Examination

Jeremiah 17:9-10

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. 
Who can understand it?  I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind.”

It’s difficult to write a week’s worth of devotions on truth and lying without the incredible image of President Clinton flashing into our minds. Regardless of your political persuasion and whether you believe President Clinton was good or bad for America, few disagree that he was a president who served without honor. His dramatic lies to the courts, to his staff, to the American people, and to his family left a historic mark next to his name. One hundred years from now school children will not study the president who led America through the economic boom of the 1990s, but the president who lied on national television and was impeached for his lies before a court of law.

Two generations ago most Americans believed there were words to live by and words to die for. One of the sayings that was engraved on the hearts of many was “A Man’s Word Is His Honor.” This was the mantle by which parents raised their children, political leaders ran their campaigns, employees worked for their employers, and businessmen conducted business.

Unfortunately, today’s America has changed. We have talked this week about defaming another’s character, but the Ninth Commandment also addresses our own integrity.

Jesus said it this way: “Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. (Matthew 5:37)  Some take this passage of Scripture to mean that Christians are prohibited from ever taking an oath. In fact, the opposite is true. Jesus is admonishing us to realize that because we bear the name of Christ we should act as if we are always under oath. As believers our word should mean something. Our reputation should precede us, and when we say Yes we mean Yes and when we say No we mean No.

Holy Spirit, with each word I breath help me to remember that it is Your Name that I represent.