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| Character Journal No. 8 Truthfulness | |||||||
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| Character Journal No. 8 Truthfulness | |||||||
The Character Journal is a monthly e-zine designed to help parents teach Biblical character qualities to their children. Each month a different character quality will be presented with suggestions for Bible lessons and projects. The length of time you spend teaching these principles to your children each day is not nearly as important as your sincerity and consistency. Begin each time with a relevant hymn or chorus. Then take a verse, theme or story from the suggestions below as the basis for your daily "Bible Time" with your family. Give relevant application of the lesson to your family; and don't forget to ask your children the questions: Who? What? Where? Why? When? and How? Get each member of the family involved by assigning different verses to be read. Finally, conclude your time with family prayer.
Bible Verses Related to Truthfulness
Spend an evening (or several) looking at just one of these verses at a time. Don't forget to ask your children the questions: Who? What? Where? Why? When? and How? Discuss with your family what each verse or story teaches about the character quality; and give vital application of how this quality can be applied to your family. Choose several verses to memorise together as a family.
NOTE: The lists below show the uses of the major Hebrew and Greek words which refer to truthfulness in the Bible. The lexical definitions are taken from Strong's Concordance.
0571 'emeth {eh'-meth}
contracted from 0539; TWOT - 116k
AV - truth 92, true 18, truly 7, right 3, faithfully 2, assured 1, assuredly 1,
establishment 1, faithful 1, sure 1, verity 1; 127
1) firmness, faithfulness, truth
1a) sureness, reliability
1b) stability, continuance
1c) faithfulness, reliableness
1d) truth
1d1) as spoken
1d2) of testimony and judgment
1d3) of divine instruction
1d4) truth as a body of ethical or religious knowledge
1d5) true doctrine adv
2) in truth, truly
0530 'emuwnah {em-oo-naw') or (shortened) 'emunah {em-oo-naw'}
from 0529; TWOT - 116e; n f
AV - faithfulness 18, truth 13, faithfully 5, office 5, faithful 3, faith 1, stability 1,
steady 1, truly 1, verily 1; 49
1) firmness, fidelity, steadfastness, steadiness
08537 tom {tome}
from 08552; TWOT - 2522a; n m
AV - integrity 11, upright 2, uprightly 2, uprightness 2,venture 2, full 1, perfect 1,
perfection 1, simplicity 1; 23
1) integrity, completeness
1a) completeness, fulness
1b) innocence, simplicity
1c) integrity
225 aletheia {al-ay'-thi-a}
from 227; TDNT - 1:232,37; n f
AV - truth 107, truly + 1909 1, true 1, verity 1; 110
1) objectively
1a) what is true in any matter under consideration
1a1) truly, in truth, according to truth
1a2) of a truth, in reality, in fact, certainly
1b) what is true in things appertaining to God and the duties of man, moral and religious
truth
1b1) in the greatest latitude
1b2) the true notions of God which are open to human reason without his supernatural
intervention
1c) the truth as taught in the Christian religion, respecting God and the execution of his
purposes through Christ, and respecting the duties of man, opposing alike to the
superstitions of the Gentiles and the inventions of the Jews, and the corrupt opinions and
precepts of false teachers even among Christians
2) subjectively
2a) truth as a personal excellence
2a1) that candour of mind which is free from affection, pretence, simulation, falsehood,
deceit
How to Demonstrate Truthfulness
to Godto Parents
to your Employers
to your Church Leaders
Some of the above material taken from Character First! Education Series 1, Booklet 3
TRUTH-FALSEHOOD
(A) TRUTH
(1) Preciousness of
# Ps 119:72,127,162 Pr 23:23
(2) Attitude of the Wicked toward
# Isa 59:4 Jer 9:5 Ga 3:1 2Th 2:10 1Ti 6:5 2Ti
3:8
(B) CHRIST THE TRUTH
# Joh 1:14 14:6 18:37
(C) GOD OF TRUTH
# De 32:4 2Sa 7:28 Ps 33:4 146:6 Isa 65:16
# Ro 3:4 Tit 1:2 Heb 6:18
(D) TRUTHFULNESS, the duty of
# Pr 12:19 Zep 3:13 Zec 8:16 Mal 2:6 2Co 12:6
Eph 4:25 6:14
(E) FALSEHOOD
(1) Warnings Against
# Le 19:11 Ps 5:6 31:18 101:7 120:2 Pr 12:22
19:9 21:6
# Col 3:9 Re 21:8
(2) Liars Condemned
# Ps 63:11 Pr 19:5,9 Isa 44:25 Re 21:8 22:15
(3) Examples of
# Ge 3:4 4:9 27:24 37:32 Jos 2:4 2Ki 5:22 Mt
28:13
# Ac 5:8
(F) DECEIT
(1) The Wicked Full of
-- Their words
# Ps 36:3
-- Their Counsels
# Pr 12:5
-- Their kisses
# Pr 27:6
-- Their houses
# Jer 5:27
-- Their hearts
# Mr 7:22
(2) The Prevalence of
# Ps 116:11 Pr 20:17 Isa 28:15 Jer 9:5 17:9 Mi
6:12 Na 3:1
# Ro 3:13
(3) Deceivers, the work of
# Ro 16:18 2Co 11:13 Eph 4:14 2Ti 3:13 Tit 1:10
2Jo 7
# Re 18:23
(G) DECEPTION
(1) Religious Persons guilty of
# Ge 12:13 20:2 26:7 27:19 1Sa 21:2 1Ki 13:18
2Ki 6:19 10:18
# Mt 26:74
(2) General Examples of
# Ge 3:4 Jos 9:4 Jud 3:20 2Sa 13:6 2Ki 5:22 Mt
2:8
The "I Wills" of Truthfulness
Contrast right and wrong ways to report past facts using the five "I Wills" as an outline
Share a personal illustration from your own life of when you were truthful or deceptive. Be sure to emphasise that there were benefits to being truthful and consequences to telling lies.
-Character First! Education Series 1, Booklet 3
He was called "Honest Abe." This sobriquet was given to him at New Salem, Illinois, whither he went to take charge of the "country store" of one Orfutt, in 1831. He was about twenty-two years of age, awkward, bashful, but strictly upright. He took no advantage of the ignorance or necessities of customers, but represented goods just as they were, gave scripture measure and weight, and always hastened to correct mistakes.
One day he sold a bill of goods, amounting to two dollars and six cents, to Mrs. Ducan, living more than two miles away. On looking over the account again in the evening, before closing the store, he found that Mrs. Ducan paid him six cents too much. "That must be corrected to-night," he said to himself; so, as soon as he had closed the shutters for the night, he posted away with the six cents surplus to her house. She was preparing to retire when he knocked at the door, and was very much surprised, on opening it, to see Orfutt's clerk standing there. Apologising for the mistake, Lincoln deposited the six cents in her hand, and slept all the better that night for having corrected the error.
At another time, a woman came to the store late in the evening, when Lincoln was closing it, for a half pound of tea, which was weighed in haste. Immediately after she left, Lincoln locked the store and went home. On returning the next morning, his attention was called to the scales which had a four-ounce weight, instead of eight in them. He knew at once that he must have given the woman a quarter instead of a half pound of tea. Weighing another quarter of a pound, he closed the store and delivered it to the customer, asking her pardon, before commencing the labours of the day.
Such examples of honesty were not overlooked by the public. Men and women talked about them, and extolled the author of them. They led, also, to something more. In that part of the country, at that time, various games prevailed in which two sides enlisted; and it was the custom to appoint an umpire for each game. Lincoln became the universal umpire, both sides insisting upon his appointment on account of his fairness. His honesty won the confidence of all.
One Henry McHenry planned a horse-race, and applied to Lincoln to act as judge...the party against whom his judgment weighed, said, "Lincoln is the fairest man I ever had to deal with. If he is in this country when I die, I want him to be my administrator, for he is the only man I ever met with that was wholly and unselfishly honest."
Dr. Holland said, "When Lincoln terminated his labours for Orfutt, every one trusted him. He was judge, arbitrator, referee, umpire, authority on all disputes, games, and matches of man-flesh and horse-flesh; a pacificator in all quarrels; everybody's friend; the best natured, the most sensible, the best informed, the most modest and unassuming, the kindest, gentlest, roughest, strongest, best young fellow in all New Salem and the region round about."
This is a just encomium; but it never could have been said of him but for his unbending honesty, a quality for which he was known from his boyhood. The honest boy makes the honest man.
When Lincoln became a lawyer, he carried to the bar this habitual honesty. His associates were often surprised by his utter disregard of self interest, while they could but admire his conscientious defence of what he considered right. One day a stranger called to secure his services.
"State your case," said Lincoln. A history of the case was given, when Lincoln astonished him by saying:—
"I cannot serve you; for you are wrong, and the other party is right."
"That is none of your business, if I hire and pay you for taking the case " retorted the man.
"Not my business!" exclaimed I, Lincoln. " My business is never to defend wrong, if I am a lawyer. I never undertake a case that is manifestly wrong. "
"Well, you can make trouble for the fellow," added the applicant.
"Yes," replied Lincoln, fully aroused; "there is no doubt but that I can gain the case for you, and set a whole neighbourhood at loggerheads. I can distress a widowed mother and her six fatherless children, and thereby get for you six hundred dollars, which rightly belong as much to the woman and her children as they do to you; but I won't do it."
"Not for any amount of pay?" continued the stranger.
"Not for all you are worth," replied Lincoln. " You must remember that some things which are legally right are not morally right. I shall not take your case."
"I don't care a snap whether you do or not !" exclaimed the man, angrily, starting to go.
"I will give you a piece of advice without charge," added Lincoln. "You seem to be a sprightly, energetic man. I would advise you to make six hundred dollars some other way."
He undertook the celebrated Patterson trial, a case of murder, supposing the accused was innocent. Before the evidence was all in, he became satisfied that the man was guilty, and withdrew from the case, leaving his partner to conduct it. The accused was acquitted, but Lincoln would not take a cent of the one thousand dollars paid to his partner for services.
Lincoln's professional life abounded with similar incidents, leading Judge David Davis to say, "The framework of his mental and moral being was honesty. He never took from a client, even when the cause was gained, more than he thought the service was worth and the client could afford to pay."
The time came, in 1860, when Lincoln's honesty was needed to save the nation. Slavery threatened to overthrow the Republic unless it was allowed to become universal. North and South there was distrust, alienation, and apprehension. The retiring President had governed for the South, in the interest of bondage. Loyal citizens had lost confidence in public men. The next President must be one whose character would challenge the respect and confidence of loyal people, or the ship of state would go under in the fearful storm gathering. Abraham Lincoln was the man. He could be trusted. Friends of the Union gave him their implicit confidence, and became a unit. His honesty had reached its highest value, and saved the Republic by destroying slavery.
Taken from Gaining Favor with God and Man by William M. Thayer, 1893
Pass It On (Game)
As children sit or stand in a circle, whisper a message in the first child's ear. The first child then whispers it to the next, being careful to accurately report the original message. Each child quietly passes the message to the next until it finally reaches the next child. The last child then tells the message out loud to compare it with the original message and see if everyone was truthful. -Character First! Education Series 1, Booklet 3Penny's unwavering faith in the copybook maxims of his youth roused scepticism in a mercenary age, but his credo underlay his success. At his death in 1971, Penny, 95, left a 1.660-store empire that he built without compromising the stiff principles he had absorbed from three generations of Baptist preacher ancestors. He neither smoked nor drank, and for years demanded the same abstemious conduct from his employees. "I believe in adherence to the Golden Rule, faith in God and the country," he often said. "I would rather be known as a Christian than a merchant."
Until his final illness, he worked regularly at Penny's mid-Manhattan headquarters, where he kept five secretaries busy with volumes of correspondence.
-Time
"But is the measure right?" Clay asked, and on being assured it was right said, "I would rather be right than be president."
-The Watchman Examiner
"Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder." - George Washington
The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." - Macaulay
Five Probing Questions
-Character Clues Game, IBLP
Sources used for compiling this mailing:
