Obsufscation

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. (Ephesians 4:17-25 ESV).

I really enjoyed the cartoon I’ve included today. The pastor, in his effort to communicate very clearly in his sermon tells his wife, “I tried bloviation, obfuscation, prevarication, and equivocation, but no one understood me. So, I’m back to plain lying.” I like the word “obfuscation.” It sounds so pretentious. According to the dictionary it means “the obscuring of the intended meaning of communication by making the message difficult to understand, usually with confusing and ambiguous language.” Which brings us back to the simple truth – it is lying. Some people believe that lying is only a problem if you really hurt someone, or if you get caught. But God doesn't see it that way. God cares about the truth because our relationships depend on it. Like God, Christians believe that honesty is very important. Of course, being honest is not the same as saying everything you think. If you don't like something, or you believe a comment someone made is pretty foolish, you don't necessarily have to say so. There are also times when telling the whole truth can cause too much hurt. The stories from WWII with the example of people who hid Jews from being taken captive by the Nazis illustrate a “good” lie. In that situation, the effect of deception was more in line with God's intention for relationships and caring for others. However, rare exceptions shouldn't blind us to God's basic demand for honesty in relationships. If I am going to relate to you in a loving way, I need to be able to count on you for the truth. If I can't, I will feel manipulated, become suspicious, distrust your word, and eventually become alienated from you. Lying changes more than the facts; it also changes the liar. If I lie to you, I erode our relationship, whether or not you know I lied. Lying to God does the same thing. The only difference is that God already knows.