Satan is the arch-deceiver and father of lies; as Jesus says in John 8:44, he speaks from his own resources because nothing but falsehood is in him, and every thought from his heart is misleading and self-serving. His aim is to capture souls through lying and make them his slaves. Jesus, by contrast, is the embodiment of truth (John 14:6), and truth sets free (John 8:32), so lying enslaves. This is why the whole world lies under the devil's sway (1 John 5:19), and why the present evil world was founded on Satan's lie to Adam and Eve. Liars are so detestable to God that all of them will have their part in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 21:8). Man's heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), for mankind has caught the lying disease through contact with Satan and his minions. Lying springs from the heart, becomes addictive and habitual, and leaves the liar unbelievable. Liars build a fortress of lies in which they feel safe and powerful, walled with justifications such as protecting someone from pain. The chief damage of lying is the destruction of trust, which leaves relationships forever changed or ruined. A web of lies told to cover for one man's presidency has spread through a whole party and left the nation psychologically enslaved and uncertain.

Liars are foolish, and God condemns them: Psalm 52:2-5 says those who love lying rather than righteousness will be destroyed and uprooted from the land of the living, so there is no good end for anyone who lies, whether a journalist or anyone else. Machines such as polygraphs and voice analyzers cannot reliably identify liars, but people can learn to detect lies through the principles of the Five Books of Moses. Truth fits into a consistent sequence, while lies are isolated anomalies. The Hebrew word for truth, emet, is made of the first, middle, and last letters of the alphabet, so truth runs from A to Z and its letters stand on firm, broad bases. The word for a lie, sheker, is made of jumbled letters near the end of the alphabet that stand on points, so lies are unstable. The first uses of emet concern a single matter, while the first uses of sheker are scattered across different situations. There is only one truth but many lies, and people tell the truth naturally while lying in countless ways. To detect a lie, check whether the story fits a coherent context, probe it to see if it wobbles, and watch for departures from the speaker's baseline truth-telling manner. Because lies fly around so freely, all news and information must be questioned, confidence placed only where it is earned, and absolute trust given only to the Word of God.

Lying breaks the ninth commandment and destroys the trust on which communities depend. It is woven into ordinary life, yet God is a God of truth, and Jesus embodied truth, while Satan is the liar and father of lies (John 8:44). The commandment against bearing false witness reaches beyond the courtroom to every wrongful word or example that injures, including hypocrisy and self-deception. People lie to cover irresponsibility, to escape feelings of inadequacy, and to lower others so they themselves look better. The root is a deceitful heart (Jeremiah 17:9), whose corruption traces back to Satan's influence. Lying is never a joke; it is like a madman shooting arrows into a crowd, and it is an act of hatred that ruins its victims (Proverbs 26). It also boomerangs: the liar falls into the pit he digs, and his deceit is eventually exposed, because God cannot be mocked and men reap what they sow (Galatians 6:7-8). Each lie drags the liar deeper until he loses track of reality and becomes addicted to deceit, like an alcoholic. Whoever fails to bridle his tongue and deceives his own heart has a useless religion (James 1:26). The liar is a fool who deceives himself. By contrast, the person acceptable to God speaks truth in his heart, with no pretense, guile, gossip, or hypocrisy (Psalm 15). Change begins by confronting the fault, living truth, and fearing God. God will not admit anyone into His Family who does not embody truth as Christ did.

Deceit leads another person to believe what is false, and it takes three forms: intentional deception such as fraud, which is deceit with intent to gain; unintentional deception, where a person sincerely teaches error; and self-deception, as when someone claims to be a son of God yet habitually lives in sin. A liar knows he is a liar, but one who speaks mere portions of truth in order to deceive is a craftsman of destruction, and that describes Satan. He is the master of deceit who lies against the truth, denies it, counterfeits it, and twists it by mixing truth with error. Revelation 12:9 shows he deceives the whole world continually, and Ephesians 2:2 shows he and his demonic host are constantly at work filling the world with deception. His ministers transform themselves into ministers of righteousness and come in sheep's clothing, as Matthew 7:15 and II Corinthians 11:13-15 warn. Deceivers arise both outside and inside the church, as with Elymas, whom Paul called a son of the devil, and the false teachers of II Peter 2 and Acts 20 who draw many away. Jesus warned that even the elect could be deceived, so each believer must discern carefully on the basis of God's Word. Protection comes from continually building the qualities of II Peter 1, from faith to love, and from loving one another rather than accusing.

Lying is pervasive, and people soften it with euphemisms, yet God devotes two of the Ten Commandments to false witness. The ninth commandment, "You shall not bear false witness," covers far more than perjury or gossip: it forbids giving a false witness, example, or impression in any circumstance, including hypocrisy and self-deception. God is a God of truth, the Rock, with nothing false or variable in Him, and Jesus not only spoke truth but embodied it. A person who would be converted to be like God must therefore be willing to speak, acknowledge, and submit to truth. People lie to cover up, to escape feelings of inadequacy, or to tear others down. The deceitful heart is the real source, and the tongue conveys it outward. Proverbs 26 shows that joking deceit is as reckless as a madman's firebrands, that talebearing feeds strife as wood feeds fire, and that smooth lips can hide a hateful heart. Liars forget that God cannot be mocked. Whatever a man sows he reaps, so the deceiver is caught in his own pit and entangled in his own web. He is himself deceived and may come to believe his own lies. Satan is the father of lies, and the hypocrite destroys his neighbor and, unless he repents, himself. Nothing destroys a reputation faster than being known as a liar. The righteous person, by contrast, is upright, trustworthy, and without guile, and his heart, hand, and tongue are united in truth. God mercifully reveals His truth so that we can overcome lying, and we must refuse to handle His Word deceitfully, whatever the cost to our vanity.