20 Bible verses about lying for anyone who wants to be trusted again
Written by Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt · Reviewed by Raphael Navarro Schmitt ·
Short answer
The Bible ties lying to the damage done to someone else, not just to a rule broken. Ephesians 4:25 tells you to speak the truth to your neighbour because we are all part of one another, and Proverbs 12:19 observes that lips of truth stand firm for good.
Almost nobody lies for the pleasure of lying. People lie to avoid a conversation, to avoid disappointing someone, to buy time, to look slightly better than they are. Which is why the Bible rarely treats the subject as personal purity and almost always as harm done to another person: the commandment in Exodus 20:16 does not talk about lying in general, it talks about false testimony against your neighbour — somebody on the other side, paying for it.
The second thread running through these texts is the accumulated cost. Proverbs keeps returning to the same practical observation: truth holds, deceit needs maintenance. Anyone who has lied once is now administering two versions of the same story, and it is the administration — not the original sentence — that wears you out and eventually slips.
The list starts with the texts that describe the damage, moves through what Scripture asks for instead, and ends with the road back, which exists and is shorter than it looks.
All 20 verses, one by one
You shall not speak false testimony against your neighbor.
Look at what the commandment aims at: not lying in the abstract, but false testimony AGAINST someone. The Law enters the subject through the harm done to a third party, not through the purity of the speaker.
Read the chapterLying lips are an abomination to the Lord. But whoever acts faithfully pleases him.
The contrast is between an abomination and something that pleases — language far too strong for a question of etiquette. Truth, in this book, is a matter of relationship, and relationship is where disgust and delight make sense.
Read the chapterBecause of this, setting aside lying, speak the truth, each one with his neighbor. For we are all part of one another.
The reason Paul gives is anatomical: we are all part of one another. Lying to someone in the same body is the hand deceiving the foot — it works for a while, until somebody trips.
Read the chapter9Do not lie to one another. Strip yourselves of the old man, with his deeds,
10and clothe yourself with the new man, who has been renewed by knowledge, in accord with the image of the One who created him,
The image is a change of clothes, not an effort of will. Paul treats lying as an item from the old wardrobe — which shifts the question from "how do I stop" to "why am I still wearing this".
Read the chapterThe lips of truth shall be steadfast forever. But a hasty witness readies a lying tongue.
The argument here is not moral but structural: truthful lips are steadfast, and the lying tongue is the one a witness in a hurry reaches for. Nobody keeps two versions of the same story going forever.
Read the chapterWhoever gathers treasures by a lying tongue is vain and heartless. And he will stumble into the snares of death.
This one is about what you gain by lying: a treasure the proverb calls vain, with a snare waiting at the end of it. It is the verse for anyone about to close a deal with one piece of information left out.
Read the chapterA false tongue does not love truth. And a slippery mouth works ruin.
An uncomfortable line: the false tongue does not love truth. The proverb moves lying out of the category of things you do and into the category of things you prefer.
Read the chapter18When he had carried these in, he said, “My father?” And he answered, “I’m listening. Who are you, my son?”
19And Jacob said: “I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you instructed me. Arise; sit and eat from my hunting, so that your soul may bless me.”
Jacob lies to a blind father, in two short sentences, and walks off with the blessing. The story is not told with a moral attached: the price shows up chapters later, when he spends twenty years away from home.
Read the chapter1But a certain man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a field,
2and he was deceitful about the price of the field, with his wife’s consent. And bringing only part of it, he placed it at the feet of the Apostles.
3But Peter said: “Ananias, why has Satan tempted your heart, so that you would lie to the Holy Spirit and be deceitful about the price of the land?
4Did it not belong to you while you retained it? And having sold it, was it not in your power? Why have you set this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God!”
Ananias could have given whatever amount he liked — Peter says so in as many words. The problem was not the sum: it was staging a generosity that did not exist, in front of a whole community.
Read the chapterYou shall not steal. You shall not lie. Neither shall anyone deceive his neighbor.
Three commands on one line: do not steal, do not lie, do not deceive your neighbour. The Law files lying next to theft because both take something from someone — one takes goods, the other takes reality.
Read the chapter1A Psalm of David. O Lord, who will dwell in your tabernacle? Or who will rest on your holy mountain?
2He who walks without blemish and who works justice.
3He who speaks the truth in his heart, who has not acted deceitfully with his tongue, and has not done evil to his neighbor, and has not taken up a reproach against his neighbors.
The question is who may dwell with God, and the first answer is about the mouth. Speaking truth "in his heart" describes someone who does not have to remember which version he told.
Read the chapterFor behold, you have loved truth. The obscure and hidden things of your wisdom, you have manifested to me.
David writes this after months of behaving as though nothing had happened. The verse names what God loves — truth — and where he teaches it: in the obscure and hidden places, which is exactly where David had been hiding.
Read the chapter13Which is the man who wills life, who chooses to see good days?
14Prohibit your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.
15Turn away from evil, and do good. Inquire about peace, and pursue it.
The question is who wants a good life; the answer starts with the tongue. The psalm treats the mouth as a quality-of-life issue, not as religious discipline.
Read the chapter16Therefore, these are the words that you shall do: Speak the truth, each one to his neighbor. With truth and a judgment of peace, judge at your gates.
17And let not anyone think up evil against his friend in your hearts. And do not choose to swear falsely. For all these are things that I hate, says the Lord.
The instruction is addressed to a city under reconstruction, and it stands beside "judge at your gates". Truth between neighbours is treated here as infrastructure, on a level with the wall and the court.
Read the chapterBut let your word ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ For anything beyond that is of evil.
Jesus does away with the oath and proposes something more demanding: a word that needs no reinforcement. People who swear a lot are usually people who are no longer believed without swearing.
Read the chapterInstead, acting according to truth in charity, we should increase in everything, in him who is the head, Christ himself.
Half a sentence that settles half of all conflicts: truth in charity. Without the second part, honesty becomes a licence to wound; without the first, kindness becomes silence.
Read the chapterHe who walks in simplicity walks in confidence. But he who corrupts his ways shall be discovered.
Walking in confidence is the concrete benefit of having nothing hidden. It is the most self-interested argument for the truth, and perhaps for that reason the most persuasive.
Read the chapterWhoever hides his crimes will not be guided. But whoever will have confessed and abandoned them shall overtake mercy.
Two inseparable actions: confess and abandon. The proverb is not satisfied with the relief of telling — it asks that the practice stop at the same time.
Read the chapter31Therefore, Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him: “If you will abide in my word, you will truly be my disciples.
32And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”
The line became a university motto and lost its context: the truth that frees here is a person and an abiding, not a piece of information. Even so, the effect described is exactly what it feels like to stop lying — freedom.
Read the chapter8If we claim that we have no sin, then we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
9If we confess our sins, then he is faithful and just, so as to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquity.
Last, because it names the lie that is hardest to give up: the one you tell yourself. And it gives the way out with two guarantees attached — faithful and just — instead of a vague promise.
Read the chapter
Frequently asked questions
What does the Bible say about lying?
The Bible treats lying as harm done to someone, not as an isolated flaw of character. Exodus 20:16 forbids false testimony against your neighbour, Ephesians 4:25 grounds truthfulness in the bond between people, and Proverbs 12:19 sets truthful lips against the tongue a hurried witness reaches for.
Is there such a thing as a good lie in the Bible?
Scripture records people lying to protect lives — the midwives in Exodus 1, Rahab in Joshua 2 — and treats them sympathetically, without turning it into a general rule. Christians from different traditions argue over those cases, and this page does not decide for anyone. What the texts condemn plainly is the lie that protects the liar.
How do I stop lying?
Proverbs 28:13 names two steps that travel together: confess and abandon. Colossians 3:9-10 adds the framing that helps in practice — treat lying as old clothing already taken off, rather than as a habit to be beaten by willpower.
How do I win back the trust of someone I deceived?
The Bible promises no shortcut. Ephesians 4:15 asks for truth in charity, which includes accepting that the other person may take time to believe you again. Zechariah 8:16 helps define the goal: trust is rebuilt by public repetition, not by one good conversation.
A prayer to take with you
Lord, take from me the urge to seem better than I am. Give me the nerve for the conversation I have been putting off, and teach me to tell the truth without wounding the person hearing it. Give back what my mouth took from someone. Amen.