Truthful Lies

I was thinking earlier about what I should blog about today, and I remembered something my pastor mentioned in a sermon a couple of weeks ago. It's been bothering me since.

One of the comments he made was something along the lines of "...everything the devil says is a lie. So really when he says something you know the complete opposite is the truth." Those are not his words exactly, but it's the general idea.

Most people would just agree with that, as it seems true, and is in fact true in most cases, which is why I think it passed unnoticed. It wasn't a planned comment, just something he said in passing.

I don't think I agree with that entirely, however. Recently having memorised stuff for my exams, the quotes for English are still well and truly stuck in my mind. One of these quotes, from the director's commentary for Breach, came to mind not long after my pastor said this.

"The most convincing lies are always rooted in some kind of truth."

This was applied to a particular piece of dialogue from the movie. I reckon that it is very true. In fact, I believe the same can be applied to the devil and his lies. The most convincing, most believable lies spoken by the devil will have just enough truth in them so that you don't realise that it's anything but true until it's almost too late. He's had thousands of years of experience--more than enough to be able to fool us humans any day. We're quite a gullible species, really.

So instead of just saying that everything is a straight lie (even the devil recognises some truths), we need to be discerning and able to separate the truth from the lies. Not just in this case, either. In everyday life it is the same.

How many times have you been fooled by a truthful veneer over a big fat lie? I know I have countless times.