Mickey Anders tells a story about a salesman who finally
got his chance to make the Really Big Sale. He was going into the final
interview on the biggest contract he had ever written. As he was ushered into the office of the
executive buyer, an assistant brought her coffee and left. The atmosphere was
cordial, and he knew he was giving his best presentation ever.
Then the assistant tapped on the door, re-entered the office and spoke briefly with the
executive. She stood and said, "I
apologize, but I have to tend to a matter.
I'll just be a minute or two." And she followed her assistant out
of the room.
The sales representative looked around the beautifully
appointed office. He saw her family
pictures on her desk. Then he noticed a
contract on her desk. She had evidently
been studying a bid from a competitor. Leaning forward, he could see the column
of figures, but it was obscured by a diet soda can.
He was tempted to move the can and see the bottom line of
his competitor's bid. What harm possibly
could there be in reading her private information? After all, she had
left it out in plain sight, almost.
After wrestling with himself a while, he finally decided to take a peek.
As he lifted the soda can, he discovered that the can
wasn't filled with soda at all. Instead
it was a bottomless can filled with 1,000 BBs which gushed out, and
ran all over the desk and cascaded onto the carpet. His attempt to short-cut the competition was
exposed.
As a culture, we have a problem with the truth! Beyond that, we really have an integrity
problem! In fact, in many ways
it’s so bad that we actually come to expect it.
Politicians spin the truth. Salesmen wheel and deal to get you to look
the other way from the truth. Family
members and friends massage the truth to their advantage.
You get the point.
And we are all guilty to one degree or another.
But it shouldn’t be that way for Christians and it doesn’t
have to be!
Jesus addressed this very subject in His Sermon on the
Mount in Matthew 5:33-37. He knew that many
in His day, like many people in our own, tried to back up their truth claims by
“swearing.” We swear on Bibles. They made vows in God’s name. It was the same concept.
But Jesus had a different standard.
The standard for His followers was absolute
integrity and honesty! They wouldn’t
need to “swear” by anything because their word could be trusted. Their integrity would be unimpeachable.
What would this really look like in our world? Here are a few suggestions:
- We would be people of our word. We wouldn’t lie and we wouldn’t even deceive by omitting the truth.
- We would be people you can count on to keep our commitments.
- We would be people who confess quickly when we are wrong and repent with sincerity.
- And we would be people who commit to speaking and acting in the Jesus way in the small things as well as the BIG.
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