The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Lying Is Plastic

Episode Date: June 21, 2024

Are you a reliable person? Are you someone that people trust to always tell the truth? Speaking the truth is incredibly important for anyone pursuing the Christian life. Jeff Cavins addresses the idea of lying being plastic. He discusses the impact of lying and the importance of speaking the truth at all times. Snippet from the Show “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight” (Proverbs 12:22) Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit https://media.ascensionpress.com/?s=&page=2&category%5B0%5D=Ascension%20Podcasts&category%5B1%5D=The%20Jeff%20Cavins%20Show for full shownotes!

Welcome to the Jeff Kaven show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together in living as activated disciples. This is show 381. Lying is plastic. Welcome to the show, my friend. So good to have you again. And today we're going to be talking about the important. of our mouths, truth, lying, being transparent. So we're going to talk about this, and I was preparing for the show today, and all of a sudden it hit me that today, the Olympic trials begin in the United States. So the winners are going to end up showing up in Paris for the Olympics, 2004, but in the United States, you've got to make the team.

And there's, I think, 10 days of trials until we come up with our track and field team. And, of course, there's swimming, and there's all kinds of other things going on in the Olympics. But one of the things that I was thinking about was that the truth is important in the Olympic trials as it is in the Olympics. Cheating will eliminate you. And so it is so important what you say and what you do, even at the level of sports. You know, what are you taking into your body that might give you the advantage and are you admitting it? Or if you get caught, are you going to make an excuse? lying is have you ever seen these things where you can touch them it's like a little rubber toy that you splat on the ground and if you touch it in one area it moves into another and it's like a squishy toy anyway that's kind of what lying does is it just keeps changing and that's where this idea of plastic comes from the idea of plastic the word plastico in greek is to change shapes and so plastic surgery for example is to change the shape of your

nose, your face, whatever it might be. And lying is plastic. It's always changing and changing the circumstances. And it changes what people can rely on with you or you rely on with somebody else. So we're going to take a look at that. By the way, if you do want the show notes, I've got some scriptures for you today. All you got to do is get on the mailing list here, sort of speak. You can text my name, Jeff Kavens, one word, Jeff Kavins. Text it to the number 3-3-7-7.7. We'll get you on the list. We'll give you the show notes every week, and that'll help you out as far as focusing on the show if you are driving or doing something else. Maybe you're making dinner, and you don't need to keep putting that knife down to write down another scripture.

We got it covered for you. So let's talk about this today a little bit, shall we? The Olympic trials starting today, truth is very important. I want to just talk about lying for just a moment here and then look into some principles from the Word of God that might be a challenge. to you to tweak the way you are talking with people. And are you telling the truth and the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Or are you hiding? Are you hiding something? We talked about this not too long ago, this idea of truth. And as I was preparing, I just couldn't get this off my mind thinking about the need for truth in the culture today that we live in with so much going on

in the news and the whole issue of Israel in the Middle East. and what people are saying and the awful things they're saying and the need for truth. It's almost like when you talk about world politics that truth really doesn't matter anymore. It's more like, do whatever you need to do to get your agenda accomplished. And once you get into a pattern of doing that, then we really lose truth and we lose what we can depend on and who we can depend on. And then life will never be the same if we don't protect that truth. And I was thinking about this, and, you know, lying is something that we do when we can't face the truth. If you can't face the truth, whether you are embarrassed or whether it doesn't serve your agenda,

you further your purposes, or you're trying to protect yourself, whatever it might be, a lack of ability or willingness to face the truth about a situation or about something you said or did, that's where lying comes in. We're trying to avoid the truth. And as Christians, when we say we're Christians and we walk with Christ, he is the way the truth in the life. And so everything about us is a witness and particularly what we say. And if you think about it, what do we do on a daily basis that is a repetition from day to day? Well, the biggest ticket probably is talking. You know, our day is made up largely of talking to people, whether it be the banker, or whether it be a colleague or your boss or your spouse, your children, your neighbors. There are so many

verbal transactions throughout the day, and they all, at the end of the day, say something about you and who you are and what you believe in your short-term horizon, your long-term, your eternal horizon. All of this plays into you being a witness, a witness of something. thing. When I was talking about lying being plastic, I mean that in the course of a conversation with somebody, if you are a liar and you are used to lying, then the conversation can begin to go in all kinds of different directions to the point where people really don't know what's up or down at that point. And this one quote by an English poet by the name of William Shunstone was, I thought really apropos for today. He talks about the insidious nature of lying when he says

a liar, and I'll put this in the show notes, a liar begins with making falsehood appear like truth and ends with making truth itself appear like falsehood. That's plastic. That is continually changing, moldable. It's whatever shape or size you need the truth in, we can do it. We can do it. And so it's making falsehood appear like truth, and that's not truth. And then it ends with making truth itself appear like a falsehood. Now, there's something in the Bible that kind of goes along with this, and that is that we call evil good and good evil. And the nature of sin is such that when you sin, you lose the sensitivity to sin, and then you begin to indulge in the evil, but you call it a good, that it's good for you. Come up with your own excuses, it's good for you, and then you are

needing more of that good, which is bad, evil. And before you know it, you're lost, because the evil now is good for you and defined as good. That's the real danger in all of this. so we must be committed to the truth and the truth is what our tongue our mouth is all about when it comes to speaking and in mass we even say you know forgive me for what i have done and what i have failed to do what i have said what i have said maybe what it's what i failed to to say maybe i was a false witness because i did not tell the truth and by not telling the truth i felt like i was safe it's not like i did anything wrong but sin is commission and omission.

And when it comes to the mouth, we have to think about that, don't we? It's not a matter of just saving ourselves. We are committed to the truth. Now, there's a few scriptures. I want to lay a little bit of a foundation here in the first half of the show. Leviticus 1911, all the way back into Leviticus, that lovely book that you read often at night, the glass of wine. Leviticus 1911 and 12 says, you shall not steal nor deal falsely, nor lie. to one another. It has all three of those together. Don't steal, don't deal falsely, don't lie to one

another. And you shall not swear by my name falsely. And so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. And so in the Old Testament and even in the Ten Commandments, this issue of lying comes into play that this is not a part of the people of God. To be a disciple of Jesus, it is not becoming to lie to others about anything and they should know that they can count on us and that our yes is yes and our no is no and anything beyond that is of the evil one now in proverbs which is just filled with wisdom 31 chapters it ends with that great chapter of a holy woman a wise woman the proverbs 1222 says lying lips are an abomination to the lord but those who act faithfully are his delight. So you'll get a look there of the contrast, the juxtaposition, if you will,

between lying lips and someone who is faithful. To be faithful means you can't lie. If you lie, you're not faithful. So when we talk about ourselves as faithful Catholics, faithful Christians, I think a lot of times we define that, we self-define that, I should say, as I believe everything that the church teaches. And so I'm faithful. I'm a faithful Catholic. Some people go on to describe themselves as a conservative Catholic, which you know by now with being with me these years, I'm not for all that stuff. You know, I don't think we define ourselves in terms of conservative or liberal or moderate. Nobody wants to marry a moderate. They want to marry a faithful person. They want to hire a faithful person. You know, your company isn't advertising for moderates. You're advertising for somebody

who will be faithful to the company. And so lying lips are not faithful to the Lord or to truth. And then in Proverbs 14.5, it says a faithful witness does not lie, but a false witness breathes out lies. Now, I chose that Proverbs 145 because, well, because we are witnesses. As Christians, we are witnesses of the Lord. Everything he said and did becomes our agenda. now. And what we do as faithful witnesses is we don't lie. We tell the truth. We tell the truth. And then finally here in John 8, 44 through 45, that's John 8 44 through 45. You are of your

father the devil, Jesus says to the leadership. He says, you're of your father the devil. And then he's going to give a description of what the devil is all about. He says, you are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and has nothing to do with the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me. Now that's very telling, isn't it, that the enemy, Satan is a liar, and he's been a liar from the beginning, and he lies. Why? Because he's speaking according to his own nature. He is a liar. And so if we plug and play here and we put you or me in that equation, I would have to conclude that I tell the truth and you tell the truth because we are speaking according to our nature, which

If we have been baptized, receive the Holy Spirit, we are adopted into the household of the Trinity, we've become sons and daughters of God, we are different people because of the fact that the Lord purchased us, he's redeemed us. And so for me to tell the truth would be in accordance with this new man. But the old man, the old Jeff, lied. And that was according to my nature. It wasn't that big of a deal. You know, before somebody gives their life to the Lord, it's not that big of a deal to lie.

You might be convicted of it, you know. You might be convicted that you did it, but you don't have that depth of understanding to realize what's really happening in the situation. I have a quote for you right after the break. We're going to take a break here. We come back. I want to continue this discussion with you. but I have a quote from none other than Nietzsche, Frederick Nietzsche. And you're thinking, wow, what are you doing, quoting him?

Well, you'll find out right after the break, but I think he had something to say on this topic that was very, very revealing. You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show. Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz. I want to let you know about an exciting announcement that could revolutionize the way you listen to the Bible in the air and the catechism. the year. Ascension has released a new Bible and Catechism app called the Ascension app. No, here's what you get. In this app, you get the entire text of the Great Adventure Bible. Just incredible.

You also get the entire text of the catechism of the Catholic Church, as long with the Catechism in New Year podcast and the Bible in your podcast and transcripts for each episode. If you're like, I'm tired of listening to that guy. I just want to read it. There's complete transcripts from each and every episode. One thing that makes this app incredibly unique is that it includes special features that they make connections between the Bible and the catechism so crystal clear through color-coded references and all these links. The hyperlinks are amazing. I tried it out and I'm like, oh my gosh, it kind of has changed the way I read through the catechism, kind of changed the way I read through the Bible. These features will help you navigate the Bible and catechism even more seamlessly

so you can get more out of your experience. Also, the app provides almost 1,000 answers to Bible questions. The people who listen to the Bible in the year, they wrote in with their questions, almost a thousand answers. And those answers come in the form of audio clips, video clips, as well as resources excerpted from some of Ascans published works. If you want to download this app for free, super simple. Just go to the app store in search for Ascension app. I am telling you, if learning about the Bible and the catechism is important to you, then this app will change your life. God bless you, my friend. Thanks for coming back. And we're talking today about lying is plastic, the importance of telling the truth.

And we were looking at some of the scriptures that talk about it. And a synopsis of the first half of this show would be that we are created in the image and likeness of God and therefore we tell the truth according to the new nature and that our speech is a witness of who we are. And not only who we are, but who God is. We are either false witnesses or we are faithful witnesses by our actions and our words. and today we're sort of isolating the words. Now, Nietzsche brought up something that I thought was very powerful. And, you know, I've been collector of quotes for years and years and years, all the way back into the late 70s, I guess.

And he said something about lying. Here's what it was. And see if you can't agree with this or identify with it. He said, I'm not upset that you lied to me. Okay. Now, just imagine somebody lied to you. maybe somebody close he says i'm not upset that you lied to me i'm upset that from now on i can't believe you that is powerful i'm not upset that you lied to me i'm upset that from now on i can't

believe you that is very very telling so what do we do well if we get ourselves into a situation where we have developed a habit of stretching the truth, which is another word for lying. And, you know, we, well, I just, it was a little fib or I just stretched the truth a little bit. No, you lied. You did not tell the truth. You can, you know, buffer it all, all you want to, and I can do the same, but it's still a lie. And I did a show, oh, boy, how long ago was that? I did, oh, the show, it was 360, show 360, a show called Lying and Hiding the

truth prudently. And in that show, 360, I did talk about how to deal with a very difficult situation where lives could be on the line. What are you obligated to do concerning the truth? That's show 360. I'll put that in the show notes for you, by the way. I'll just give you a reference to that. So if we develop this habit of not telling the truth, do you know what we start doing? We start propping up our words and our statements with oaths. we do we start we start propping them up and the sermon on the mount chapter five of matthew verses 33 through 37 talk about this and jesus said you have heard that it was said to your ancestors do not take a false oath but make good to the lord all that you vow but i say to you

jesus said do not swear at all now what's he talking about there well he's we know for sure he's not talking just about bad language, you know, sailor language. He's talking about an oath swearing. In other words, swearing to something. He says, I say to you, do not swear at all, not by heaven. And it's implied that we don't swear to God concerning our speech. We don't do that as Christians. We didn't even allow that in our family growing up with the kids, our kids.

But he says, but I say to you, do not swear at all, not by heaven, for it is God's throne. nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, it's his footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, do not swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. Let your yes mean yes, and you know me know. Anything other than this is from the evil one. Anything more than that is from the evil one. So what we do is we prop up our statement we prop them up with oaths. So we would say, as kids growing up, next time we play, I will choose you first for my team.

I swear to God. So we know that just saying that next time we play together, I'll choose you on my team isn't good enough. And it might not be good enough because maybe you've got caught lying before. So now you've got to prop up your statement with a sworn oath to God. Now, some families will say,

kids, we don't swear to God in our talk, in our language, but they will allow other kinds of evasive synonyms, which I think is wrong, because Jesus says we don't, we don't swear even using evasive synonyms. Swearing by earth is an evasive synonym for God, you know, or by Jerusalem, because that's, that's an evasive synonym for God. We don't have to prop up our our words, wouldn't it be something, if every Catholic in the country, every Lutheran, Methodist, Protestant of any kind, and Pentecostal non-denoms, if everyone that went by the name of Christian, the world understood, that person doesn't lie. It just doesn't happen. Wow, would we have an impact on the world, don't you think? I think we would. So we don't use these evasive synonyms.

I don't say, you know, I'll be home at 10 o'clock tonight. I swear on all things holy, I promise to tell the truth, or what do we say? I promise to tell the whole truth. So help me, God. You know, sometimes we have to take those oaths in public, you know, according to the government. They want to know that we are under an oath. That's how serious it is. And there are the times when we have to do that.

But my whole point is this. We don't have to prop up our language. And if you have to prop up your language, what does it say about you? What does it say about your word? Is your word like it used to be in the old days? Was your word your word? And people just didn't go back on their word? And if they did, it marked them for life.

Just like Nietzsche said, I'm not upset that you lied to me. I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you. So Paul spoke about this in Colossians 3. I'm going to put it in the show notes for you. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. That's what I was talking about earlier, is that now that I'm baptized, receive the Holy Spirit, I'm a new creation, and now I tell the truth because it's in a quarter.

with my new nature. But when I lied, I did that just in the same way that Satan lies because it's according to nature, a fallen creature.

So, also, in the book of Revelation 218, the doom of liars is spoken of. The liar will forever. Oh, this is serious stuff. Revelation 218,

the liar will forever be separated from a loving and holy God, the liar will have all eternity to regret the deception they refuse to renounce as they hear their lies echo in their memory in heaven. Wow, that is serious. That is serious. So what can we do about it this week at least, right? What are some things that that we can learn from this? Well, I think number one, we have to acknowledge the seriousness of the tongue of the mouth. And Jesus even said in Matthew 1234, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And so the one thing that you should begin with to get your speech in order

is to get your heart right with God. Go to confession. Confess the bad speech, that lying tongue. Confess that. They say, I've got a problem with this. For some reason, I have a difficulty in facing the truth. Either I'm embarrassed, I'm shamed. I don't think people will like me if they knew the truth and as a consequence my whole life now is propped up it's a house of of cards that could fall at any time i'd rather live a life of integrity than to be disintegrated in in this way so out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks when evil resides in the heart it will be exposed in perverse speech language contrary to the truth of god and love so one of the things that you can do is listen to and pray, Lord, convict me when I need to be convicted.

Listen to yourself because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. In Proverbs 1821, life and death are in the power of the tongue. That's a lot of power for one member of the body, the tongue. And then another thing as we think about the seriousness of the tongue is what Jesus said in Matthew 12, 33 through 37. He said that you one day in judgment, one day, after it's all said and done, you're going to give an account. of what you said. Hmm. So that's very powerful.

Proverbs 21, 23, he who keeps his mouth in his tongue keeps himself out of trouble. So number one, I would say, think about the seriousness of the tongue, do a good examination of conscience, how have you been using speech?

Are you hiding from truth? Are you hiding from embarrassment? Are you hiding from penalty? You need to be honest about where you're at right now and take that to the Lord in confession so that he can deal with that in our hearts. Okay. Number two, I would really recommend reading scripture, the Proverbs, Syrac. Sirek is one of the Deutero-canonical books, the seven books that the Protestant brothers and sisters don't have. Whoa, talk about wisdom. Oh,

One of the things that you need is wisdom. I would marinate in Proverbs in Syrac. I would write down verses that really pop out at you. I'd commit some of them to memory. And I would put a guard over my mouth, a guard of wisdom over my mouth. Is it going to happen in a day? No, a week? No.

A month? Mm, getting there. But this is something you want to continually develop. It's a habit, it's a virtue, and that you want to make a covenant with your mouth, you want to make a covenant with your mouth, that you will not lie, you will not stretch the truth, embellish, but you will be a man or a woman of truth, and people can come to rely on you. The unfortunate thing is that once you blow it, it's hard to get that back, but it can be.

You can get back, but it will have to be over time. It's not, oh, listen, honey, I swear I, you know, and that's the way people talk, don't they? I swear, I didn't, oops, boy, I'd said it again, didn't I. I won't, instead of, I swear I'll never do it again. You have to say swear because it's been a habit. It's been a habit. So we don't even renew our word with oaths.

Just make the statement, but don't make the statement out of hope. make it out of faith that you are going to do this. It's not a hope so, man, I hope I never just make the statement. And then ask the Lord to help you, you know, on a daily basis to deal with this, to use your speech as seasoned in salt, salt and seasoning in your speech. May it be gracious, as Paul told to Colossians when you speak. and don't speak rashly, don't speak rashly. And James talks about be, you know, quick to listen, slow to speak.

Slow everything down. Be quick to hear, slow to speak. So if you're in a pattern of the moment something comes up and you just, bam, you start speaking, stop. Count to 10. Don't say something that you don't mean. don't create a plastic scenario that can change with the circumstances. That isn't us. It isn't us at all.

Don't utter falsehood with your tongue. So I think that that's a real good thing to do, by the way, is to have a plan to be slow to speak, you know, quick to hear and ponder. How are you going to answer people? That's that slowing down period. and it reminds me of Proverbs 1528 that says the mind of the righteous ponders how to answer but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things. The Quicket is usually an impetuous mouth.

It just barks out stuff right away, whereas the wise person slows down and they ponder how they're going to answer. Very, very important. So I'll leave you with this because I think this is a powerful thing. In James 126, James says that if you can't control your tongue, guess what he says. your religion is worthless. I didn't make that up. That's James.

If you can't control your tongue, your religion is worthless. Very, very powerful, very powerful. So you can use your speech to build up, correct, comfort, encourage, and give God control of your mouth. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

Okay, so for no other reason other than this is the topic this week that the Lord really put on my heart and it just might be for you. It could be a turnaround in your life. Let's pray. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Lord Jesus, thank you so much for giving us life more abundantly.

Lord, help us as we slow down and start to listen to ourselves. May we speak in accordance with the nature of a redeemed person, not the old nature. And may we speak the truth in love. help us Lord to begin to turn this around help us Lord to see what we might be hiding from and what about the truth we are having a difficult time with help us with this Jesus so that we can be true witnesses of who you are in Jesus name amen all right my friend I love you I really do and I ask you to pray for me I will pray for you all throughout the week and I pray that God will open up opportunities for you this week to speak the truth in love to people who are broken,

addicted, people who are desperately searching for life. God bless you.