Is lying always wrong and sinful?

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I mean, when there is no defamation or grave consequences. For example, if I have a pen in my pocket and someone asks and I say no, I will be lying, but it is a sin?
 
I think there was anothee thread just like this not to long ago.
 
imo said:
I mean, when there is no defamation or grave consequences. For example, if I have a pen in my pocket and someone asks and I say no, I will be lying, but it is a sin?
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Lying is always wrong.
 
OP, go back and check out the many, many threads we’ve had on this topic. The answer is far more nuanced than “it’s always wrong,” which is always one side of the argument in these threads (I guess that’s the end of surprise parties!). These threads always follow a similar path: “does this dress make me look fat?”, “what about hiding Jews from the Nazis?”, etc, etc.

I personally recommend the Catholic Answers article ‘Is Lying Ever Right?’ for a nice analysis of the topic. I especially find the ‘someone who has the right to know the truth’ factor to be key to wade through the morality of the topic and apply it in real life.
 
GiftofMercy said:
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imo:
I mean, when there is no defamation or grave consequences. For example, if I have a pen in my pocket and someone asks and I say no, I will be lying, but it is a sin?
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Lying is always wrong.
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What about James 2:25, which commends Rahab for misleading those looking for the Jewish spies?
 
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Life would be a lot simpler if we all didn’t lie. I think it was Mark Twain who said the best thing about telling the truth is that you don’t have to remember what you said previously, or to whom. Looking at it that way, lying is a kind of slavery, and most of us are content to remain under its oppression.
 
GiftofMercy said:
Rahab was working for God and became an ancestor of the House of David and of Christ
This act led to a lot of conversions from pagan ways.
Joshua 2:1 Commentaries: Then Joshua the son of Nun sent two men as spies secretly from Shittim, saying, "Go, view the land, especially Jericho." So they went and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab, and lodged there.
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You said that lying was always wrong. If it is, then everything you just stated here is irrelevant, because it was still wrong to do despite the good that may have come out of it.
 
I think John Henry Newman explained when lying is acceptable in Apologia Pro Vita Sua. An example he uses Exodus 1:15 where the midwives saved Hebrew babies by lying to Pharaoh.

I think it was when the person asking is mad or has no authority to ask.
 
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Evan said:
I think John Henry Newman explained when lying is acceptable in Apologia Pro Vita Sua. An example he uses Exodus 1:15 where the midwives saved Hebrew babies by lying to Pharaoh.

I think it was when the person asking is mad or has no authority to ask.
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I would be interested to read this. Sadly, aside from possibly selections in college, I have never read APVS. I should have.
 
JSRG said:
You said that lying was always wrong. If it is, then everything you just stated here is irrelevant, because it was still wrong to do despite the good that may have come out of it.
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Lying is always wrong , which is a different statement to lying is a sin.

Did you read any of those commentaries?

Dont be offensive in your replies.
 
JSRG said:
What about James 2:25, which commends Rahab for misleading those looking for the Jewish spies?
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“And in the same way was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?” She is not commended for her lie.
ahs said:
Not necessarily always a sin. See http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s2c2a8.htm#2489
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Not being bound to reveal the truth to some persons does not mean lying is permissable, as it is intrinsically evil.
imo said:
I mean, when there is no defamation or grave consequences. For example, if I have a pen in my pocket and someone asks and I say no, I will be lying, but it is a sin?
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It is a sin. The consequences are not the only consideration.
 
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Always a sin…except, apparently in the arena of American politics, where the end seems to justify the means, and lying is acceptable because the other side has lied…go figure…but be of good cheer…God will figure it out.
 
Satan is the father of Lies. .

Rahab was a Gentile - not under the Mosaic law.

Her protecting Israelites in the manners in which she did - overrode her prostitution, etc…
 
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The27thPsalm said:
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JSRG:
What about James 2:25, which commends Rahab for misleading those looking for the Jewish spies?
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“And in the same way was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?” She is not commended for her lie.
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It says she was justified (which is obviously commending) for sending them out another way. That was done through the act of lying to them and saying that the spies went elsewhere. It is a clear commending for her lying to them.
 
EndTimes said:
Rahab was a Gentile - not under the Mosaic law.
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If that is your argument–that it is okay to do because she was not under the Mosaic law due to being a gentile–then by that logic, as gentiles, we are totally free to lie! Of course, someone can say that, whether explicitly stated in the Mosaic Law or not, certain actions are wrong (e.g. murder), and therefore lying is included in it and prohibited even among those not under the Law. But if that is the argument, then one can’t use the whole “not under the Mosaic law” claim to begin with.
 
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