For Starters

A baker living in a village not far from Quebec bought his butter from a neighboring farmer. One day he became suspicious that the butter was not the same weight, and therefore decided to satisfy himself about it. For several days he weighed the butter, and then found that the rolls of butter that the farmer brought were diminishing in weight. This so angered him that he had the farmer arrested. "I assume you have weights, " said the judge. "No, Sir," replied the farmer. "How then do you manage to weigh the butter that you sell?" "That's easily explained, Your Honor," said the farmer. "When the baker began buying his butter from me, I thought I'd get my bread from him, and it's the one-pound loaf I've been using as a weight for the butter I sell. If the weight of the butter is wrong, he has himself to blame."

Honesty and integrity are rare and valuable things in the world in which we live and are sure markers of people who follow Jesus.

So, What's the Story?

Honesty is a moral topic that has a rather simple definition, to practice no intentional deceit, but has very wide application to many situations in life.

Honesty applies to our words. Moses quotes God when he said, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." and Paul taught by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, "Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another." And it can indeed apply to when we are faced with telling "the truth... the whole truth... and nothing but the truth", because sometimes we'd like to hedge on the truth, conceal the truth just a bit, tell part of the truth (which is to tell partly a lie), or fail to tell an inconvenient part of the truth.

But it applies also to things like hypocrisy. The word hypocrite come from the Greek and it meant "an actor". Actors intend to make others believe that they are someone else. The mark of a good actor is when the audience begins to react to them as if they were really the character that they portray. The actor knows who he/she really is; they are only attempting to deceive--harmlessly most of the time--the audience. In real life a hypocrite is also attempting to deceive others into believing that he/she is someone else, someone good or trustworthy or religious. Jesus condemned religious, moral, or character hypocrisy, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness." (Matthew 23:25-28, NIV).

In everyday life at school there is another way that honesty applies: the matter of cheating. It is nothing less that attempting to deceive the teacher about how much you really know on a test, or about whether or not the work (papers, homework, reports, etc.) I turn in is really mine or is someone else's, or about whether or not I really read the book assigned (or read the Cliff Notes only). Some tried to cheat others in Bible days by swindling others and using false weights and scales at the market, but God's word was clear, "The LORD abhors dishonest scales, but accurate weights are his delight." (Proverbs 11:1, NIV); "The LORD detests differing weights, and dishonest scales do not please him." (Proverbs 20:23, NIV).; and "Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God." (1Cor. 6:9,11).

Additionally, honesty applies to a day's work. Too often employees find reasons (good or not) to provide only the minimum effort for the job he/she has been hired to do. "I'm not getting paid enough to do this kind of work!" "I should've gotten the better job, instead of that other person!" "I can't believe the boss made us work today when everyone else has the day off!" Or even, "It's not not I want to make this a career; I just want the money!" But the Scriptures tells us, "Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free" (Ephesians 6:5-8, NIV), and, "Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive." (Titus 2:9-10, NIV)

So What?

* What other ways do we try to deceive other people? Are they dishonesty, too?
* Are there any exceptions to telling the truth? What are they, if any, and why do you think so? How does your exceptions stack up to God's nature, the foundation and standard of morality? Can you find exceptions to cheating? Hypocrisy? Giving a partial day's work for a full day's pay?
* Are there other ways to avoid telling a damaging or dangerous truth without lying? Are there ways to get good grades, make a profit, or get ahead without cheating? Are there ways of having people think well of you without hypocrisy?
* What do you think of this quote:
"If, like truth, the lie had but one face, we would be on better terms. For we would accept as certain the opposite of what the liar would say. But the reverse of truth has a hundred thousand faces and an infinite field" (Montaigne in Essays)