“These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts” (Zechariah 8:16).
Be honest. Have you ever made personal calls on company time? Taken home office supplies? Made illegal copies of software? Found something of value and kept it without trying to find the owner? Lied about your child’s age to get a cheaper ticket to something? Exaggerated expenses on a company trip? Or taken credit for something someone else did?
“Wait a minute,” you may be saying, “I don’t have to answer those questions.” OK, before we dispense with the sticky questions which cause us to squirm, answer one about the other guy. Would you say that Christians are more honest than other people? Or about the same as everyone else?
George Barna, whose research both astounds and perplexes people, says that 35% of Christians versus 57% of non-Christians say that “to get by in life these days, sometimes you have to bend the rules for your own benefit.” His research also shows that 50% of Christians versus 25% of non-Christians contend that truth is not relative to the circumstances—something is either true or it is not true. Bending the truth doesn’t make it right.
OK, why should those who believe Jesus Christ is God’s Son be more honest than those who believe an iguana is a god? Is the motive fear that someday God will clobber them for lying? Or is it something more fundamental, more intimate and binding?
Living in a culture that is broadly considered to be “Christian” doesn’t make you honest, though it may impose a standard which few live up to. Courts expect people to tell the truth, though taking an oath doesn’t necessarily make people more honest. But it often makes them more careful in their lies.
If, however, you really believe that Jesus Christ is your Lord, then there is born a motive to live as He lived, and that also means you become willing to embrace the truth which He taught, and–simply put–to live as He wants you to live. That umbrella, which also includes ultimate responsibility to God, makes a difference. Apart from that, there is little if any real motive to be honest.
Now, there’s another factor in the honesty equation, and that is how you feel about the authority of the Book that says you are not to lie to your neighbor, or dishonestly move his property line, or deceive your fellows—whomever they may be. In the past quarter of a century, the number of people who believe the Bible contains absolutes that are to be obeyed has dropped like a rock; yet what you think about the Bible doesn’t change it.
The secular humanist may tell you that honesty is good for society, yet when it gets down to it, if dishonesty is good for him—say, for example, he finds a wallet loaded with money when he is gone on a long walk in the woods, or the company he deals with sends him a much more expensive computer than he paid for—he keeps it and keeps quiet as well. Dishonesty, he would say, can be good at times. The Christian who stands under the lordship of Jesus Christ says, “Short term gains can’t offset long term losses.” He lives by the Golden Rule: “Whatever you would that men should do to you, even so do to them, for this is the law and the prophets.”
The American humorist Mark Twain once gave some pretty solid advice when he said, “When in doubt, tell the truth. It will confound your enemies and astound your friends.” To that I might add, “and make your Heavenly Father proud of you and let you hold your head high.”
At some point you’ve got to decide: Am I going to live as God wants me to live? If not, am I content to be like others?
Resource reading: Acts 5.
