Deuteronomy 7:9 (NKJV) “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;
Whether politics, academics, sports or business, it seems like broken promises and lies are not only “no big deal”, they are almost expected. How many times have you heard: “EVERYONE lies…”.
Politicians lie so much it’s a joke, and it’s not even news or a reason not to vote for them. Students routinely declare that cheating is a must and when the goal is “graduate” instead of “learn”, who can blame them? Athletes and teams cheat because losing comes at such a high cost and a lack of character means there is no conviction or guilt involved.
Movies and sitcoms treat lying as if it’s normal and only wrong “when it hurts someone else”. Even worse, it’s a joke. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen lying treated as humor on TV.
Promises today are only to be kept if it remains advantageous personally to do so. Otherwise, tough luck. Even in business, years ago I quit having clients sign contracts because I realized that paper promises mean nothing to someone who wants to break that promise… and honest people don’t need to sign a contract assuring honesty. Not an approach taught in business school but it works for me.
Honesty (keeping promises, telling the truth) is a character trait, a value. It exposes the condition of the heart, mind and spirit of both the individual and the culture.
Think It Over: There is a reason why “LIAR” is at the top of every big list of sins in the Bible. Lying corrupts every part of human character. “LIAR” is so awful to God because it is everything He is not, and He is against. Satan is the Father of Lies. God is Truth and incapable of lying.