No, you can’t just live like hell

Ricky Ketchum

Jul 03, 2026

Be Honest

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Deceitful people will not live in my palace.
Liars will not be welcome in my presence.

Psalm 101:7 (NET)

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Just to be clear, this is the Lord speaking.

Also, to be clear, it’s not really about these one-off sins…

The Lord wants people who have an honest heart.

Meaning, they are characterized by integrity and honesty. It doesn’t mean that they’ve never told a lie in their entire life. If that were the case, there’d be no hope for any of us.

… wait a minute …

That sounds an awful lot like how sin separates all of us from God and the only hope for our salvation is Christ.

But only if you look at the bigger picture this verse is helping to paint.

Let me swing the pendulum the other way for a moment:

Salvation doesn’t mean we now have a blank check to go off and live “like hell” because we’ve got our “get outta hell free” card.

For one, that kind of immature thinking shows that perhaps salvation hasn’t come to that person.

I wouldn’t want to risk that.

Besides, have you ever told some lies and then had to pile on more lies to keep the first lies from being discovered?

It’s stressful.

Far easier to be an honest person and deal with the consequences.

I’ve found that when I’m being more honest I actually tend to deal with fewer consequences. Maybe it’s because people find it refreshing and are more willing to forgive?

Or maybe God is subtly rewarding me for my honesty.

It’s probably somewhere in the middle.

Regardless, it’s a better and lower stress life.

I like that.

— Ricky Ketchum

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV®Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright© 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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