THE scene was in Queens, New York city. A woman had asked her butcher to grind a certain piece of meat for her. Before he could grind it, however, the man in charge replaced the meat with an inferior grade, and insisted that the butcher give this to the customer. When presented with the ground meat, the customer asked the butcher: “Is this the meat that I asked you to grind?”

What would you have answered? Would you have told the truth?

The customer had a right to know the facts. Yet, under the circumstances, it was not easy for the butcher to tell her the truth, and thereby expose the dishonesty of the man in charge. Nevertheless, he did. The result was that he was fired.

The early Christians Ananias and Sapphira provide an example revealing God’s detestation of deliberate deceit. They had sold a piece of property and made the pretense of contributing all the proceeds from the sale for use by fellow Christians; but actually they had held back some of the money for themselves. They thus schemed to give the impression to the congregation that they were more generous than they really were. For this deception​—a deliberate, planned conspiracy to lie—​God executed them.​—Acts 5:1-11.

For example, some time ago Christian elders called at the home of a member of the congregation to discuss with him what they considered to be certain irregularities in his conduct. He did not want to discuss the matter, and so he sent a member of his family to the door with instructions to tell the elders he was not at home. Later, when his falsehood became known, he excused it as only a ‘little’ lie. Still, it was a lie, and he involved another member of the family in the falsehood.

All of us, at one time or another and in some way or another, are bound to slip in what we say. “If anyone does not,” the disciple James said, “this one is a perfect man.” (Jas. 3:2) We may have exaggerated in telling something, or in some other way expressed an untruth. For example, we may have expressed approval and even enthusiasm for a project to please someone when we really did not feel that way.

How do you feel about yourself when you say things that you know are not true? Does it strengthen or weaken your self-respect? Is it becoming a pattern in your life to express untruths? Though the matters involved may be of only minor consequence, the effects of the untruth can be unexpectedly serious.

For example, suppose that a woman tells a neighbor, in the hearing of her child, that she ‘really likes her new drapes.’ Then later, in conversation at home, she mentions to her husband that the neighbors have new drapes and that she ‘does not like them at all.’ Will not her child, who hears her say this, assume that it is permissible to falsify? So, while there is certainly nothing wrong with being tactful, there is need to consider whether our words will lead to disrespect for truth.

Of course, not everyone will appreciate a Christian’s strong love of truth. For instance, one of Jehovah’s witnesses, who worked for a landscaping firm in Holden, Massachusetts, received a call from a local bank. It wanted to verify some figures on a bill of sale for equipment. However, the figures on the company’s file copy were different from those that the bank had.

When his employer returned, the Witness asked about it, and the employer became angry. An incorrect bill of sale, showing a much higher figure, had been issued to the bank. This was done, the employer explained, to obtain more money from the bank and for tax purposes. The employer wanted the Witness to call the bank and apologize for his “gross mistake” and verify the phony figures. The Witness explained why he could not do this, and when he saw that his employer had no regard for the truth, he quit his job.