scenarios but at the end of the day God hates a lying tongue

Have you considered motive as being the culprit in lying? Falsely accusing your neighbor is sin. But if you deceive burglars by leaving the TV on while you are away, you are saving yourself and them a lot of trouble making them believe a lie about you being home. Having a neighbor pick up your mail is obviously lying to thieves making them think you are home. It's all about motive.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

Have you considered motive as being the culprit in lying? Falsely accusing your neighbor is sin. But if you deceive burglars by leaving the TV on while you are away, you are saving yourself and them a lot of trouble making them believe a lie about you being home. Having a neighbor pick up your mail is obviously lying to thieves making them think you are home. It's all about motive.

YEAH ! HALLELUYAH !

(who hid Moses so he wouldn't be murdered ? )
(and How Did Yahweh Bless them Specially?)

Yahweh works in mysterious ways, His Wonders to Perform !

 

[Abaxvahl]

Any opinions on this? I know the situation is small and somewhat silly, but that's when a lot of 'white lies' come around. I know white lies are still lying, but what would the correct option be when the truth can come off as hurtful?

To choose to not hurt the Lord, because our sin crucifies Him (rather than choosing not to hurt the person). Thinking this way helps me to avoid a myriad of sins, especially in these situations. As we all know, a lie is never acceptable.

 

[WorshipArtViolin]

Have you considered motive as being the culprit in lying? Falsely accusing your neighbor is sin. But if you deceive burglars by leaving the TV on while you are away, you are saving yourself and them a lot of trouble making them believe a lie about you being home. Having a neighbor pick up your mail is obviously lying to thieves making them think you are home. It's all about motive.

I think I'll stick to what I said a lie is a lie.. circumstancial or not. Giving the 'but it's saving me from thieves or killers' makes it out to seem like there's a good lie and a bad lie...
When God asks if you lied, it'll be a yes or no answer. No blurred lines. And lying basically results from lacking trust in God's hand. He will always deliver us from any situation .question is, will you actually give Him the chance to do so?

 

[Dave L]

I think I'll stick to what I said a lie is a lie.. circumstancial or not. Giving the 'but it's saving me from thieves or killers' makes it out to seem like there's a good lie and a bad lie...
When God asks if you lied, it'll be a yes or no answer. No blurred lines. And lying basically results from lacking trust in God's hand. He will always deliver us from any situation .question is, will you actually give Him the chance to do so?

If you get someone killed telling the truth you not only share the blame, but you also betray the killer leading them into worse sins. Do what love would do.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

If you get someone killed telling the truth you not only share the blame, but you also betray the killer leading them into worse sins. Do what love would do.

Not only the blame, but the punishment - God's Punishment even extends to those who "quietly" stand by and allow sin - they are punished with the same punishment as those who commit the sin.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

I think I'll stick to what I said a lie is a lie.. circumstancial or not. Giving the 'but it's saving me from thieves or killers' makes it out to seem like there's a good lie and a bad lie...
When God asks if you lied, it'll be a yes or no answer. No blurred lines. And lying basically results from lacking trust in God's hand. He will always deliver us from any situation .question is, will you actually give Him the chance to do so?

If you can find it, at least years ago it was available on a voice of the martyrs website,
there was a list of several faithful believers OT and NT
who lied and
God not only did not punish them - He did not even call it a sin....

 

[WorshipArtViolin]

YEAH ! HALLELUYAH !

(who hid Moses so he wouldn't be murdered ? )
(and How Did Yahweh Bless them Specially?)

Yahweh works in mysterious ways, His Wonders to Perform !

Just a point of corret

If you get someone killed telling the truth you not only share the blame, but you also betray the killer leading them into worse sins. Do what love would do.

Between facing man's wrath and God's, I think I'll tell the truth and risk having a guilty conscience because at the end of the day, it's God who you will face and everything happens for a reason and just like temptations ,God will never put you in a situation that's too much for you to handle

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

It was not at all a choice of chosing to face man's wrath or God's wrath when God's chosen people/man or woman or child/
lied in Scripture or ever.

NEVER risk having a guilty conscience, never.

Just a point of corret

Between facing man's wrath and God's, I think I'll tell the truth and risk having a guilty conscience because at the end of the day, it's God who you will face and everything happens for a reason and just like temptations ,God will never put you in a situation that's too much for you to handle

 

[DamianWarS]

YEAH ! HALLELUYAH !

(who hid Moses so he wouldn't be murdered ? )
(and How Did Yahweh Bless them Specially?)

Yahweh works in mysterious ways, His Wonders to Perform !

What did Samuel say to get inside of Bethlehem's gates? He came to anoint David but he told the city elders he was sacrificing a heifer. He also brought the heifer along so it was a premeditated lie.

 

[WorshipArtViolin]

If you can find it, at least years ago it was available on a voice of the martyrs website,
there was a list of several faithful believers OT and NT
who lied and
God not only did not punish them - He did not even call it a sin....

Did God tell you all this personally ??? Just asking.
You cannot speak for God and say He did not do this or that because He viewed it as being right.
We know nothing of God's thoughts and ways so just because He seems to have not punished these martyrs it doesn't mean He didn't acknowledge it to be a lie.
We can quote all the scriptures where people lied but that won't change the fact that a lie is a lie and for one to tell a lie, it has to be spoken so hiding someone or something doesn't necessarily mean you told a lie

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

Did God tell you all this personally ??? Just asking.
You cannot speak for God and say He did not do this or that because He viewed it as being right.
We know nothing of God's thoughts and ways so just because He seems to have not punished these martyrs it doesn't mean He didn't acknowledge it to be a lie.
We can quote all the scriptures where people lied but that won't change the fact that a lie is a lie and for one to tell a lie, it has to be spoken so hiding someone or something doesn't necessarily mean you told a lie

I guess you just need to ask God to learn from God, to give you the mind of Christ as written in the New Testament,
to reveal His Purpose and to grant you the understanding of His Word (as ONLY HE CAN - man cannot).

 

[Eric Abbott]

Can you show me where the bible says don't lie? Please don't grab "bearing false witness" because that is not the same and I can explain why if you need me to. Remember, Abraham lied about Sarah being his wife.

Now, I am not advocating lying folks... but if you are going to say "we can never lie" then I would suggest, especially if you are a parent, that you are already a liar. A lie is telling a untruth, and so if you lied to your child because the content of something they were about to see was beyond their years and you wanted to protect them from it... you still lied. If you told them Santa Claus was real, you lied. If you told them the zit on their face didn't look bad when you knew it did, you lied.

What if a Nazi came to your door almost 80 years ago and asked if you had Jews hiding in your basement? If you said no, when you did have them, you lied EVEN THOUGH the lie protected life because you knew the real question was, "are you hiding Jews we can kill?"

Many many verses, I'll name just one with the proper definition.
Proverbs 12:22 - Lying Lips are an abomination to the Lord, But those who deal faithfully are His delight.

In KJV, this word Lying comes from the original hebrew word 'sheqer'
You can read the original meaning of it here -- https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H8267&t=KJV
--------------
Strong’s Definitions H8266; an untruth; by implication, a sham (often adverbial):—without a cause, deceit(-ful), false(-hood, -ly), feignedly, liar, lie, lying, vain (thing), wrongfully.

This is just one out of many about telling lies.

 

[WorshipArtViolin]

I guess you just need to ask God to learn from God, to give you the mind of Christ as written in the New Testament,
to reveal His Purpose and to grant you the understanding of His Word (as ONLY HE CAN - man cannot).

And that is true. Only God can reveal to us what is true and the deeper meanings of His word. Just like Jesus used parables to get people to think even more, so should we try to look deeper into the situations that the people of old were presented with

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

(just a quick-search find possible example(s) ) >>

"Proverbs - Lying tongue, lying lips

"In Proverbs 6:16-19, God lists 7 things that he hates: a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart devising wicked plans, feet swift to run to evil, a false witness speaking lies, and one who sows discord.

The lying tongue is clearly distinct from the false witness that speaks lies, so it is clearly not the same thing as bearing false witness. So what then is this lying tongue? Most scriptures in Proverbs don't really have a context like some other books of the bible, however there are ideas which are repeated in different parts of the book for emphasis and clarity. The expressions "lying tongue" or "lying lips" are repeated elsewhere in the book of Proverbs (See Proverbs 10:18; 12:19,22; 17:7; 21:6; 26:28). The most notable one is Proverbs 21:6 which speaks of getting treasures via a lying tongue. The emphasis seems to be on using dishonest means of getting ahead financially or otherwise. So again it's not all types of lying, but a very specific form that God detests."

https://www.bibleissues.org/lying1.html

 

[WorshipArtViolin]

(just a quick-search find possible example(s) ) >>

"Proverbs - Lying tongue, lying lips

"In Proverbs 6:16-19, God lists 7 things that he hates: a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart devising wicked plans, feet swift to run to evil, a false witness speaking lies, and one who sows discord.

The lying tongue is clearly distinct from the false witness that speaks lies, so it is clearly not the same thing as bearing false witness. So what then is this lying tongue? Most scriptures in Proverbs don't really have a context like some other books of the bible, however there are ideas which are repeated in different parts of the book for emphasis and clarity. The expressions "lying tongue" or "lying lips" are repeated elsewhere in the book of Proverbs (See Proverbs 10:18; 12:19,22; 17:7; 21:6; 26:28). The most notable one is Proverbs 21:6 which speaks of getting treasures via a lying tongue. The emphasis seems to be on using dishonest means of getting ahead financially or otherwise. So again it's not all types of lying, but a very specific form that God detests."

https://www.bibleissues.org/lying1.html

I'll just leave and let you actually think about what you just wrote ...especially that last statement