The father of lies

“When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44b
One of the reason God hates it so much when His children tell lies is because this is Satan’s hallmark. Satan is the author of deception and lying. He began right back in the Garden of Eden, whispering in Eve’s ear, “Did God really say...?”, leading to the outright denial, “You will not surely die.”
Every temptation that Satan presents us with is a lie. Temptations offer us something pleasurable immediately, but they don’t tell us about the miserable consequences that will surely follow later on. The most effective temptations, and the most effective lies, are those that have some amount of truth. Yes it would feel good to eat this, to drink that, to hang out with that person, to go to that place. But the questions we need to ask ourselves when faced with these things are firstly, “Is it sinful?” and then “Is it beneficial to me in the long term?”
We are to be “shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16). The snake is a symbol of Satan, and the dove a symbol of the Holy Spirit. We are not unaware of Satan’s schemes (2 Cor. 2:11). We know how he operates. But in our own lives, we are not to act that way but to be led by the Spirit.