St. John includes on his 12th Step FALSEHOOD, something that he calls False Promises or Oaths. He categorizes false promises as another form of lying and quotes Christ’s warning in His Sermon on the Mount:

Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’ But I say to you, do not swear at all.

This is an extension of the ancient commandment, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain”. Knowing that promises cannot always be kept for reasons beyond our control, our Lord discourages us from making promises in God’s name, thereby making His name unbinding and of no effect. He goes yet further and tells us not to swear by anything at all.

So Christ commands us to be not only honest and well-meaning, but simple and straight-talking, not       allowing our tongues to utter empty words or promises that may be broken by unforeseen events or due to our limited knowledge.

St. John also includes HYPOCRISY in the category of FALSEHOOD. He states that the passion of falsehood is something deeper than telling a lie out of necessity or to avoid causing needless offense. It is rooted in one of the worst sings of all: hypocrisy.

The original meaning of the word hypocrisy is “pretense,” and hypocrite means “actor.” For as long as we are pretending to be something we are not, inasmuch as we want others to see us not as we are, but as we want to be seen, we will be an embodiment of falsehood, a passion, a sickness of the heart, not an act of necessity. Thus only when we have purified our heart can we be liberated from the sin of falsehood.