The Honest Truth

James 5:12 | Caleb Suko

“Terms and conditions”

We’ve all had to sign these documents so that we could use some program or when we are renting equipment. But the problem is that most people don’t even look very closely at what they are getting themselves into.

In order to prove a point, one company wrote terms and conditions for free WiFi in London. In their terms and conditions they included the following:

“WiFi will be provided if the recipient agrees to assign their first born child to us for the duration of eternity”

Within the first 30 mins, 6 people had agreed to give up their firstborn children for eternity just for the chance of hopping on WiFi for a few minutes. Thankfully, the company didn’t require those poor people to give up their firstborn children, but rather made the point that we are often vulnerable to dishonest people who can easily trick us only to take advantage of us.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where dishonesty is so common that it’s often expected. In this dishonest world, God calls us to be different, he calls us to be those who speak the honest truth.

As we come near the end of the book of James, we find James exhorting us to be honest and to tell the truth. Today, we will look into why James is telling us this, how we can apply it in our daily lives, and what is the basis for this command, to tell the truth.

James 5:12

Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear — not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple “Yes” or “No.” Otherwise you will be condemned.

James has come to an end of a section where he first warns the rich not to hoard their wealth and to pay honest wages to their workers. He then turns to those who were probably not so rich and tells them to have patience and not to grumble against one another. He ends this section with this brief but important command: to be honest in our dealings with others.

How does this fit with the first half of chapter 5? If we take the rich and the poor we find that each group has a temptation to be dishonest. James tells us in 2:6 that the rich were taking the poor to court, apparently taking advantage of them in order to make themselves richer. Earlier in this chapter, he says that the rich had cheated the poor of their wages. Unfortunately, this is all too common today! The rich want to get richer and they resort to dishonest means to do that. Sometimes they may write contracts with all kinds of legalese in it, in order to protect themselves. They have the money to hire expensive attorneys so they don’t have to pay fees and fines that people with fewer means have to pay. They get rich through dishonest means.

On the other hand, the poor often have a temptation to also try to make a little extra money in a dishonest way. Sometimes they see no wrong in cheating the rich because, after all, they have tons of money anyway. Today, there are whole industries that do nothing but scam — mainly the wealthy elderly. On YouTube, there are some channels that do nothing but engage on the phone with scammers pretending to be older wealthy people. Then they scam the scammers! It’s hard to imagine the depth of deception!

Nevertheless, many scammers feel justified in doing this because they come from poorer countries. Yet, this type of dishonesty does damage to everyone.

I. This cost of dishonesty

How does dishonesty damage everyone?

When I am dishonest

1. It damages my spirit
2. It damages my relationship with God
3. It makes it easier for me to be dishonest in other things
4. It ruins my relationship with those to whom I have been dishonest
5. It keeps me from trusting God for his provision

When I am cheated

1. It makes for financial difficulty
2. It makes me bitter
3. It makes me untrusting of others

A society where no one can be trusted is a terrible place to live. It’s impossible to engage in business, everyone is watching their back, guarding their money, and unwilling to share their wealth. Everyone is afraid of everyone else and as a result, no one can work together and no one can develop healthy working relationships.

I once heard that one of the reasons for the downfall of East Germany in 1989 was because the Stasi “Secret police” had ballooned in number. By some historians' accounts, they had recruited up to 2 million people to work as informants in East Germany where the population was just 16 million. Can you imagine if well over 10% of the population worked for the secret police? You would be scared of your neighbor, your coworker, and your spouse. There would be no trust, and society just can’t go on that way!

It’s no wonder that James begins this verse with two short words, “Above all”

Above all -Simple honesty is one of the most important qualities of a Christian!

Simple honesty changes the game, it fixes a lot of the problems in our lives and in our society. Thus, James emphasizes this final point in this section! If we could just be honest, how refreshing and revitalizing that would be!

I want to tell you this, God’s way is always the simple and pure way. It is sin, dishonesty, hidden motives, lack of transparency that complicates our lives. So if you want to simplify your life, then take this one motto for yourselves, “above all” be honest!

II. Be honest with yourself

In order to be honest with others, we must first be honest with ourselves. This may sound like an easy task but it is surprisingly rare to find people who are perfectly honest with themselves. You see, sins that we condemn in others we often like to excuse in ourselves. We see someone that is a bit lazy and not doing their job on time and we call them “lazy” but when we fail to do what is required of us, we claim that it wasn’t our fault, that people are asking too much of us, or that unforeseen circumstances beyond our control kept us from fulfilling our duties.

One of the primary attitudes of the Christian is that of self-confrontation and honesty. I need to come to terms with my own sinfulness, my own failures. I need to learn to repent of these things before God instead of justifying them to myself and others.

1 Timothy 1:15–16

15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

Paul’s example of self-honesty is vital for us. It is only when we come to the place where we are honest with our own sinfulness that we can then come to Christ in faith and receive his mercy. A recipient of mercy is one who is much more likely to be honest with others! Why? Because once I have received God’s great mercy, underserved I know that I can never lose it, and I can never have anything better than his grace and mercy in my life. The Apostle Paul calls our salvation, “the riches of his glorious inheritance”

If I know I have this rich inheritance then I have no motivation to try to cheat and be dishonest with someone else for lesser riches! If I am to be completely honest, I may lose out on some money here on earth, but the reality is that as a Christian, I will never lose my greatest treasure, which is the grace and forgiveness God has given me through Jesus Christ!

How can I be honest with myself?

1. Learn to admit my mistakes and failures
2. Learn to listen to other’s critiques of me
3. Learn to come to God with my sin
4. Learn to take responsibilities for my failures

III. Be honest with others

James's primary attention is set upon how we relate to others. There ought to be purity and truthfulness in our motives and our speech. We might make some guesses as to what the problem was in the early church. Certainly, James writes about riches and about doing business. It’s likely that some of the church members were doing business together and maybe one person started to take advantage of another person.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen this situation more than once and it’s a terrible thing for the church when someone takes advantage of a brother or sister in Christ for financial gain.

First, let me say this to any of you who have been taken advantage of, please give it over to God. Don’t allow yourself to grow bitter, cynical, and cold because of something someone else has done to you. Let’s remember that none of us are perfect, we all make mistakes and we all need to offer forgiveness to each other. Financial dishonesty can really ruin a person, don’t let it kill your spiritual life.

Secondly, let’s think about how we relate to others, it seems like such a basic thing and really it is, we need to be perfectly honest in our dealings with others! James wasn’t the first one to bring this up, we find this command both in the Old Testament and in the teachings of Jesus. Let’s look at what Jesus said.

Matthew 5:33–37

33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

Jesus expands this a little, he is quoting from Numbers 30:2. The problem was not in that people took an oath but rather that they used various oaths and deceptive ways to provide themselves with a way out of what they had promised just in case they needed it. The Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day taught that a vow not explicitly made in the name of God didn’t have to be kept. So people would make a vow by the temple, or the altar, or something else that was slightly less significant than God himself. Jesus rejected this practice because it was dishonest! Rather, he said that a simple “yes” or “no” should carry equal weight to any vow that we might give.

Jesus is raising the standard of honesty to new heights. He wants us to be so honest, so committed to doing what we say we are going to do that all we have to do is say “yes” or “no.”

We probably all know two kinds of people. The first is that person who we can ask to do something, talk with them about it once, and if they agree to it, we know without a doubt that they will give their everything to do whatever it is that they promised to do. The second is the opposite of the first person. It’s the person who will say “yes, yes” and then find some excuse at the last minute, who might not show up, who will tell you that they just couldn’t manage because of unforeseen circumstances. These two types of people quickly gain a reputation for themselves.

Here we can ask ourselves, “what kind of a reputation do I have?” Do people consider me to be a man/woman of my word? Are people comfortable putting their confidence in me? Do I uphold my promises, even in simple matters or do I often look for excuses, try to back out of what I’ve committed to, and not take responsibility.

If we are going to let our “yes” be “yes” and our “no” “no” then we must be careful with our words and with our commitments. Here is some advice that might help us be true to our word.

1. Don’t commit quickly
2. Don’t commit for the sake of appearances
3. If you really can’t fulfill your promise admit it
4. If you do commit, make a plan
5. If you do commit, ask for God’s help
6. If you do commit, communicate your plan
7. If you do commit, ask for help if needed

Simple honesty and faithfulness are some of our greatest testimonies we can have for Christ!

IV. Remember the honesty of God

Finally, I want to point out that there is a source for honesty in our lives that is God himself! We are called to be honest men and women because God is honest, true, and trustworthy. So, if you want to be godly, if you want to follow after the example of Christ Jesus then you must be honest!

Numbers 23:19

God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?

This is a vital truth about the nature of God that we must not forget. God is honest, God never lies, God always tells the truth. But not only does God always tell the truth, but God also does the truth. He carries out absolutely everything that he says he will do!

• If God says He will judge, he will judge it
• If God says He will punish, he will punish
• If God says He will create, he will create it
• If God says He will save, he will save
• If God says He will help, he will help
• If God says He will comfort, he will comfort
• If God says He will forgive, he will forgive
• If God says He will love us, he will love us
• If God says we will be with Him in eternity, we will be with him!
• If God says, God will do!

When we connect God’s honesty with God’s actions we come up with something called “faithfulness!”

It is in the resurrection of Jesus that we see God’s faithfulness and his honesty to us!

He promised his disciples that he would rise from the dead on several occasions.

John 11:25–27

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

Jesus always told the truth, he even called himself the truth!

John 14:6

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

His honesty was proved when he did rise from the dead!

Luke 24:5–6

“Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:

Thankfully, Jesus is always honest. He will always tell us the honest truth about ourselves, and he will always tell the truth about himself. The truth is that he and he alone can give us the forgiveness and life that we need. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a truth that we must honestly reckon with. Do I believe this truth?

Questions to consider

1. In what areas am I not being honest with myself?
2. Where have I been dishonest with others? What can I do to fix that?
3. How do I relate to God’s honesty in Jesus Christ? Do I believe the truth of the resurrection?