The Lie That Breaks Everything Else
If you’ve ever caught someone in a lie, you know the strange feeling that follows. It’s not just that the words were false — it’s that now you can’t be sure about anything else they’ve said. Trust, once broken by a lie, doesn’t recover easily. It leaks into every conversation, every promise, every relationship.
That’s the territory Pastor Josh White walked into this Sunday at Grace Bible Church of Phoenix. The text was Colossians 3:9-10 — short verses, easy to read past, hard to live out: “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” Paul’s command is one sentence. The implications are a lifetime.
Why This Verse Sits Where It Sits
Josh made an observation worth slowing down on. In Colossians 3, Paul has just spent several verses listing the marks of the old self — sexual immorality, passion, evil desire, covetousness, anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk. The list is ugly and specific. Then verse 9 lands: “Do not lie to one another.”
Why is lying on the same list as those other sins? Because lying isn’t a small thing. It’s not a social tic or a white-knuckle habit. Lying is the operating system of the old self. The old man runs on falsehood — about God, about ourselves, about each other. Josh put it bluntly: if you’re still living by lies, you haven’t actually put on the new self yet. You might look the part. But the foundation is rotten.
“Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”
— Colossians 3:9-10
Three Reasons God Cannot Lie
If lying is the signature of the old self, the new self runs on truth. That’s not just a moral upgrade — it’s a theological claim about the God we serve. Josh gave three reasons God hates lying.
First, God is truth. This isn’t one attribute among many. It is what He is. Numbers 23:19 drives it home: “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” Everything we trust God for — forgiveness, salvation, the promises of Scripture — rests on the fact that He does not deceive. Strip that out, and the entire Bible becomes unreliable.
“God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?”
— Numbers 23:19
Second, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. When people say there are many paths to God, they’re disagreeing with Jesus directly. Josh didn’t soften this. If the Son of God says He is the only way, and He is truth, then a Christianity that says “all roads lead up” is built on a lie about the only One who can save us.
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'”
— John 14:6
Third, the new self is being renewed in knowledge. The Greek word for “renewed” implies continual, active transformation. We are not who we were. We are being made new — and that renewal happens through truth, about God and about ourselves. Lying short-circuits the process. It keeps us dressed in the old self while telling everyone (and ourselves) we’ve changed.
A Filter for Your Words
Josh didn’t leave it at diagnosis. He gave a practical filter for what we say to other people — three questions to run every conversation through before the words leave our mouth.
- Is it true? Not “true-ish.” Not “technically not a lie.” Actually true, as best you can determine. Ephesians 4:25: “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”
- Is it helpful? True and destructive is still wrong. “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29).
- Is it gracious? True, helpful, and brutal is still wrong. “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person” (Colossians 4:6).
The tongue, Josh reminded us, holds the power of life and death. Every day, in dozens of small conversations, we’re choosing which one to release.
It’s Not Too Late
If you’ve been living by lies — about yourself, about others, about God — the invitation this morning wasn’t shame. It was hope. God paid for every lie you’ve ever told in the death of His Son. You can leave them behind. You can put on the new self today.
As Josh closed, the benediction from 2 Peter 3:18 was the right send: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” Grow in the truth. Speak the truth. Live in the truth. That’s the labor that never stops.
Scripture References
- Colossians 3:9-10 — Do not lie to one another; put on the new self
- Numbers 23:19 — God is not man that he should lie
- John 14:6 — Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life
- Ephesians 4:25 — Speak the truth with your neighbor
- Ephesians 4:29 — Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths
- Colossians 4:6 — Let your speech always be gracious
- 2 Peter 3:18 — Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord