Is it ever okay to lie?

Gregory Koukl at Stand to Reason ponders whether or not lying is always wrong and he makes some good points. He writes ...

It seems that not all deceptions are immoral. Did you ever make a fake while playing basketball? Isn't such a feint a deception? It is, but I don't think most people would consider it immoral, even though it was, in fact, deceptive.

There are other examples. We dress to flatter our figures instead of being entirely truthful about our physical shape. We wear hairpieces if our hair is thinner than we'd like to show. There are times we're not forthcoming with all the truth. More could be said, but we withhold information.

So it seems reasonable to say there are "deceptions" we wouldn't really consider immoral--faking in basketball, trying to dress in a flattering way, or not being forthcoming with all the information we might have.

Incidentally, I don't think Jesus was always forthright. Take, for example, the woman at the well (John 4). Jesus had a goal He was not immediately forthright about. I don't see this as manipulation, though, but as sensitivity to the moment. If Jesus wasn't always entirely forthright in some cases, yet we know He never committed any sin, then that means it isn't necessarily a sin if you're not forthright about everything.

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HT: Stand to Reason