The Ethics of the Lie

Is it ever ethical to tell a lie? Is there actually a difference between a lie and half-truth? For all you overanalyzers who are now wondering ‘is she lying to me about something?’, rest assured, I’m not! This was a question that came up at Mo and Barb’s Bible Study on Monday night, and it’s been sticking with me a bit this week. I know some people say it’s never okay to lie—a lie is a sin, and a sin-is a sin-is a sin. So does that mean that Gentile families who hid Jews during the Holocaust were sinning when they told the SS Officers that there were no Jews in the house? And if that was okay, does that mean there’s a hierarchy of sin? If not, can something like that be ethical and sinful at the same time? When it comes to a situation like this, is there a difference between ‘ethically okay’ and ‘theologically okay’?