“Sometimes you need to choose between the lesser of two evils.”
“It’s OK to lie if it’s the only way to help someone.”
“The ends justify the means if you’re doing it for God.”
I’ve heard all those statements over the years. And many people point to Rahab as the biblical model for this kind of approach. She lied to save the lives of the Israelite spies. Isn’t that justified?
That seems to be what James is saying: “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works in receiving the messengers and sending them out by a different route?” (James 2:24-25).
Sounds pretty convincing, but notice something important: James isn’t praising Rahab because of her deception. He’s praising her in spite of it. He’s praising her overall desire to serve God, even though she went overboard and clearly sinned against God’s will.
Here’s how I know that: In the same paragraph James praises Abraham for his faithfulness, But I don’t think he would extend that praise to the multiple times Abraham tried to sell his wife into a harem by claiming she was his sister.
When we deceitfully manipulate situations, even to accomplish things that will glorify God, it shows a fundamental distrust of God and his sovereign control. That’s something the Bible always rejects.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, “We have renounced secret and shameful things, not acting deceitfully or distorting the word of God, but commending ourselves before God to everyone’s conscience by an open display of the truth.”
There’s never a situation you’ll ever be in where God will want you to lie, or cheat, or steal, or attack someone in order to defend him.
God is a lion. And as Charles Spurgeon said, “You don’t have to defend a lion. Just let the lion loose, and the lion will defend itself.”