The Coolidge examiner., 1938-11-24

-EXOQuS ~. 10,
Lesson subjects and Scripture texts Sc.
lected and copyrighted by International
Council of Religious Education; used by
permission.
Honesty in all things would seem
to be what one should have a right
to expect without question. AS a
matter Of fact, dishonesty has be-
come so common wherever man is
found that people look on the per-
son who is strictly honest as a Pc
culiar individual. Try reporting an
undercharge (everyone complains
about an overcharge) or returning
excess change, and you will see
how unexpected honesty really is
today. Under such circumstances
the Christian needs to be vigilant
lest he also accommodate his own
ideas of honesty and begin to justify
little evasions rather than being ab-
solutely upright.
l. Honesty Respects Property
Rights (Exod 20:15).
The very commandment against
stealing implies that men have a
right to that which they have made,
earned. or saved. If no one had
property rights there could be no
stealing. Some of our modern isms
reason along that line, but their
reasoning is clearly not biblical or
Christian.
Thou shalt not steal" forbids ev-
cry kind of theft. 1t includes rob-
berry. burglary, safe cracking.
housebreaking; but it covers far
more than those obvious wrongs. 1t
refers to such things as loafing on
ones job, borrowing" money from
the cash drawer. taking goods from
the stock with which one is working,
stealing another mans sermon and
preaching it as ones own, lifting"
material out of another mans book
without credit, contracting debts
which one can never pay, using
false weights and measures, adul
terating food or other material,
watering" milk for sale, selling
worthless stock, lodging taxes or
lying to the tax assessor. using a
slug instead of nickel in the tele-
phone to escape proper payment.
1t really means something to be
&c
to the unregenerate world.
ii. Honesty Restores Stolen Goods
duke l9: l-l0).
The story of the conversion of the
despiSed Jewish tax collector Zac-
chaeus has many interesting fea-
lures, but for our lesson we stress
but one, namely, that the reality Of
his conversion was demonstrated by
his honesty in restoring that which
he had obtained unjuStly, and that
in fourfold measure.
Insofar as it is possible to do so,
the honest person will make right
any known injustice. To be right
with God must mean that we are
to be right with men. The testi-
mony of many Christians could be
presented to show that they have
only entered upon real peace and
usefulness as they have made con-
sistent effort to right every wrong,
to pay every debt. Often such ac-
tions open opportunities for Chris
tian testimony and point others to
the redemption in Christ. which
makes a man live right as well as
talk right.
Ill. Honesty Resents Crookedness
luke As, 46).
In sharp contrast to the prompt
restitution by Zacchaeus, the con-
verted publican, was the stubborn
disobedience and dishonesty of the
priests in the temple. Jesus had
already cleansed the temple of the
traffic in money-changing and the
sale of animals for sacrifice prac-
ticed there (see John 2:l3-lO. On
that occasion He rebuked them be-
cause they made His Fathers house
"a house of merchandise. Had
they known the change Of heart of a
converted Zacchaeus they would
have needed His admonition. But
they did not believe in Christ and
went on with their ungodly desecra-
ton of the temple area until it be-
came "a den of thieves" ". 46).
The Lesson Commentary of the
United Lutheran Church makes an
unusually apt application of the
truth to the goingS on in our own
churches" in the following para
graph. Read it, ponder it. pray
about it, then act, if it describes
your church.
is a church honest when it as
sumes obligations that it cannot
meet, and is then forced to use all
sorts of questionable means to raise
money for the benefit of the church?
Is a church honest when it turns
a building conSecrated to the Wor-
ship of God into a restaurant or
theater, regardless of whether it is
done to make money for the church
or to attract people who are more
interested in eating and drinking or
playing than in the preaching of the
Word and the worship of God? Is
a church honest that turns its pulpit
into a lecture platform for the dis
cussion of current events or the