On the first day of school in a Peanuts comic strip, the teacher asks her class to write an essay about returning to school after summer vacation. Linus writes, “No one can deny the joys of a summer vacation with its days of warmth and freedom. It must be admitted however that the true joy lies in returning to our halls of learning. Is not life itself a learning process? Do we not mature according to our learning? Do not each of us desire that he...” as Linus continues his bloviated commentary.
He turns his paper in and the teacher is pleased. Linus responds to the teacher, “Yes Ma’am? Why, thank you... I’m glad you liked it.” Then he leans back and whispers to Charlie Brown, “As the years go by, you learn what sells” (Charles Schultz, September 6, 1970).
All too often, people learn what sells. So instead of telling the truth, they say only what will put them in the best light.
The biggest example of that this year (2019) is the college admissions scandal, for which a couple of famous actresses were recently convicted. In March, federal authorities arrested 50 people, who were involved in the $25 million fraud. Reuters called it “the most sweeping college admissions fraud scheme ever unearthed in the United States.” William “Rick” Singer masterminded it at a small college-preparation company based in Newport Beach, California. The scheme relied on bribes to coaches, phony test takers, and even doctored photos. The photos misrepresented non-athletic applicants as elite competitors so they could gain admittance to elite schools.
Wealthy parents paid bribe money, laundering it through fake charities, to get their children into schools like Stanford, Yale, Georgetown, and the University of Southern California (USC). Two of the parents arrested were actors Lori Laughlin and Felicity Huffman, who both played dedicated mothers on television.
Interestingly, they both played characters involved in admission controversies. In season 6 of Full House, Loughlin’s Aunt Becky and John Stamos’ Uncle Jesse fudge a few details to get their toddlers into the right preschool. And in season 1 of Desperate Housewives, Huffman’s character once donated $15,000 to get her twins in a prestigious school – the exact amount mentioned in the actual criminal indictment. (Nate Raymond, “Hollywood actors, CEOs accused of paying bribes, faking photos to scam U.S. college admissions,” Reuters, 3-12-19; www.PreachingToday.com)
Now, you don’t have to be rich and famous to lack integrity. It’s a malady that affects many people rich or poor, which erodes trust and damages relationships.
So what can you do about it? What can you do about the lack of integrity in our society? What can you do in a culture that regards truth as “relative” and is so full of “fake news”? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Matthew 5, Matthew 5, where Jesus addresses the subject of integrity.
Matthew 5:33-34a Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.” But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all... (ESV)
The ancient scribes warned people not to swear falsely, but to do what they swore to do. They believed that a promise backed up with an oath was unbreakable on the pain of severe retribution from God Himself. And this was especially true if the oath involved the name of God. On the other hand, Jesus says...
DON’T SWEAR AT ALL.
Don’t confirm your promise with an oath. Don’t validate your commitment with a vow.
You see, such oaths or vows are not necessary for one who always tells the truth. They are only needed if a person cannot be trusted to keep his word.
In fact, the ancient scribes and pharisees divided oaths into two classes, those which were absolutely binding and those which were not. They taught that any oath which contained the name of God was absolutely binding; any oath which did not include the name of God was not binding (William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Vol.1)
In that way, they found a way to side-step the truth. If they swore by the name of God, they had to keep their oath. But If they swore by something other than the name of God, they felt no obligation to follow through on their commitment.
So they would swear by heaven or by earth. Or they would swear by Jerusalem or by their own heads to make their promises sound good especially if they were unsure about keeping their promises. That way if they couldn’t keep a promise, they could claim they were safe from God’s judgment, because they did not swear by God Himself.
There’s only one problem with that. You can’t put God in a box. You can’t separate God from the rest of life.
Look at what Jesus says.
Matthew 5:34-36 Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. (ESV)
Heaven is GOD’S throne. The earth is GOD’S footstool. Jerusalem is GOD’S city, and only GOD can determine the color or your hair. God is involved in all of life. So to swear by anything other than God is still to swear by God Himself, which opens you up to judgment if you do not keep your word.
Paul Little, in a sermon on Affirming the Will of God, said he knew a young lady, who had signed a contract to teach. In August she received another offer from a school closer to where she wanted to live. So she broke the original contract.
The department chairman in the first school said her justification was “I have a peace about it.” Then he commented rather sardonically, “Isn't that lovely? She's got the peace and I've got the pieces.” (Paul E. Little in a sermon, "Affirming the Will of God" (in Great Sermons of the 20th Century). Christianity Today, Vol. 33, no. 16.
She broke her word even though she signed a contract; but she felt justified, because God gave her peace about it. No! What she did was outside of God’s will. It was sin, worthy of God’s judgment, no matter how she felt about it.
Don’t play games with the truth, because it will always bite you in the end.
Just a few years ago (2012), Dog owner Peggy Ranger dropped off her six-year-old Shih Tzu at Montreal Dogs. It’s a popular day care for dogs whose owners need to leave town for a few hours or days. Stanley, Peggy Ranger's Shih Tzu, weighed eight pounds, and she only needed him to be watched for a few hours.
Soon after dropping him off, Peggy got an urgent call from Montreal Dogs telling her that her dog had run away. For a full week the owners and employees at Montreal Dogs searched for Stanley. So did Peggy's family and friends. They put up over 400 posters offering a $5,000 reward. They looked under cars, around dumpsters and the nearby railroad tracks. They put up notices online and in local newspapers. The owners phoned Peggy every day offering her encouragement and support.
Peggy's sister told the media: “We went through hell, thinking somebody had kidnapped him, sold him to a pharmaceutical company, all the terrible things you think about when a dog is lost.”
After a week, Peggy called a non-profit pet retrieval and rescue organization for help. They told the Montreal Dogs owners that they would bring in a special tracking dog, and would look at the surveillance tapes from a business across the street that had the front entrance of Montreal Dogs in view. Only then did the owners confess that they had lied about Stanley's “escape.”
In reality, Stanley had been mauled to death by at least four large dogs. The owners told reporters they had lied to spare Peggy Ranger the pain of knowing her dog had suffered such a horrific death.
Peggy is suing the company. The owners of Montreal Dogs told the media, “In retrospect, it would have been best to tell the truth.” (Rene Bruemmer, “Owners of mauled-to-death dog considering legal action after kennel lied about it running away,” The National Post, 2-16-12; www.PreachingToday.com)
Don’t you think? You see, even when you lie to spare people pain, the truth eventually comes out, and you end up causing even more pain. Now, you don’t have to be “brutally” honest, but you do have to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15).
This reminds me of a story John Maxwell tells in his book, Be a People Person.
Mr. Myrick had to go to Chicago on business and persuaded his brother to take care of his cat during his absence. Though he hated cats, the brother agreed. Upon his return, Myrick called from the airport to check on the cat.
“Your cat died,” the brother reported, then hung up.
Myrick was inconsolable. His grief was magnified by his brother's insensitivity, so he called again to express his pain.
“There was no need for you to be so blunt,” he said.
“What was I supposed to say?” asked the perplexed brother.
“You could have broken the news gradually,” explained Myrick. “You could have said, ‘The cat was playing on the roof.’ Then, later in the conversation, you could have said, ‘He fell off.’ Then you could have said, ‘He broke his leg.’ Then when I came to pick him up, you could have said, ‘I'm so sorry. Your cat passed away during the night.’ You've got to learn to be more tactful.
“By the way, how's Mom?”
After a long pause, the brother replied, “She's playing on the roof.” (John Maxwell, Be a People Person; www.Preaching Today.com)
Sometimes, even our so-called “tactfulness” can be a cover-up for a lie. Please, don’t play games with the truth especially in a society which regards truth as relative. God’s Kingdom people are different. They don’t have to swear an oath to convince people that they will keep their word.
In fact, Jesus says, “Don’t swear at all...” Instead...
JUST SPEAK THE TRUTH.
Just say what you mean and mean what you say. Just keep your promises without the need for further assurances.
Matthew 5:37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil (ESV) – or better, this comes from the evil one, Satan himself, the father of lies.
You see, when you promise to do something and then don’t do it, you’re lying.
When our kids were little, I’d sometimes promise to take them somewhere fun later in the week. Then my week would go crazy, and I’d get too busy to take them. That’s when Sandy, my wife, would say to me, “You lied to the kids!” And you know, she was right. I learned not to make promises I wasn’t sure I could keep; and when I did make a promise, I did my best to keep it even if it meant late nights on a busy week. That’s what Kingdom people do. They keep their promises even if it’s to their own disadvantage.
James reiterated what Jesus had to say in his discussion on what to do in times of suffering. He says in James 5, “Be patient... Do not grumble... But above all... do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation” (James 5:12).
You see, even your pain should never be an excuse for breaking your word. The way you live your life should be enough to back up your words no matter your circumstances. You shouldn’t have to swear an oath to convince people you’re telling the truth. Rather, your life should demonstrate that you mean what you say, that when you say “yes,” you mean yes, and when you say “no,” you mean no.
Isocrates, an ancient Greek orator once said, “A man must lead a life which will gain more con?dence in him than ever an oath can do.” And the second-century Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria insisted that Christians “must lead such a life and demonstrate such a character that no one will ever dream of asking an oath from them. The ideal society is one in which no one’s word will ever need an oath to guarantee its truth, and no one’s promise will ever need an oath to guarantee its ful?lling” (William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Vol.1)
So don’t make a promise you cannot keep. Don’t be afraid to say “NO!” to a request if you can’t do it or don’t really want to. In your effort to please people, don’t lie to them. On the other hand, if you say “YES!” to a request, make sure you do it! As James put it: Let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no!
On March 2, 1857, a group of people in Janesville, Wisconsin, started the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. A couple of years later, in 1859, the fledgling company moved to Milwaukee and soon experienced its first two death claims. A passenger train, traveling from Janesville to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, derailed, killing 14 people, two of whom were policy owners. The losses amounted to $3,500, but Northwestern Mutual had only $2,000 on hand. So company President Samuel Daggett and Treasurer Charles Nash personally borrowed the money they needed to pay the claims immediately.
Legally, they could have simply defaulted on the payments, but they decided to do the right thing. They both agreed that they would rather see the company fail than neglect their obligation to those who trusted them to keep their word. (The Origins of Doing the Right Thing, northwesternmutual.com; www.PreachingToday. com)
Daggett and Nash embodied what Jesus talked about here in Matthew 5. They kept their word even if it meant losing their company. They were trustworthy, dependable, men of integrity.
Ted Engstrom put it this way: “When you promised to be faithful to your mate, integrity says you’ll stay with that person no matter what – for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health. If you promised the Lord that you would give Him the glory, integrity means you keep on doing that whether you’re reduced to nothing or exalted to the highest pinnacle on earth. If you promised a friend that you would return a call, integrity means you return it. If you promised your child that you would spend Saturday together, integrity means you keep that appointment. A promise is a holy thing, whether made to a chairman of the board – or to a child.”
Integrity – it’s what being a part of God’s Kingdom is all about.
So how are you doing with this? How are you doing with Jesus’ insistence on absolute truth all the time? Not so well? Well, you’re in good company. The prophet Jeremiah comments on the condition of every human heart. He says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
If you are honest with yourself, you know that your own heart is naturally deceitful. You know that you fall far short of Jesus’ standard of integrity. So what can you do? Well, you go back to Jesus’ first words in His Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Acknowledge your poverty of spirit. Admit that you fall far short of what Jesus requires. Then throw yourself on His mercy, and trust Him to turn your lying, deceitful heart into a heart of integrity.
SUBMIT TO CHRIST.
Rely on Him to change you from the inside out. Depend on Jesus to make you a real person of integrity.
Over 20 years ago, the Promise Keepers movement swept the country, calling men to keep seven promises regarding their relationships with God, their families, their churches and the world. In an early message, Steve McVey, president of Grace Walk Ministries, announced to these men, “Realize that you can't keep your promises. That may seem like a strange first step toward the goal of keeping promises, but it's true.
“Consider this question: If we could keep our promises, wouldn't we have done it by now? How many times have we made the same promises? Let's face it; rededication to keep promises won't work. If it did, we wouldn't find it necessary to keep rededicating ourselves. Many of us have struggled with promise-keeping for one reason: We have focused on our performance more than on Jesus Christ. We have tried to keep our promises, but the Bible teaches that effective Christian living doesn't come by trying. It comes by trusting Christ to express his life through us. He is the only One who can successfully keep promises.
“Before we can be effective promise keepers, we must become promise receivers. The Bible is clear about God's promise: the One who has given us his life will be the One who lives it for us. Only Jesus Christ can effectively live the perfect life. He lives inside believers today and wants to reveal His perfect life through us.” (Steve McVey, president of Grace Walk Ministries, Men of Integrity, Vol. 1, no. 2)
The Apostle Paul put it this way in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
The only way you can live the life Jesus requires is to invite Him into your life and to let Him live His life in and through you. Let Jesus have full and complete control of every area of your life, your thinking, your relationships, and even your tongue. Then, and only then, will you experience genuine integrity, i.e., a oneness of heart, speech, and action without any duplicity or hypocrisy.
How do you live in a culture that regards truth as relative? Jesus says, “Don’t swear. Just speak the truth.” But in order to do that, you must submit to Him!
Make the prayer of our closing song your prayer today:
Change my heart, O God.
Make it ever true.
Change my heart, O God.
May I be like you (Eddie Espinosa).
