Question:
We are always taught that “once saved, always saved.” But consider the following situation: A client walks into her attorney’s office (the attorney professes to be a born-again Christian). The client asks the attorney if he had heard already of her present problem, seeing that it was broadcast over the television station. The attorney lies and tells the client he hasn’t, even through he has heard about it. Should we say the attorney is a man who doesn’t practice the truth and is not a true, born-again believer? Or is this attorney doing what is right?
Answer:
Telling a lie is never right. “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord” (Proverbs 12:22). “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another” (Ephesians 4:25).
Now, what does the Bible say the client should do if she catches her born-again attorney—or any other professing Christian—lying to her? The Lord instructs us in Matthew 18:15, “If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone; if he shall hear you, thou hast gained thy brother.”
But what if he says that lying is essential at times for one in his line of business? The Lord continues, “But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses very word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church; but if he neglect to hear the church let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican” (Matthew 18:16, 17). We are not to judge whether such a person is really saved; it may be that only the Lord knows for sure whether this man is truly saved or not (2 Timothy 2:19). But if he persists in justifying his sinful behavior, then we no longer have any basis for fellowshipping with him as if he were a Christian.