Proverbs 13:5

A righteous man hateth lying.

Moral truthfulness

I. An instinct to the righteous. “A righteous man hateth lying.” A soul that has been made right in relation to the laws of its own spiritual being to the universe and to God has an instinctive repugnance to falsehood. A right-hearted man cannot be false in speech or life. The prayer of his soul is, “Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me Thy law graciously” (Psalms 119:29).

II. Moral truthfulness is a safeguard against evil. The evils specified in these two verses in connection with the wicked must be regarded as kept off from the righteous by his moral truthfulness. What are the evils here implied connected with falsehood?

1. Loathsomeness. “A wicked man is loathsome.” A liar is an unlovely and an unlovable object; he is detestable; he attracts none; he repels all.

2. Shame. He “cometh to shame.” A liar either in lip, or life, or both, must come to shame. A rigorous destiny will strip off his mask, and leave him exposed, a hideous hypocrite, to the scorn of men and angels.

3. Destruction. “Wickedness overthroweth the sinner.” Inevitable destruction is the doom of the false. They have built their houses on the sand of fiction, and the storms of reality will lay them in ruins. From all these evils, moral truthfulness guards the righteous. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

Lying hateful

There is no knowing the effects of a lie even in this world. Said a lady, “I told once for all the fashionable lie of having my servant announce at the door that I was not at home. At night my husband said, ‘ Mrs.
died to-day.’ It went through me like cold steel. She had made me promise that I would be at her bedside at the last hour, as she had something of great importance to disclose. ‘And,’ said my husband, ‘she died in great distress to see you, having sent three times, only to learn that you were not at home.’ How I loathed myself! No more lies for me!”