"Why Tell the Truth?" by Joseph Stowell

In his article “Why Tell the Truth”, Joseph Stowell writes about the importance of telling in the truth in all circumstances. He says, “It is the underlying foundation for trust, confidence, integrity, faith, security, and stability.” (Why tell the truth). When we lie or omit certain truths we break down trust and confidence in all of our relationships. Stowell writes that a relationship will not last if it is not based on truth, and mutual trust. Truth aligns us with God, God is truth so when we are truthful, we are being more like him. When we lie we are straying from the very character of God, and his redemption loses its value. Truth telling is our basis of worshiping God. If we are to bring God glory in all we do, how can we possibly do that if we are lying? And finally, truth telling is submission to God’s will for our life. He desire righteousness from us, and when we lie, we are not being righteous. Stowell says, “our joy cannot be full if we get involved with falsehoods.” (Why Tell the Truth).
There are different way to be untruthful; beguilement, deceit, lying, and false witness. Beguilement is when you reach a false conclusion about something or someone, it may be on purpose or by accident, but it is often due to insufficient facts. In journalism, beguilement is the most prevalent in gossip columns. The columnist make false assumptions about others, and then share them with their readers. “Beguilement is the sin of disseminating false conclusions. It is to delude or be deluded.” (Stowell) Deceit is arranging the facts to distort the truth. It is most often used for manipulation, for example in journalism, sometimes when an interview is done, the reporter will print a quote but leave out the beginning or the end, or even the middle to make it seem like the person was saying something different than they really said. Or they will even quote the person out of context, which makes the quote say something completely different than what the person meant. A deceitful statement starts out true, but by the end of it, is completely distorted. Lying is completely telling an untruth. Often journalists will lie about a source, or more commonly will plagiarize and claim someone else’s work as their own. This completely breaks down the trust relationship, and often will cost the journalist their job, and their credibility. The last one the article talked about was false witness. This is when someone brings false testimony against another person, often for their own personal gain. Journalists are famous for doing this because they have the power of the press, so if they don’t like someone they will just write a negative story on them. This is perhaps the worst one because it ruins reputations and families. Each way ruins relationships, and will completely ruin your testimony!
I think the most important point that Stowell makes is that truth telling is a part of the character of God, and we were created to be like him, so we need to be truthful. God created us to reflect his character, but if we are lying, or being deceitful, we are so far from him. Our sole purpose for life is to bring him glory but we are not doing that when we are dishonest. As Christian’s we need to make it our goal to be honest, and loving, seeking the best interests of others, and the heart of God.

Stowell, Joseph. "Why Tell the Truth." Heartcry Journal 47 (1998): n. pag. Web. 9 Sep 2010.