HandBook on Faith - Hope and Love (pt 1)

So I bought these "Foundation of Faith" Books from Relevant.com. I've started with the first one and working my way through the six of them. I'm a little over half way through the first one by Saint Augustine of Hippo. The Handbook is simply that, a small book written to a friend to sort of answer some questions and articulate those answers to to others.

I must admit it has been a very difficult read and it is only 69 pages. There are many run on sentences that seem to take up a whole page with a bit of jumping between two comparisons. I pray that it is the difficulty level of the book and not my ignorance that makes it hard for me to follow and comprehend. However a few things have jumped from the pages to thoughts.

What is a lie? A lot of times we use the terms white lie, part truth, omission of truth. Is there ever a need to tell or be told a lie?

St. Augustine states it like this;

"Every lie, then must be called a sin, because every man ought to speak what is in his heart - not only when he himself knows the truth, but even when he errs and is deceived, as a man may be."

What? Right.... that's what I said...then I read on.

"A man who lies says the opposite of what is in his heart with the DELIBERATE intent to deceive."

See there are times when we give mis-information of what we think to be true. That is in fact not a lie because we are simply mirroring what we know to be true in our heart. However when we are DELIBERATE purposeful, to speak words out of our mouth that are the opposite of what we feel or know to be true in our heart then we are in fact lying.

Now sometimes it can be said - "Well I'm helping them by lying...the truth would hurt them even worse than the lie" That's not a sin. WRONG...

I love the way he illustrates this. St. Augustine says:

" Or again, could we also help by committing adultery, if someone appeared to by dying for love if we would not consent to her desire and who if she lived, might be purified by repentance."

Simply saying...Would it be okay if we sleep with someone if they are "dying" of lust to keep them alive so that they could repent of their sin...NO

"If then we hold chastity in such high regard, wherein has truth offended us so that although chastity must not be violated by adultery, even for the sake of some other good, yet truth may be violated by lying."

So really - is there any difference between the weight of sexual sin and lying? Of Course Not. Why do we so easily give up truth and honesty for some other good and justify it? Why can we not hold to our honesty and truth as we hold to our chastity (sexual purity)?

Just one more time because I really like this quote...are you deceiving anyone?

"A man who lies says the opposite of what is in his heart with the DELIBERATE intent to deceive."