FIGHTING FOR HONESTY

Grade 12/1, lesson 3

Being honest means not deceitful to
oneself and to others. It is a harmony
between words and deeds, between what
is said and what is done. The christians are
advised to be rightious, honest and just ..
Fill in the blanks honestly
Name : _________________________
Good characters : _________________________
(as many as : _________________________
you can) : _________________________
Bad characters : _________________________
:_________________________
Talents : _________________________
Hobbies : _________________________
Answer the following questions:
1. You have written about your identity. Are they
true?
2. Are there any dishonesties?
3. Are there any falsehood?
Wether your answers are true or not true, complete or
incomplete depend on how much your honesty is. If
you are honest, so is the image of others about you,
and if you are not honest, so is not the image of others
about you. In this condition, a healthy social
relationship will or will not be developed. It will be
healthy/normal or fake, it depends on your honesty.
 Class discussion:
1. Mention various falsehood, dishonesty and
hypocrisy in our society
2. Why do all these happen?
3. What is the immediate impact of
dishonesty?
• Dishonesty in the Society
We are living in a society full of falsehood. Some
forms of falsehood are the following:
1. Forms of dishonesty.
a. In politics. The ruling ones are deceitful,
corruptive for the benefit of their own group.
They often manipulate the law and even religion
for their own sake. Common people will react
hypocritically toward the ruling ones /the
powerful
b. In economics. The ruling ones/the powerful and
the bussiness men will hand in hand corrupt
the people’s money by marking up or giving a
fictitious report. Then people will also try to do
bribe and falsehood. There is a vicious circle.
c. In culture/education. The ruling party can
manipulate education law for their own benefit.
People and students will also react
formalistically and hypocritically.
2. Reason and the root of dishonesty.
a. In politics is the greediness of power. The powerful
always tries to maintain their power at all cost. The
people will try to be hypocrite for their own sake, for
safety.
b. In economis is the greediness of wealth, money. Money
has become the god of modern life. Modern people live
a materialistic, consummeristic and hedonistic life.
Money can buy everything, including honesty. Common
people will try to do falsehood in order to survive.
c. In culture could be a way to have harmony, but a fake
one.
3. The consquence of dishonesty.
a. For the actors of falsehood.
 Although having an abundant life, it doesn’t
guarantee hapiness.
 Their conscience will be extinct.
 Decadence of moral and personality
 Some day their families will suffer when people
know about their dishonesty.
b. For the people. Dishonesty has become a root
problem in multi dimensional cases in the country. We
experience a lot of crises in politics, economics,
culture, environmt etc because of dishonesty.
 DISHONESTY IN SCRIPTURE
• Mt 23: 13-14 . g “Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the kingdom of
heaven* before human beings. You do not enter
yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those
trying to enter. [14]*
• 15* “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you
hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one
convert, and when that happens you make him a
child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves.
• Lk 11: 42-43.
• 42 “Woe to you Pharisees, because you give
God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other
kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice
and the love of God. You should have
practiced the latter without leaving the former
undone.
• 43 “Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the
most important seats in the synagogues and
respectful greetings in the marketplaces.
• Matthew 23:27-28
• 27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like
whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on
the outside but on the inside are full of the
bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In
the same way, on the outside you appear to
people as righteous but on the inside you are
full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
• During his life, Jesus was so assertive in terms of honesty.
He was patient and forgiving. But to the hypocrites he was
so hard and piercing. Why? The hypocrites are stubborn,
hard to repent. They consider themselves as pious and don’t
need God’s grace and love. They thought they were able to
reach salvation on their own efforts. They always count for
all their merits (Lk.18:9-14). Jesus needs christians to say
‘yes’ if it is right and ‘no’ if it is not right, no hypocrisy, more
than that comes from satan (Mt.5:37: "You are of your father
the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a
murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth
because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he
speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of
lies.”). And satan always live in dishonesty
• Mt: 33-37. Jesus Forbids Oaths
• 33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old,
‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths
to the Lord.’ 34 But I say to you, do not swear at all:
neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 nor by the
earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is
the city of the great King. 36 Nor shall you swear by your
head, because you cannot make one hair white or black.
37 But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For

whatever is more than these is from the evil one.

Work on the following questions:
• We have been talking about dishonesty, but
what is actually meant by honesty?
• What is the meaning of honesty?
• What can we do to uphold honesty?

HONESTY
Honesty means one in word and deed. We do
what we said. There is a genuine relation
between saying and doing.
a. Honesty is a good attitude for personal
development and community as well. An honest
person is able to accept the reality of him/herself,
others and the community.
b. Honesty is the foundation of trust and
cooperation with others
c. Honesty can help solve personal, political,
economical, and cultural problems and crises.
We need a moral movement to uphold honesty:
long term, not institusionalized, not only a spiritual
movement, communicative and community based
movement.