Is it ever ok to lie? What if someone's life was on the line and you could save them by a lie? Then it would be ok right? I mean what's more important? Would it be better to tell the truth and see someone die as a result, or save a life by a little lie? It's even a Biblical concept right? Rahab lied to protect the spies didn't she? (We won't consider that she wasn't even part of the current "church" and didn't have the first clue to what God's laws were.) So it's ok in a situation like that, right? After all what's more important?
A question regarding this sort of moral dilemma was discussed in one of my classes and almost everyone agreed that the "lesser" commandment should be broken in order to save a life, or avoid breaking a "greater" commandment. Logically, this makes sense, providing that there are lesser and greater commandments (though violators all seem to go to the same place).
But is it really ok to break any of God's commandments for a good cause? It seems like God would have given some exceptions to His rules if He meant for this to be the case. I wonder if there are as many "gray areas" as we seem to think. Too often we get all smarty-pants with our human logic. What God asks us to do doesn't always make sense to us, so we try to find our own way. Just read some Bible stories... There is a certain amount of blind faith that is required to obey Him, even when it looks like madness. There's of a story of a woman in Germany during WWII that hid a Jewish boy in her house. The Gestapo was pursuing and soon arrived, demanding to know if the boy was there. Should she lie to save a life, or should she tell the truth? She sent up a quick prayer, and then boldly invited the officers to come look for themselves. They left without searching. Reminds me of a verse in 1 Samuel where God says "them that honor me will I honor."
Now I'm not saying that it always works like this. There are also stories where things didn't end so happy. But you get the point right? Breaking God's law is not the only way out. It's where the blind faith comes in. God is not going to punish us for doing what He said. We're not going to get up to the pearly gates and have God say "I'm sorry, but remember when you told the truth that one time and somebody died as a result? Well that's pretty much a murder in my book, so you aren't comin' in. You shoulda lied kid." I don't think so. Seems almost blasphemous to imagine it.
So why doesn't God always intervene for us when we obey Him? Sometimes we will never know until we can see as He sees; from beginning to end in every existing dimension. There's often a plan we cannot see. Just for sake of illustration, let's say that you are one of Jesus disciples and you are trying to keep His enemies from finding and killing Him. You are doing anything to save Him. After all, this is the Messiah! What you don't realize is that God has a much bigger plan in store. Now of course this isn't a perfect example, because no one else is the Messiah, but do you get my drift? We can't usually see the big picture.
Here's another way of looking at it. Would God ever put you in a situation where He asked you to lie? To break His law? Or even in a situation where He would give you permission to? Wouldn't that be admitting that Satan has been right all along? That His law is flawed, and cannot be kept in certain situations? It would put an enormous hole in Christianity because God's law is a microcosm of His character. And if His law is flawed, so is His character. And if God isn't perfect, why should we bother? Sin would be excused, Satan would be vindicated in his accusations, and the gospel would become irrelevant. After all, how can God save us from our sins if He isn't even perfect Himself. Part of the reason Jesus came was to show that it is possible to keep the law through divine strength. The other part was to save us since we haven't kept the law. Now why would He need to do that if the claims of the law don't matter? I dunno. Am I making any sense?   ¶ 11:00 PM