Should a Secret Fast Be Hidden by a Lie?

Let me bring forward some cases from our unavoidable and almost daily needs, which, however careful we are, we can never guard against so well that we are not driven into them, whether we will or not. What, I ask you, is to be done when we intend to put off our supper, and a brother comes and asks us whether we have had it? Should our fast be concealed and the good act of abstinence hidden, or should it be made known by telling the truth? If we conceal it, to satisfy the Lord’s command that says, “Do not appear to people to be fasting, but to your Father who is in secret,” and again, “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,” we must at once tell a lie. If we make the good act of abstinence known, the word of the gospel rightly discourages us: “Truly I tell you, they have their reward.” But what if someone has firmly refused a cup offered to him by some brother, flatly denying that he will take what the other, delighted at his arrival, begs and pleads with him to accept? Is it right for him to force himself to give way to his brother, who goes down on his knees and bows to the ground, and who thinks that this service is the only way he can show his loving heart? Or should he cling stubbornly to his own word and intention? [a]