Paying For Honesty

To be honest... 

A door to door salesman spoke these words during an exchange with me recently: To be honest. This refrain was repeated perhaps four to five times in the short stint of him pitching a telephone company as a replacement, for my current service provider. 

1. Was this young man feeling guilty about selling something he knew was subpar?

2. Was this young man nervous about being perceived as a dishonest sales man, or about perceived as a potentially slimy salesman?

3. Was the young man somehow compromising his integrity, and feared that his dishonoured values, were on display?

4. By using the term, To be honest, was he trying to convince me of something, or himself?

Lately I have been considering the price I have paid for being honest, and just as I turned the idea over in my mind once or twice, it occurred to me that it is the hearer, or receiver of honesty, that must pay a hefty price, because once the truth be told, and once it has been heard, it hangs around, becoming a sometimes unwelcome but constant companion, poking at conscience, niggling self-awareness, prodding the person to fess up, and be honest about intentions and perhaps unspoken, self-deceptions that are hard to face. 

Jesus paid the ultimate price for truth told, truth beheld, truth in action as promised, when he was crucified for the sins of the world as an innocent lamb. When I compare my truth telling to myself and to others, and how much it has cost me, I shrink into myself, when I consider Christ's ultimate sacrifice of life itself, for the guilty.  It is my initial sin of lying that takes me away from God, and it is my confessing of sin that screams of my deceptions. 

Let us expound together on this concept. 

A lie considered, a lie rationalized, a lie then spoken that leads to a self-promised reward when action is taken, adds insult to injury in the soul. Tracing backward on the tracks of accountability, you and I can take apart the life of sinful choices we have made based on the lies we have told ourselves and others over the years, throughout the decades... or even just looking back at our yesterday. 

There is a price demanded of us that ought not be too expensive, if honesty is highly valued. Telling the truth may seem an exorbitant levy for freedom, but it is an entrance fee to relationship with the King of kings, Lord of lords. Without honesty, without truth telling, without devotion to righteous living, we cannot be in relationship with God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost - and dear reader, since when is it possible to build a firm and faithful foundation of sincere relationship with others, when undertones are deceptive, and when we are sneaky with our intentions? 

To be honest is an oft used term currently, and it belies self-deception for the speaker, and perhaps, a fear of being a liar. If someone speaks truth, they need not try to convince themselves, or others, of this. 

James 5:12

But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation. 

Lest ye fall into condemnation. 

This warning is for each living breathing potentially self and other deceiving human being. The scripture above is plain in its instructions, that we speak yes, or no, without saying things like, I swear to God, or on my mother's grave, or on the life of my son or daughter. Man alive, if a person has to go to these lengths, to prove they mean what they say, can they be trusted as a person of integrity? 

Dear one, there is a price tag invisibly attached to lies, and to truth telling too, that becomes apparent over time. There is potential loss after the investing in truthful exchanges, and at the same time, it is worth the cost when the reward, is honest to goodness relationship, that can be trusted as tried and true. 

Be not condemned by the one that judges righteously. Tell yourself truth, and then speak and live it before God and man, and you will receive a heavenly, priceless recompense from your Saviour, Christ the King. 

Repent, confess yours sins, receive forgiveness, and sin no more. I pray God rules and reigns in your mind, heart, and spirit, dear one.