A few months ago I wrote about the importance of speaking the truth in our heart, for if lying with our lips is bad, lying with our heart is no better. However, we must keep in mind that falsehood is very slimy. It can present itself in disguise and induce us to utter mendacious statements. The prayers of David are highly revealing. They evince our need of divine assistance when time comes to vocalize what is truly the case.
Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips” (Psalms 141:3).
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer” (Psalms 19:14).
The lips of the wise
“In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise” (Prov. 10:19).
Prudence exhorts us to not underestimate the corrosive power of falsehood, for it can creep into our heart as smoothly as butter into a hot toast. Added to it, people are more prone to adhere to falsehood than to the truth, which can lay a snare in our path under certain circumstances. When Jesus says: “But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me” (John 8:45), He attests there is something exceedingly distorted in man when time comes to confront the truth. Paul seems to be pointing in the same direction when he says:
Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?” (Gal. 4:16).
That’s why we, believers, should not pretend to be untouchable, because at times—for convenience sake—we will be tempted to believe a lie rather than the truth. And if falsehood is welcomed within, it will surely find a way out in one form or the other. That’s the reason why we must filtrate what we hear in view to secure what we say.
What is a statement?
A statement is a declaration that must be, by necessity, either true or false. Consequently questions are not statements. Here is the way Aristotle defines a statement:
To say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false, while to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is true; so that he who says of anything that it is, or that it is not, will say either what is true or what is false” (Metaphysics).
It follows that a statement cannot be partly true, nor can it be partly false. If I say, “I went to fish with George and John”, and in actuality I went to fish only with George, my statement is completely false. It is not 50% true and 50% false. It is 100% false.
What is an overstatement?
An overstatement includes partly what is the case, and partly what is not the case. In other words, its proportions are not the proportions of the truth. Hence, an overstatement is always false since it doesn’t agree with what is true.
Now we must be careful to not confound overstatements with hyperboles, for the two are poles apart. A hyperbole is an exaggerated statement that cannot be taken literally, such as:
There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight” (Num. 13:33).
Or: “… the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there” (Deut. 1:28).
Obviously, everybody knows that no soldier has the size of a grasshopper, and no wall can possibly reach heaven. Hence a hyperbole is not a lie since there is no risk people will believe it. But overstatements are of a different order because they can be accepted as true. In fact, most of the time, the person voicing them will expect people to believe what he says.
An important question
A person may ask: “How common are overstatements among us believers?” Unfortunately, I must say, too common. And it is so because overstatements have the ability to present themselves in the guise of factuality. For that reason they have become one of the most subtle ways through which falsehood is being communicated.
Every now and then we hear short statements as: Everybody says; everybody thinks; everybody knows but nobody moves; nobody cares; nobody comes in time; it’s always like that; he does it always; she is always complaining; it always falls on me; he never helps; and the list goes on and on. Now these expressions reveal, most of the time, an overstatement detached from what is really the case and are therefore imbued with falsehood.
Why people make overstatements?
At times because they are frustrated, other times because they are discouraged or bitter, and often because of pride. When someone says: Nobody cares! He puts himself on a pedestal, for the statement implies he is the only one who does care.
In whatever way you look at it, this type of speech never manifests a healthy character. It’s false, negative and often depressive.
The side effects of overstatements
In the long term, overstatements deform the person given to it. After a while he believes what he says, and if you attempt to confront him he will do all he can to prove you wrong, even if he must border foolishness on the process.
Overstatements can also contaminate us. If we give heed to them they will grind us down and warp our temperament; and if we are not careful they will turn us into agents of falsehood.
To put it mildly, overstatements don’t edify anyone. They are destroying tools that have made damage in the lives of many.
Let us adopt the determination of David when he says: “I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress” (Psalm 17:3).
Not all truth should be uttered, but all the things uttered should be true. May God help us to honor Him in words and thoughts, and this, until the final Day.
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