My view on this seems to be the minority on here, and I'm actually surprised by that. Some of the comments are very interesting, but there's two major reasons I don't believe lying is right, and IS a sin:

1. The means don't justify the end. Nowhere in the Bible, at least to my knowledge, are we given a pass to break one commandment for a "greater good," and a perceived greater good at that. God never says we ignore one commandment for the sake of a more important one. This concept is completely foreign to Scripture. The only thing that even comes close is Jesus "breaking" the Sabbath laws, but even then He held a very high regard for the Sabbath, and wasn't breaking it so much as fulfilling it. And the examples Blueridge Baptist gave were taken way out of context, especially the 1 Kings verses, which were referring to false prophets whose lying spirits were actually sent from Satan, not from God. So, a sin is always a sin, regardless of our intent and to what end it strives to accomplish. Lying is sinful. The Bible gives no qualifiers.

2. By lying, we are presuming to know God's will and God's plan. Naturally God doesn't want us to murder people, but who says it isn't part of God's will for these people to be captured and/or die? Remember Job? God allowed terrible things to happen to him for a very important reason, reasons that were never explained to Job. It's hard to imagine God having a reason for allowing the murder of innocent people, but then again, we aren't God and can't possibly understand His will. By lying in order to do what WE think is right we may be interfering with God's plan. How do we know what will happen to these people? Maybe they will be freed, maybe somehow God will use them to somehow impact the Nazis - we have no way of knowing. By lying, we are assuming we know exactly what God wants and exactly how what His plans are. But that's not our responsibility and not what God commands us to do. We do know he commands our obedience, and He is very clear that we are not to lie, without qualification.

So in light of all that, all we can do is obey what God clearly commands us to do in His Word, and that is to tell the truth, and trust Him that what happens next is in His hands. I hate to think we have the ability to rationalize exceptions and add clauses to the Ten Commandments.

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Mason
Member, Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA)
New York, NY

"Come now, and let us reason together," says the Lord, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool." - Isaiah 1:18