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Believing Lies

Pamela Meyer on a TED Talk talks about the idea of lies, lying and believing lies. She has some very interesting thoughts on this topic.


Lying is a cooperative act: a lie has no power by its mere utterance, but only when the other person agrees to believe the lie. If you got lied to, it is because you agreed to be lied to.

Henry Oberlander (a legendary conman) made a very interesting statement: people are willing to give anything for something they are hungry for.


So the crux of the matter is to understand what you are hungry for. Lying is an attempt to bridge thegap of what we want and our true reality. We are willing to fill in the gaps between who we really are and who we wish we were with lying and believing lies.


We are against lying...and covertly for it. This means that we are highly susceptible to lying andbeing lied to.


The big idea here is that believing lies does not just accidently happen to us. We are not innocent by- standers who were lied to. We are active participants in the process. It is true that we may not completely understand what is happening or why it happened, but because of our own evil and wicked desires we are in a vulnerable state of lie believing.


What does this mean for me?


  • Let us consider the following:

    • Satan is a liar and the father of all lies.

    • All sin is deceptive in nature. All sins have inherent within them lies.

    • Every act of sinning requires one to believe lies.

  • Couple the above thoughts with our human reality:

    • Our evil desires set us up to believe lies.

    • We want to believe lies in order to bridge the gap between reality and fantasy. In short, we believe the lie that believing a lie will actually bridge this gap between reality and fantasy.

    • We do not really hate lying unless we are hurt by the lie.


What then should we do?

  • First and foremost, we need to deal with the evil desires of our hearts. By not dealing with them we are setting ourselves up to believe lies. All of our non-reality, fantasy, make-believe must be exposed to the light of God’s truth. Those wishes and evil desires that set us up to believe lies must be forsaken. 

  • Secondly, if we are involved in sinful acts that are repetitive, then we need to come to grips with the fact that we have already believed lies and are walking and living in deception. The book of Romans deals with this concept quite well, by showing us the progression from truth to lies.


Romans 1:18-32 18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities — His eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised. Amen. NIV


  • Suppress the truth – notice it is done by wickedness versus the idea that God has made the truth plain. People reject truth and when this is done the only other alternative is to believe a lie.

    • NT:2722 "hold down," Romans 1:18, RV, of unrighteous men who restrain the spread of truth by their unrighteousness, or, as RV marg., "who hold the truth in (or with) unrighteousness," contradicting their profession by their conduct

  • Exchanged the glory of the immortal God – they had other desires and wishes. Humanity desired to put anything and anyone in place of God (idolatry) 

    • NT:236 to change: to cause one thing to cease and another to take its place,

  • Exchange the truth of God for a lie – they were willing to believe a lie, so that they did not have to face the truth


In short, people believe lies because they want to believe them. People believe what they want to believe. The exchange of the truth for a lie is intentional and not accidental or inadvertent. A failure to adequately deal with sin and evil desires almost forces one to become a liar and believe lies.


2 Timothy 4:3-5 {3} For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all he duties of your ministry. NIV


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