What does the Bible say about honesty?

Since such is our new character, let us be true to it in practice. Lying is the common practice of the ungodly, whether to the government, to one's employer, to his friends, or even to one's spouse, but it is totally abominable to God. Let us put it away and speak positive truth and this certainly with other Christians, for we are members one of another. Will my tongue lie to my hand as to what it should do?

Having differing weights is forbidden, one weight being large, the other small, one for selling, the other for buying, so that the user might be able to cheat the other party (v.14). Spiritually too, we should be careful not to have one measure of judgment for a certain case and another measure for another case. Weights and measures must be perfect and just. One pound is to be precisely one pound, one yard precisely one yard. Strict honesty in such things would lengthen the days of an Israelite in the land (v.15). More than this, those who violate such principles of honesty are called by God "an abomination to the Lord your God." God takes full account.

The saving grace of God instructs us to live righteously in the present age. It is far from all that He looks for in a saint. Sobriety He claims, and godliness also. But honesty in our dealings with men is indispensable, the lack of which wholly discredits any profession of piety. It betrays a covetous man, whom the Holy Spirit brands as an idolater (Eph. 5:5), and without inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. How hateful it was to Him of old, we see in the opening of our chapter.

"But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these, cometh of evil." If our words are honest and true, they need no other confirmation than "yes" or "no." The sense of this double mention of yes and no becomes clear from a very similar passage in James 5:12: "Yes" should really mean "Yes," and "No" should really mean "No." All that is more than that is only a sign that one generally does not take the truth too seriously, and therefore "cometh of evil."

We find plenty of that sort of thing in the Old Testament. Not that I defend the falsehood, I do not, though many do. Truth had not then come out. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So in Colossians, we have the injunction, "Lie not one to another," and the ground for this is, "Seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds." No such thing was true or known in the Old Testament. Again, in the same way in Ephesians, we have, "Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour," and the ground given for this is, "For we are members one of another"; that too was not true in the Old Testament. Lying is one of the three characters of sin; but the full light had not shone forth in Rahab's time. And in the law it is not truth that is enjoined, but "false witness against" which is forbidden. Still, it is wrong enough now, though you will find many a Christian thinking it right to do so.

It ought not to be needful to insist also on the absolute necessity of truth, both in word and deed, in the dealings of God's children, both with one another and with the world. They who have been made manifest to God should scorn the vain shelter, under any circumstances, of a refuge of lies. But men (and especially women) lie from kindness not less frequently, perhaps, than from fear or interest or malice; but white lies turn black as night beneath the searching eye of the Father of lights. And truth, which to the believer is Christ, will not only shame its adversaries, but exact also penalties, that must be felt, from its unfaithful friends. We are safe from lying and all other species of baseness only so long as we keep in memory the soul-ennobling reality of our relationship as new creatures in Christ, both to God and to each other in His sight.9

We may here see how God hates false witness; and further, we have to bear in mind that, though we are not under law but under grace, false witness is not less hateful to God; and surely the more fully we enter into the grace in which we stand, the more intensely we shall abhor false witness, slander, and evil speaking, in every shape and form. The good Lord preserve us from all such!

It is insisted that no injustice of any kind should be found amongst Israelites, whether in measurements, weights or volume. Their scales were to be honest, their weights and all measurements. These things are always right, whether in Israel or among Gentiles, as everyone's conscience bears witness. The Christian is glad to conform to such instruction, not because it is law, but because he knows and loves the Lord. Thus it is added here, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” We have been brought by grace out of worse bondage than that of Egypt, and have greater reason to respond in love and obedience to the Lord.

It so happened that the spies found lodging in the home of a woman who proved to be a harlot. Sinful as she was, the Lord had begun a work of repentance and faith in her heart, as her words to the spies proved. It was not lust that led them to her home, but it was God's grace that did so. When the king of Jericho heard that Israelites had come to Jericho as spies, he demanded that Rahab should deliver them to him (v. 3). But she was the one person in that whole city who had been awakened to realize that Israel was serving the true God and that His rights were paramount, so that she decided she must take sides with God against her own nation. When the messengers came to Rahab, she lied to them, telling them that though the men had come to her house, she did not know where they were from and they had left again as darkness was falling (v. 5). The messengers accepted her word for it, and her suggestion that they pursue them quickly.

Was it right for Rahab to lie? No, it is never right to lie. Yet Rahab lied because she had faith in God. Not that faith made her lie, but she could see no other way of protecting the spies. Possibly a more mature faith would have acted differently, for God could work a miracle to protect the spies, if he so chose. The fact that she lied showed her faith, but also showed the weakness of her faith.

"Provide things honest in the sight of all men." The critics tell us that our translation of this verse is not very happy, as it suggests an idea foreign to the meaning of the Greek. Paul does not mean to direct us to make provision for ourselves or families in an honest manner, which is probably the sense commonly attached to the passage by the English reader; but to act in such a manner as to command the confidence and good opinion of men. In this view, the connection of this with the preceding member of the verse is obvious. "We must not recompense evil for evil, but act in such a way as to commend ourselves to the consciences of all men." That transparency of character and conduct in providing things good or comely, which raises the Christian far above the idea of suspicion seems to be the true sense of this interesting clause. We may have heard Christians say when spoken to about something that seemed rather crooked, "Well, I have a good conscience myself on that point, and I don't care what any one else thinks of me." But this spirit is entirely contrary to the spirit of the precept before us, which literally means, "above suspicion before all men." And this agrees with the word of the apostle to the Thessalonians: "Abstain from all appearance of evil." The very opposite of the artifice so often used in order to gain our object. It is not enough that we abstain from what we know to be wrong, but we ought to avoid everything that would be a ground of just suspicion. Thus Paul wished others to be associated with him in the distribution of the alms of the church, "having regard to what was right, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men." 2 Corinthians 8:20-21.