Can You Be Trusted

IN A WELL-KNOWN METROPOLITAN MUSEUM there is an exhibit demonstrating the menace of the housefly. In the several corners of a glass case, model flies can be seen flitting from garbage heaps to dinner tables and from dead dogs to baby’s hands and face. Suspended in the center of the case is a gigantic fly, several hundreds of times larger than life size. He is a Frankenstein of hairy horror calculated to make the flesh creep. And visitors to that museum look from the little flies to the big fly and back again—and then go out and buy a bigger and better fly swatter.

Now and again America is shocked by some headline scandal in which millions of public dollars are misappropriated by corrupt practices. We say, "How terrible! Something should be done about this state of affairs!" But what we need to recognize is that big deeds of dishonesty are only the magnified editions of countless smaller acts of deception, fraud, and untruth which society condones every day.

Honesty is getting almost as rare as hen’s teeth. Just ordinary, common honesty, I mean. Somehow, the idea has been accepted that we are in this world to outsmart the other fellow, and that it doesn’t much matter how we do it. So the schoolboy cheats in his term paper, the passenger rides the street car and skips paying his fare, the storekeeper gives short weight to his customers, the garage mechanic charges for work he doesn’t do, the clerk draws pay for hours that he cuts, and the business man falsifies his tax returns and robs the government.

Not everybody is equally guilty, of course. But few of us are completely clean. The insidious suggestion that a thing is all right "if you can get by with it" has corroded the conscience of our society. It is surely time that somebody took a stand for truth and honesty.

Somebody? If you are a Christian, surely that somebody should be you. Christians are in this world to challenge low standards of morality by high standards of personal conduct. Unfortunately, many seem to have forgotten this. Had the apostle Paul been our pastor he would have taken good care to keep us reminded. "Put away lying," he exhorted the members of a city congregation. "Speak every man truth with his neighbor. . . . Let him that stole steal no more" (Eph. 4:25, 28).

Can you be trusted? That’s the kind of question, of course, that gets a man rattled. But it need not imply that you are a shoplifter or that you take money from the kiddies’ piggy bank. It does raise the tremendous question, however, which all of us should face: Can I be trusted with the reputation of a Christian? Is the honor of the Lord Jesus safe in my hands?

Some newspapers delight in writing up the story of some preacher or Sunday school worker who has tumbled into disgrace! The world, it would seem, has a pretty clear idea of the kind of people Christians should be, and a lapse by a church member is headline news. Happily, the moral errors of religious people do not all get exposed in police courts or featured in print. But isn’t it true that a lot of us are guilty of acts of untruth, deception, and dishonesty which reflect upon the honor of our Lord, jeopardize the reputation of his church, and hinder others from finding salvation?

Perhaps we need to start by calling things by their proper names. Exaggeration is sometimes just plain lying. Good salesmanship may be downright misrepresentation. Borrowing can be another word for theft. And smartness may cover all kinds of graft from putting slugs in a candy machine to rigging a gasoline pump. Glib phrases which attempt to conceal ugly practices are not in God’s vocabulary. To him lying is lying, stealing is stealing, because sin is sin.

The Bible has a lot to say about honesty and it expresses God’s displeasure against dishonesty in no uncertain terms. Here are some examples of the forthright, stern language with which God denounces dishonesty in various forms:

These are all serious and solemn words. They declare the displeasure and judgment of God against things which are everyday practices with too many people. They are warning words, and for that reason should be heeded. But, after all, as Christians we can find reasons

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