Living the Right Way
You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another. – Leviticus 19:11.
These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren. – Proverbs 6:16-19.
Austin Kenyon claimed to have caught a record-breaking small mouth bass which weighed in at 9.32 pounds on a certified scale. The state ruled that the bass had some extra unfish-like weight added as in lead weights. Keith Underwood of the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife gave the official ruling, “Our determination is that the fish had been stuffed with lead weights at the time it was inspected.” A couple of Kenyon’s friends gave statements indicating the fish had been tampered with prior to it being weighed. The actual record for a small mouth bass is held by Ray Wonacott who caught an 8.75-pounder in 1966.
In the United Kingdom nearly one-half (45%) of those surveyed admitted to having committed forgery. One-fifth (21%) admitted to having used fake identity cards. 18% admitted to actually forging some type of identification card. Others admitted to forging and using doctor’s notes, reference letters, fake letters on company letterhead, travel tickets, concert tickets, and sporting event tickets.
It appears that the modern society in which we live has little difficulty with dishonesty. Perhaps, it is because of the dishonesty of the adults that the young people appear to engage in dishonesty so frequently. Rutgers’ Management Education Center in a national survey found that 75% of High School Students in the U.S. engage in “serious cheating.” Half of those surveyed indicated that “they don’t think copying questions and answers from a test is even cheating.” One student rationalized the situation by saying, “What’s important is getting ahead. The better grades you have, the better school you get into, the better you’re going to do in life. And if you learn to cut corners to do that, you’re going to be saving yourself time and energy. In the real world, that’s what’s going to be going on. The better you do, that’s what shows. It’s not how moral you were in getting there.”
Where do you begin to address the moral morass that our world is in? The dishonesty pervades our society with so many politicians, if not outright lying in the face of cameras, are at the very least obviously shading the truth. You have to wonder sometimes if they even know what the truth is – or have they lied so much that they cannot remember?
If there is to be any hope for our society, for our world, for our countries – we must return to the absolute moral principles set down by God in the Bible because everything else is shifting sand. Does it matter how you are able to become a student in a certain university? Does it matter how you were able to become a rising star in the corporate world? Does it matter how you were able to be elected to a political office? Is it okay to lie, cheat, steal, and deceive your way to the top? The answer is NO, NO, NO! It is NOT okay! It is W R O N G! It is a S I N!
The truth is that by living according to God’s principles and commands that we may not make it to the top of the heap. However, we can have some things that are much better and much more important. We can have a clear conscience, we can have peace, we can feel good about ourselves, we can have contentment, and we can be an example of what to do instead of what not to do.
Living the right way is usually not the easy way but than it is the right way and it is God’s way for your life. Try it, and see how God begins to order your steps (Psalm 37:23) to give you a real life. “For the LORD knows the way of the righteous (Psalm 1:6a).”
(We can do what the world wants and lie, cheat, and steal our way until we get to the top. Or we can live the way God would have us to live and experience His blessings upon our lives.)