Honesty and Integrity: Being People whose “Yes” means “Yes”
“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, 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. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.
// Matthew 5.33-37
But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment.
// James 5.12
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
// John 8.44
"What difference does it make if it's true? If it's a story they're gonna run with it."
// Conrad 'Connie' Brean, “Wag the Dog”
"Integrity is not something you can take off the shelf and use whenever you want it."
// L.A. Law (for those of you who do not know, was a television show in the 80’s)
"The Pharisees shifted people’s attention away from the vow itself and the need to keep it, to the formula used in making it. They argued that what the law prohibited was not taking the name of the Lord in vain, but taking the name of the Lord in vain. ‘False swearing’ they concluded, meant profanity (a profane use of the divine name), not perjury (a dishonest pledging of one’s word)."
// John Stott, Theologian
"Deception is nowhere more common than in religion…The religious leader is the most untrustworthy of leaders; in no other station do we have so many opportunities for pride, for covetousness, for lust, or so many excellent disguises at hand to keep such ignobility from being found out and called to account."
// Eugene Peterson, Pastoral Theologian
"Avoiding oaths is inadequate, the issue is telling the truth because God witnesses every word one speaks."
// Craig Keener, Theologian
"Parents shouldn’t lie to their children—not even when they think it’s for their own good. Even a little lie is dangerous; it deteriorates the conscience. And the importance of conscience is eternal."
// Pablo Casals
Prayer: God’s Knowledge and Our Growth
For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
// 1 Cor. 3:9
Process theology [including Open Theism] has done much to bring God down to the human level. God is still supreme but not absolutely sovereign. For the fulfillment of his purposes he depends on human cooperation. We contribute to the enrichment of God just as he contributes to our own growth and enrichment. We are not only enlisted by God in his service but also included in God as necessary ingredients of his creative advance.
// Donald Bloesch, Theologian
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"
// Rom 10:14-15
"We do not pray for God’s good, we pray for our own good."
// Philip Yancey, Prayer
"The emphasis today is not on the almightiness of God but on his vulnerability, his empathy rather than his majesty… One of the salient features of the contemporary theological panorama is the pronounced discomfort with the traditional notion of God’s almightiness. A God who is all-powerful contradicts the democratic ethos in which decisions are arrived at by consensus."
// Donald Bloesch, Theologian
And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, "Is it I, Lord?" He answered, "He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born."
// Matthew 26:22-24
This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
// Acts 2:23-24
For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
// Acts 4:27-28
But there are some of you who do not believe." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)
// John 6:64
