A lying Friend?

[Naiwen]

Has any friends offline and online ever lied to you? Just to have your attention because he’s been pining madly for you for over 12 years? I’ve just found out that the friend who’s been having the coronavirus has been lying to me all this time just to seek my attention. Where do I stand now and what should I do with him? He’s been saying stuff like it’s made him lose his eyesight, teeth and hair? Which I should have known the coronavirus doesn’t do to you. He hasn’t been to the hospital at all, he’s just been testing me to see if I were in love with him too. I’m finally considering cutting all ties with him too in life. Any advice please?

 

[Lamb]

Aw, I'm sorry your friend has deceived you like this. That isn't someone you would want to love because how could you trust him in other ways? Since this is a Christian site of course our advice is to try to reconcile if possible and above all forgive him. Are you good at confrontation? He needs to be told how much damage he's done to the friendship with the lies.

To answer the question, yes, I've been lied to by friends online and in real life. It hurts because it makes me feel as if I don't have value in their eyes for them to be honest with me.

 

[ImaginaryDay2]

Sometimes cutting ties is a responsible and Christian thing to do. When we are faced with such untruths as you have been, it is up to you how to respond. Letting the person know, calmly, about how his lies and fabrications have hurt you and your relationship may be warranted. If you decide to cut ties with him (which may be in order), then he should know why. Confronting one's sin, although it stings, may just force the person to repent of it, or it may push the person further into self-denial and lies. That's beyond what you can control. But you would have done your part.

I have had to cut ties with one good friend that I'd known from middle school. He made comments to me that were unwelcome, and can't be repeated here, but they were such that I could not, in good conscience, carry on any kind of relationship as a friend. And that hurt deeply as I trusted him a great deal for many, many years. But he crossed a line that I could not ignore. And he was not ready to hear what I'd said in response. It was calm and rational, but he did not accept the truth about what'd he'd said and how it affected not only me, but our relationship as friends.