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Is it ever okay to lie? When we ask if something is okay, that means we’re assuming it’s probably wrong in general. So to answer this question, we must first understand why lying is wrong to begin with.

Lying is saying something you know is false with the intention to deceive—meaning you want someone else to believe something that isn’t true. The reason lying is morally wrong is because it’s intentionally leading someone to believe what isn’t real, leaving them unprepared to deal with the world as it is.

A teenager lying to a parent leaves the parent less able to adequately care for their child; they don’t understand what the teen is really facing. A politician lying to citizens leaves them less capable of voting their values; they don’t have the information they really need. When people know you can’t be trusted to tell the truth, they’ll stop trusting you or turning to you for help. 

When enough people lie, it erodes trust in society itself. How can a community survive when no one tells the truth and we can’t depend on each other? Lying erodes trust in marriages, in families, among friends, among coworkers, and eventually, in society itself. It’s no wonder the Bible teaches that “a lying tongue hates those it hurts” (Proverbs 26:28, NIV), that Satan is the “father of lies” (John 8:44, NIV), that God does not lie (Numbers 23:19), and that God hates a lying tongue (Proverbs 6:17).

So given all of that, why would it ever be okay to lie? This can be called the “Corrie ten Boom problem.” Corrie ten Boom and her family lived in the Netherlands during World War II, and they famously hid Jews during the Holocaust. So the moral dilemma is this: If German soldiers asked the ten Boom family if they knew where Jews were hiding, should they have told the truth—knowing it would lead to the loss of innocent lives? Or should they have lied—hoping to deceive the Nazis and save innocent lives?

In other words: Is it wrong to deceive people who would harm others with the truth? Is it wrong to withhold the truth when other people would only it to commit greater sins?

In these extreme cases, the immorality is found in the oppressors, not in those who are trying to save others. Just think of Rahab lying to hide the Israelite spies or the Hebrew midwives lying to save newborn babies from Pharaoh. The problem with giving an unequivocal yes to the question “Is it ever right to lie?” is that we tend to use that yes selfishly to justify our own lies.

A teenager could justify lying to their parents about misbehavior because they don’t want to hurt them. A politician could justify lying to the country because the truth could upset the people. But in these cases, lying is not justified and can lead to even more harm and destruction.

If you choose to lie to protect someone innocent, you must make sure you aren’t really just protecting yourself. You must be prepared to answer to God for your lie. But if someone is trying to find the truth just so they can hurt someone else with it, they will be the one who ultimately answers to God for making lying the less evil option.