Bible Verses
“The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.”– Proverbs 11:3
“ To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.” – Proverbs 21:3
“I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things I have given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you.”– Joshua 1:9
“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”– 1 Chronicles 29:17
“Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”- John 3:18
Christian Bible Lesson Overview
It is important to be truthful all the time. Sometimes it seems that a little misconception will not hurt anyone, and it may seem to make the current situation more comfortable. However, over a period, it will become more comfortable to misrepresent situations and that will lead to becoming tolerant of expressing lies. Lies will lead to a breakdown in character that will be noticed by everyone.
It is much less stressful to exert discipline from the beginning and always be truthful, than to face consequences later due to expressing things that are not true.
Christian Bible Lesson for Today
George is a law school student in his second year of law school. He has several friends he met in his classes. They meet twice a week to review study material and discuss key topics to prepare for exams. They share their research and notes with the group. Sometimes they present papers to the group that they eventually plan to turn into a professor.
The group makes suggestions that will help the student finish their document prior to giving the final document to the professor. George was having a tough time with a specific document. The more he worked on it, the more confusing his document became. The document was due to the professor within a week. George decided he would not be able to prepare his document in time. He was so stressed about what would happen to his standing in his class.
One of his fellow students, Bill, presented a paper to the study group that George liked. He decided his only option was to make generic changes to his friend’s document and present it to the professor as his work. George knew it was a lie to say the document was his document, but he was so stressed about his standing in the law school class that he felt it would not hurt anyone and he would make sure he did not do it again.
George made generic changes to his friend’s document and then gave his version to the professor. George felt relieved that he turned in the document on time.
A week later the class met for the review prior to the final exam. The professor stood in front of the class and discussed three top papers that were presented. The paper from his friend Bill that George used as the base of his paper was one of the three top papers.
Then the professor mentioned George’s paper. George became very stressed. The professor said that George’s paper was based on the paper written by Bill. The professor said he knew Bill wrote the original paper because the professor reviewed the document with Bill several times as Bill developed the paper.
George was devastated. Initially, he was so embarrassed and felt so bad about what he did. He knew Bill would be very angry with him. Then the professor said that George would be placed on probation pending a review of all his work in the class.
After the review, George had to leave law school for one year. He was devastated. He thought about how stupid he was. To prevent getting a low grade on one paper, he lost his friends and delayed his graduation from law school by at least a year if he graduated at all.
Christian Bible Lesson Summary
Sometimes a quick answer that is deception but does not seem to hurt anyone can cause a lot of stress that may last a long period of time. It is always better to be truthful and face the immediate consequences rather than deceive and be faced with unknown consequences later.