"MORAL ISSUES CONFRONTING CHRISTIANS"
Dishonesty
INTRODUCTION
- A survey of 29,760 students in USA high schools revealed the
following about stealing...
- 30% admitted stealing from a store within the past year
- 23% said they stole something from a parent or relative
- 20% confessed they stole something from a friend
-- Josephson Institute's 2008 Report Card on the Ethics of American
Youth
- In the same survey addressed the subject of lying...
- 42% said they sometimes lie to save money
- 83% confessed they lied to a parent about something significant
-- ibid.
- Again, the survey revealed the following about cheating...
- 64% cheated on a test during the past year
- 38% cheated two or more times
-- ibid.
- Amazingly, these same students have a high self-image when it comes
to ethics...
- 93% said they were satisfied with their personal ethics and
character
- 77% said that when it comes to doing what is right, they are
better than most people they know
-- ibid.
[Such dishonesty is a problem confronting our society, and certainly not
just young people (e.g., elected officials, employers and employees,
etc.) and likely affects many Christians as well. So let's consider...]
- THE PROBLEM WITH DISHONESTY
- IN GENERAL...
- Condemned by God's Word
- In the Law of Moses - Lev 19:11; Pr 6:17-19; 11:1; 12:22
- Liars will have their place in the lake of fire - Re 21:8
- Common wisdom tells us that "honesty is the best policy"
- False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect
the soul with evil - Socrates
- The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied
later a thousand fold - Aristotle
- Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom - Thomas
Jefferson
- No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar
- Abraham Lincoln
- IN PARTICULAR...
- Destroys reputations
- Once you are caught lying, stealing, or cheating, you will
rarely be trusted again
- Even if you do it for someone, with someone - you prove
yourself untrustworthy
- With lies you may get ahead in the world, but you can never
go back - Russian Proverb
- Demolishes families, friendships
- Relationships depend on trusting one another
- If you marry a man who cheats on his wife, you'll be married
to a man who cheats on his wife - Ann Landers
- Even if we lie for one another, we are undermining that
trust
- Who lies for you will lie against you - Bosnian Proverb
- Disrupts workplaces
- Some believe that lying, cheating, stealing is necessary to
conduct business
- If I am willing to lie for you, how do you know I won't lie
to you (the same for cheating and stealing)?
- Once a company implements a policy of dishonesty to
customers, employees will employ it against employers
whenever convenient
[The problem of dishonesty in the form of lying, cheating, and stealing
is really self-evident. Only those blinded by pride and greed can deny
the harmful effects of dishonesty. In God's Word we find...]
- THE SOLUTION FOR DISHONESTY
- PUT AWAY LYING, STEALING...
- We are to "put on the new man...in true holiness and
righteousness" - Ep 4:24
- Which involves "putting away lying" - Ep 4:25; cf. Col 3:9
- Which includes no longer stealing, pilfering, etc. - Ep 4:28;
Tit 2:10
- SPEAK THE TRUTH...
- "let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor" - Ep
4:25
- "let your 'yes' be 'yes,' and your 'no,' 'no,'..." - Mt 5:37
- LOVE ALL MEN...
- One does not lie, steal, or cheat those they love
- We are to love one another - Ro 13:8
- We are to love our enemies - Mt 5:44-45
- PURSUE WHAT IS GOOD...
- Both for ourselves and for all - 1Th 5:15
- Whatever we want others to do to us - Mt 7:12
CONCLUSION
- How much better, more pleasant, would life be...
- If everyone lived honest lives
- Not lying, stealing, and cheating
- Following the principles taught by Jesus and His apostles
- Indeed, the same could be said concerning all the moral issues we
have examined...
- The truth for moral issues is in Jesus - Ep 4:21
- For Jesus is the light of the world - Jn 8:12
- Those who walk as children of light bear the fruit of goodness,
righteousness, truth - Ep 5:8-9
Follow Jesus, and we will have the light of life and truth, guiding us
through the maze of moral issues that confront us daily...!