A Lie Used Like Hellebore

So we ought to regard a lie, and use it, as if its nature were that of hellebore. Hellebore is useful if it is taken when some deadly disease threatens, but if it is taken when no great danger requires it, it causes immediate death. For in the same way we read that holy men, and those most approved by God, used lying, so that they not only incurred no guilt of sin by it, but even attained the greatest goodness. And if deceit could bring them glory, what, on the other hand, would the truth have brought them but condemnation? So it was with Rahab. Scripture records no good deed of hers, but actually unchastity. Yet simply because of the lie by which she chose to hide the spies rather than betray them, it was granted her to be joined with the people of God in everlasting blessing. But if she had chosen to tell the truth and look to the safety of her fellow citizens, there is no doubt that she and all her household would not have escaped the coming destruction. Nor would it have been granted her to be placed among the ancestors from whom our Lord was born, and counted in the list of the patriarchs, and through the descendants who followed her to become the mother of the Savior of all. Delilah, on the other hand, betrayed the truth she had discovered in order to provide for the safety of her fellow citizens. In exchange she received everlasting destruction, and has left to all people nothing but the memory of her sin. [a]

When, then, some grave danger hangs on confessing the truth, we must take refuge in lying, yet in such a way that, for our salvation, we are troubled by the guilt of a humbled conscience. But where no call of the utmost necessity is present, a lie should be most carefully avoided, as though it were something deadly. It is just as we said of a cup of hellebore: it is useful if it is taken only as a last resort, when a deadly and unavoidable disease threatens, but if it is taken when the body is sound and in robust health, its deadly power at once goes searching for the vital organs. This was clearly shown in Rahab of Jericho and the patriarch Jacob. She could escape death only by this remedy, and he could not secure the blessing of the firstborn without it. For God is not only the Judge and examiner of our words and actions; he also looks into their purpose and aim. If he sees that something has been done or promised by someone for the sake of eternal salvation, and that it shows insight into divine contemplation, then even though it may seem hard and unfair to people, he looks at the inner goodness of the heart and regards the desire of the will rather than the actual words spoken. For he must take into account the aim of the work and the disposition of the doer. In this way, as was said above, one man may be counted righteous by means of a lie, while another may be guilty of a sin that brings everlasting death by telling the truth.

The patriarch Jacob also had this end in view when he was not afraid to imitate the hairy appearance of his brother’s body by wrapping himself in skins, and to his credit went along with his mother’s urging to tell a lie for this purpose. For he saw that in this way greater gains of blessing and righteousness would be given him than by keeping to the path of simplicity. He did not doubt that the stain of this lie would at once be washed away by the flood of his father’s blessing, and would quickly dissolve like a little cloud at the breath of the Holy Spirit, and that richer rewards of merit would be given him through this pretense he put on than through the truth that was natural to him.