Title: Which is Better: To Hear the Truth or a Lie?
Text: Amos 4:5
Introduction
In the days of the prophet Amos, the people of Israel had reached a peak of external religiosity but a valley of internal corruption. In Amos 4:5, the prophet uses biting irony, essentially telling the people to go ahead and offer their sacrifices and proclaim their freewill offerings—because, as he puts it, "so you love to do." They weren't doing what God commanded; they were doing what they loved to do.
This reveals a profound psychological and spiritual reality: many people prefer a comfortable lie over an unsettling truth. Today, religious errors often flourish because they cater to human desires rather than divine decrees. As believers, we face a daily choice: will we seek the truth that saves, or the lie that pleases us while leading to ruin?
I. The Human Tendency to Prefer Pleasant Lies
The Bible consistently documents the human inclination to filter out God’s voice in favor of echoes of our own desires.
• Trusting in Deceptive Words: In Jeremiah 7:8-10, the people committed abominations—theft, murder, and adultery—yet stood in the Temple saying, "We are delivered!" They used "grace" as a license for sin, trusting in lying words that offered them a false sense of security.
• The Reaction to Contradiction: When the truth contradicts our pride, our first reaction is often anger.
◦ Naaman (2 Kings 5:11) became furious because the healing process wasn't as grand as he imagined.
◦ King Ahab (2 Chronicles 18:5-7) hated the prophet Micaiah because he never prophesied "good" (pleasant) things, only the truth.
• The Demand for "Smooth Things": Isaiah 30:9-10 contains one of the most tragic requests in Scripture: the people told the seers, "Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits." They wanted illusions because the truth required change.
• Custom-Made Theology: Paul warns in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 that a time comes when people will not endure sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own passions, they will "accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions" and "itchy ears."
Application: Obedience to God is not a buffet where we choose what we like. If your faith never confronts your lifestyle, you might be listening to your own desires rather than the Holy Spirit.
II. The Spiritual Consequences of Rejecting Truth
Choosing a lie over the truth is not a harmless preference; it is a spiritual catastrophe.
• False Security: Just as in Jeremiah’s time, believing a lie leads to the delusion that "everything is fine" while one is drifting toward a waterfall.
• Judgment is Inevitable: We may choose "freedom" from God’s rules today, but we cannot choose freedom from the consequences. Ecclesiastes 11:9 reminds us that while we can follow our hearts, we must know that for all these things, God will bring us into judgment. We will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10).
• Vain Worship: Jesus warned in Matthew 15:9 that teaching human traditions as divine doctrines makes worship "vain" or empty. You can be very "religious" and yet be completely ignored by God because you have replaced His truth with human preference.
• The Seduction of Flattery: Romans 16:18 warns that smooth talk and flattery can deceive the hearts of the naive. A lie is most dangerous when it sounds like a blessing.
Application: A spiritual lie is like a sweet poison. It tastes pleasant in the moment but results in eternal condemnation.
III. The Call to Love and Seek God’s Truth
The remedy for deception is a radical commitment to the "whole counsel of God."
• Proclaiming the Full Picture: In Acts 20:27, Paul declares that he did not shrink from declaring the whole counsel of God—both His kindness and His severity (Romans 11:22). We must love the God of justice as much as we love the God of mercy.
• The Berean Example: We must be like the believers in Acts 17:11, who received the word with eagerness but searched the Scriptures daily to see if what they were being told was true. The Bible is the ultimate "fact-checker."
• Aligning with Divine Thought: We must humble ourselves and recognize that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). If God says something that offends our modern sensibilities, it is our sensibilities that need to change, not His Word.
• Obedience Over Preference: True worship is not about how we "feel"; it is about obeying the truth. We are called to offer a sacrifice of praise that is consistent with His commands (Hebrews 13:15).
Application: Loving the truth requires three things: Humility to admit we are wrong, Repentance to turn from our way, and Obedience to walk in His way.
See Also
- Can a Man Rob God? Malachi 3:8
- Lessons from the Fall of King Uzziah 2 Chronicles 26:16–19
- How to Manage Conflicts Between Brethren in the Church
Conclusion
So, we return to our original question: Which is better: to hear the truth or a lie?
A lie may soothe your conscience for a night, but only the Truth can save your soul for eternity. The truth may hurt, it may cut, and it may confront, but it is the only thing that has the power to set you free.
Amos warned a people who "loved" their false religiosity that they were heading for a meeting with their Maker. Let us not be a people who demand "smooth things," but a people who cry out, "Lord, give us Thy Truth, no matter the cost."
