3 Ideas of Honesty June 26

Hang with me because you may discover some things about practicing conscious honesty. Yes, scripture makes us aware we should be truthful all the time. And that certainly remains a goal. But the truth is, most of us are still struggling with just how to live honestly.

Please remember this perspective. You need to remember that sometimes you may be honest but not accurate. You may display honest feelings and thoughts but be inaccurate or incorrect. For instance, you may say honestly “I don’t like that political candidate because he seems selfish.” You may be honest, but your perspective may be inaccurate because you really don’t know the person. You may have seen only the surface facts and not the underneath truths. For this reason, we need to continue a clarification process. Clarification means we must work toward a genuine integrity by comparing what is viewed as truth on the surface and how to practice openness with hidden truths. Other people and programs can be a part of the process. Consequently, “telling the truth” does not always mean you are right. You may think you are telling the truth if you call someone a slug. That may just be feelings or perspective talking. It might be accurate to you, but not the other person who genuinely lives other than a slug. So, one goal is to establish a harmony of what is accurate and what is honest.

        To clarify certain aspects of truth telling, we need to view some definitions of openness. We take a hint from John 1:46-47.

“Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Nathaniel asked. Come and see,” Phillip answered.

Then Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said about him, Here, truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” [CSB version]

As we view this occasion of Nathaniel, we see interesting responses.

First, as it appears, Nat seems to be a blunt [openness] individual who says what he thinks, doesn’t hold back, “you get what you see” kind of individual. He seems biased about Nazareth which had a bad cultural reputation at the time. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” So, while he may have his bias, he doesn’t try to hide or smooth over his thinking. From this and other things we may not know, Jesus views him without guile or deception.

To me, we may come to the first aspect of honesty: we must accept the challenge to practice responding who and how we really are. This means an admittance to God, us and others. And, if who we really are hurts others or displays incorrect thinking, then we work on change. But the point is we need to consciously practice avoiding pretense as a lifestyle.

Maybe Nat should have kept his opinion of Nazareth to himself. Yes, it’s a value call. But on the other hand, he was what he was. I appreciate people who verbally express themselves with no deceit intended. Is this true when they are obviously wrong? While difficult, I think so. Jesus must have also. Sometimes accepting who people are [without accepting bad behavior] is a start to accept who God wants them to become. This may be part of “blessed are the meek” – a practice of absorbing some of the hurt of individuals. [James 5:7]

[2nd and 3rd ideas follow]