The Trust Protocol By Mac RichardSample

Day Three: The Dangers of Mis-honesty

Scripture: Matthew 5:37

I am by nature a words guy, not a numbers guy. But one thing I do recall from high school algebra is the word integer. Whether it is positive or negative, an integer represents a whole number, not a fraction. The word comes from a Latin word that means “intact, whole, complete.” It was also used in the ancient language in a figurative sense to mean “untainted, upright” or more literally “untouched.”

So a person of integrity is someone who is whole and complete, uncorrupted. This is the state we were created in, to live in free and open relationship with God. But when sin entered the picture—both universally and individually in our own lives—it diminished our wholeness, our completeness before God. Now any choice we make to cut an ethical corner, shade the truth a little in our favor, or mislead someone about who we are or what we’ve done erodes our integrity, our wholeness. 

Most of us would acknowledge that out-and-out lying is wrong, but we know how to carefully pick and choose our words so that if we’re called to the carpet we can say indignantly, “I didn’t (technically) lie!” These are the half-truths and deliberate misdirections that I call mis-honesty. Mis-honesty falls short of outright dishonesty, but it is still deliberately misleading. 

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus described in vivid, practical detail how life works in a relationship with God. To live a life of integrity means, as Jesus instructed us, that our yes is yes, and our no is no. We don’t need to parse our language so as to hide behind the letter of the law. Instead, we are whole and complete when our walk parallels our talk, when we reflect the character and nature of Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life.

Life is simpler, easier to navigate, and more straightforward when we don’t complicate it with intentional misdirections or mis-honesties or little white lies, and certainly not out-and-out bald-faced lies. 

As Jesus tells us, anything other than what is true and real is from Satan and not God. Anytime we choose to reject God and his principles, we choose death over life, disintegration over completeness. 

When are you most tempted to tell “little white lies”? In what ways do those mis-honest statements make your life more complicated?