2. _Lying of Any Kind._ A lie is a conscious falsehood uttered with the
purpose of deceiving. It may be acted as well as spoken. [Prov. 6:13] We
must not deceive nor try to deceive others by telling an untruth, by
hiding the truth or a part of it, by hypocrisy, flattery, boasting,
broken promises, conventional lies, "white lies," "lies of necessity,"
guesses given as facts, etc.

II. WHAT IS COMMANDED.

1. _Truthfulness._ Truth is of God; [Deut. 32:4] lying is of the devil.
[John 8:44] As children of God we must be truthful. [Col. 3:9+] A liar
is an abomination in God's sight. [Prov. 12:22, Prov. 17:15] If
necessary, we should be ready to suffer and die for the truth.

2. _A Charitable Judgment of Others._ We should

APOLOGIZE FOR OUR NEIGHBOR, and defend him when his character is
unjustly assailed. [Matt. 7:12, Prov. 31:8, 9] We must be careful,
however, not to excuse or make light of sin. [Isa. 5:20+] We should

SPEAK WELL OF HIM whenever we can do so truthfully. We should speak of
his virtues rather than of his faults. [Matt. 7:1, 2+, Jas. 4:11] If we
cannot speak well of him, then, unless it is absolutely necessary, we
had better not speak of him at all. We should

PUT THE MOST CHARITABLE CONSTRUCTION ON ALL HIS ACTIONS. [I Pet. 4:8+, I
Cor. 13:4-7, Gal. 6:1] We should, as far as possible, make the best and
not the worst of what our neighbor says and does. We should think and
speak of him only in kindness.