Therefore, having laid aside falsehood, each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor because we are members of one another.
This is the first time Paul is getting into specific moral issues, and he is starting with our words.
Some people pride themselves on how they can lie and get away with it, but how much can we get away with when God is the ultimate judge?
The instruction is to lay aside falsehood. Meaning, make it a thing of the past for you. And the fact that this is in the word of God makes it powerful, meaning God caused His servant Paul to write it down for you. Does that not mean it is something we should take very seriously?
But people may want to play mental games, like saying What if you are hiding someone who was persecuted for being a Christian, and you know they want to kill the person, and they ask you, “Is that person in your house?”
Do you say, Yes, the person is in your house and have the person killed, or do you lie and disobey God’s instruction?
That story borrows from the story of Abraham, who told Sarah to say she was his sister so he would not be killed; he later explained that she was truly his sister, meaning he was not lying, just not telling the whole truth (Genesis 20:1–13).
Those kinds of mental games are meant to break our resolve by pulling the mental resources we need to focus on Christ into a hypothetical scenario, and we burn needed fuel on such unnecessariness. Paul calls such things “useless” and warned against being involved in speculations. That is exactly what this is.
nor to occupy themselves with myths and interminable genealogies. Such things promote useless speculations rather than God’s redemptive plan that operates by faith.
Those are not innocent mental excursions in my opinion.
What would that do, except to cause you to doubt the wisdom of the word of God, in the guise of an innocent query?
Doesn’t that remind you of the Serpent’s engagement with Eve in the garden (Genesis 3)? What is more innocent than the serpent’s query? Does it not seem to be coming from a genuine place, just an innocent animal, making an innocent inquiry? But we all know where that landed us.
I believe such lines of questioning, like the hypothetical lying scenario, weigh on the natural instinct to simply comply with the word of God.
It may not have immediate repercussions, but it sows the seed of the idea that God’s word is only valid sometimes, not all the time; that God cannot really mean what He said — so much like the serpent!
Jesus said when you appear before authority because of your faith, don't worry about what you will say because the Spirit of your father will put the right words in your mouth (Matthew 10:19–20). So in such a hypothetical situation, we can depend on God to guide us by the Holy Spirit.
But such an answer may not satisfy those who ask such questions. They may accuse you of dodging. But you do not owe them anything.
After saying to lay aside falsehood, Paul said each one should speak the truth with their neighbor, because we are actually one in Christ.
We have much to gain by telling the truth to one another; it means there is no need to try to hide things from one another. We are more than family; we are members one of another. That is a statement of deep connection that transcends anything in this world. For example, James wrote, Confess your sins to one another (James 5:16).
We need to realize that laying aside falsehood is about what you are not doing, and speaking the truth is what you are doing.
Therefore, put in mind that you do not owe those who are not fellow believers the whole truth; the person you are in deep connection with is different from some other associations, even your natural family members.
For example, Jesus did not treat everybody as his close associate. Again, you do not owe everyone the whole truth. And that is different from lying.
I wonder why Paul used the word "neighbor" rather than "brother". I think he means, in a sense, we are close-knit in heart even if we stay physically far apart, because of Jesus Christ, who is at once in heaven and in our hearts; and we feel closer to Him than to anyone else.
Is it not that a linchpin of morality is truthfulness, and that is why it is coming up first here?
God is characterized as the one who does not lie (1 Samuel 15:29), and if we are supposed to pattern ourselves after Him (Ephesians 5:1), does not that at a minimum mean we deliberately choose to lay aside falsehood, as people living in the presence of God and not grieve the Holy Spirit with lies (Ephesians 4:30).
And when Jesus was described, we were told that no falsehood was found in His mouth.
For to this you were called, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example for you to follow in his steps. He committed no sin nor was deceit found in his mouth.