[Augustine] is moved to reject even the tempting compensatory lie when he calls to mind “the beauty of Him from whose mouth nothing false proceeded.” Speech is not simply our possession; it is God’s gift to us. To recognize and acknowledge this gift in truthful words is to offer grateful praise to the One from whom it comes. Paul Griffiths makes just this point in characterizing Augustine’s reason for rejecting all lies. “Lying speech is owned, controlled, taken charge of, characteristically and idiosyncratically yours. True speech is disowned, relinquished, returned as gift to its giver, definitely and universally not yours. . . . The true antonym of mendacium, for Augustine, is adoratio, or its close cousin, confessio; and the fundamental reason for banning the lie without exception is that when we speak duplicitously, we exclude the possibility of adoration.”
Gilbert Meilaender, The Way That Leads There