This is something I've always wondered: What are the actual ethics of lying, from a Christian perspective?
For example when someone asks you for your opinion and you know the honest answer would hurt them. Or when you are flirting with someone and you exaggerate a bit or pretend to be more interested in something about them than you really are. Or when some aspect of yourself is too humiliating and you would rather not tell someone who asks you about it.
When I had my job interview I lied and said I did some freelance work for 2 years. In reality I didn't, I was just dealing with depression and didn't do anything productive those years. But if I had really told them that I imagine I wouldn't have gotten the job.
The world is really competitive and if you are honest all the time you get lost. And I know some people say you could not necessarily "say" the truth but you can "hide" the truth or say something that isn't false but isn't really the complete truth. Is that what Jesus really wants? It sounds like a dodgy game, not very ethical either but I don't know. Besides that doesn't always work, for example you can't just say "I don't want to talk about that" all the time.
So what's the deal with this? Is lying always wrong? Some translations to Spanish of the commandments made me think not lying just meant "not accusing someone of something they didn't do", which sounds reasonable. But I don't know if God basically wants us to not lie ever, about anything, and face the consequences of being honest 100% of the time.
For example when someone asks you for your opinion and you know the honest answer would hurt them. Or when you are flirting with someone and you exaggerate a bit or pretend to be more interested in something about them than you really are. Or when some aspect of yourself is too humiliating and you would rather not tell someone who asks you about it.
When I had my job interview I lied and said I did some freelance work for 2 years. In reality I didn't, I was just dealing with depression and didn't do anything productive those years. But if I had really told them that I imagine I wouldn't have gotten the job.
The world is really competitive and if you are honest all the time you get lost. And I know some people say you could not necessarily "say" the truth but you can "hide" the truth or say something that isn't false but isn't really the complete truth. Is that what Jesus really wants? It sounds like a dodgy game, not very ethical either but I don't know. Besides that doesn't always work, for example you can't just say "I don't want to talk about that" all the time.
So what's the deal with this? Is lying always wrong? Some translations to Spanish of the commandments made me think not lying just meant "not accusing someone of something they didn't do", which sounds reasonable. But I don't know if God basically wants us to not lie ever, about anything, and face the consequences of being honest 100% of the time.