"And Jesus answered and said to them, 'Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things." Mark 11:33 NKJV
The chief priests, scribes and elders, came to Jesus questioning Him. They wanted to know by whose authority He did such things. Jesus' answer was amazing; He asked them a question; was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? This caused them a great dilemma; for if they said from heaven, Jesus would say why didn't you believe him. If from man, it would stir the crowd because they sincerely believed in John Therefore they answered, 'We do not know.' Jesus therefore said, 'Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.' These so-called leaders of the temple, were really hypocrites and Jesus was not going to get entangled in lengthy arguments with untruthful people. It would pay no dividends.
Honesty is a top requirement in the kingdom of God. The apostle Paul said in Ephesians 4:25, 'Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbour, for we are members of one another.' Honesty can be described as integrity, sincerity, uprightness and trust. It is a quality that we should seek and hold onto. People want to be around honest people, they feel secure this way.
We can be tempted every now and then, to be dishonest; we call it a 'white lie'. Do not be misled, a white lie is a lie, it is an untruth, a fib and we should avoid it at all costs. The white lie is described as:
'a harmless or trivial lie, especially one told to avoid hurting someone's feelings'.
The Open Dictionary
An example is when you told your mum, or partner, that her meal was really good when it actually tasted awful. We do this because we don't want to upset the person who has slaved to cook us a nice meal. Another example is when after being invited to a party, we fail to go because we don't really fancy it; yet, we tell the host that we are sorry but something important cropped up. It may save hurting their feelings but, it is lying. There is no such thing as a white lie. Using diplomacy yes, but this must be without lying.
As we can see, it can be so easy to slip into a lie, even when we do not intend to. It is far better to be honest, with tact, than to lie. This takes practice but is far better in the long run.
Copyright 2021 Grahame Howard
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