12 A worthless person, a wicked man,
Is the one who walks with a perverse mouth,
13 Who winks with his eyes, who [f]signals with his feet,
Who [g]points with his fingers;
14 Who with perversity in his heart continually devises evil,
Who [h]spreads strife.
15 Therefore his calamity will come suddenly;
Instantly he will be broken and there will be no healing.16 There are six things which the Lord hates,
Yes, seven which are an abomination [i]to Him:
17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
And hands that shed innocent blood,
18 A heart that devises wicked plans,
Feet that run rapidly to evil,
19 A false witness who utters lies,
And one who [j]spreads strife among brothers.
There is a common thread throughout this section of Proverbs 6: honesty, or lack thereof. I was listening to a story the other day that illustrated how flippantly we tell “half truths”, but it is telling that we don’t call them “half lies”. We try to excuse our deception in a variety of ways, but it all has the same result. A half truth deceives someone, and we might as well just call a lie a lie.
Indeed, God is so opposed to these things that they are an “abomination”, woah! That’s pretty strong language for something we like to just brush under the rug–but I suppose it is difficult to be honest about our dishonesty. Maybe we aren’t trying to shed innocent blood, or spread strife among family, maybe we think we have a pretty good reason.
In the end, God detests such things, he wants us to tell the truth and trust Him with the results. Put another way, when we lie or cover things up, we are showing a lack of trust. Really? How can we fail to trust the One who knit us together in our mother’s womb. But we do, and I think it would do us well to remember the words of Peter when he said, “Lord, help my unbelief!”
God will help us, both to trust Him, and to be honest (and thus trust Him more), but we have to take the first step. Are there things we are hoping no one will ever find out? They fester and damage our hearts every day. Get them out in the open, let the light of truth take away their power. When God forgives, sin has no more hold over you, and you can face the music knowing He has you in His hands.