What Does God Say About Honesty? What Behaviors Do the Honest Exhibit?

God says: “Truly I say to you, Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).

We can see from God’s words that God values and treasures honest people, and God clearly tells us that only honest people can enter the kingdom of heaven. So what kind of manifestations do honest people God speaks of have? Just how can we become honest people in God’s eyes? This issue is directly linked to the important matter of whether we will be able to enter the kingdom of heaven. Let us fellowship about this below.

1. Honest People Are Open With God in Everything

God says: “God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).

God’s words show that He requires us to worship Him in spirit and in truth. That is to say, when praying we should speak to God sincerely and from our hearts rather than say some pleasant-sounding words or words contrary to our convictions to conceal something from and deceive God. In real life, however, we often cannot honestly pray to God. For example, some people don’t tell God of their true state in their prayer, and don’t mean what they say, going through the motions to appease God. Some people, when praying, tell God of all the pain they’ve suffered and all the price they’ve paid, wanting God to remember this and bestow His grace and blessings on them. Some people say in prayer that they wish to seek to love and satisfy the Lord wholeheartedly, but behind the scenes they pursue fame and wealth, and the pleasures of the flesh. Some people want to ask God to resolve the difficulties they encounter, and they promise during our prayer to devote themselves to God and say many things in praise of God, but afterward, they act as if nothing ever happened—such prayer is blatantly lying to God. Some people complain in their hearts about the situation God arranges, but they thank and praise God with their mouth instead of speaking of their true state in their prayer—their words are contrary to their convictions, not about factual things spoken from the heart. There are also some people who, when praying, say nice-sounding words before others to have them see that they are good at pursuing the truth and love God—they want to make others think highly of and look up to them through praying. And so on. These prayers that people make with their own individual intentions, goals and demands are not sincere ones. Think carefully: Aren’t we far from being honest people in our prayer?

Therefore, if we want to be honest people in God’s eyes, we should first practice and enter beginning with prayer. When we pray, we should expose our heart to God, speak with honesty, tell the truth, and be open with God in whatever difficulties or corruption. And we should do whatever we say in our prayer, and should be open and upright and show a true representation of ourselves.

2. Honest People Don’t Lie or Cheat

The Lord Jesus said: “But let your communication be, Yes, yes; No, no: for whatever is more than these comes of evil” (Matthew 5:37). Revelation 14:5 also prophesies: “And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.” As can be seen from these words, one of the expressions of the honest is that they speak without intentions or impurities, calling a spade a spade, with their words in accordance with the facts. However, in real life, we still can’t help but tell lies and deceive to protect our own interests, dignity or status. For instance, some people tell lies to disguise themselves to make others look up to and admire them. In order to achieve their goal, some people may speak something that doesn’t fit the reality to flatter others. There are also people who try to hide the true facts once there are problems in their work, which causes losses. These are but a few of many examples.

As can be seen, we tell lies all because we are controlled by our motives. So, if we want to be honest people in God’s eyes, we should first accept God’s scrutiny and self-reflect to discover whether our intentions are right and whether what we want to say conforms to the facts. If we harbor wrong intentions and what we will say isn’t in line with the facts, we should pray to God so we can betray our intentions. If we unconsciously tell lies, afterward we should come before God, pray and repent to Him, and correct these lies. As long as we practice this way, we will gradually enter into being an honest person.

3. Honest People Love God in Their Hearts and Serve God Not for Their Own Profit

God’s words say: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Matthew 22:37–38).

“If you are honest to the point where you know only to satisfy God and not to consider yourself or take for yourself, then I say that such people are those who are nourished in the light and who shall live forever in the kingdom.”

We can see from God’s words that when honest people work and expend for God, they don’t consider or scheme for their own interests, make deals with God, make any demands, or ask for something in return, but instead have faithfulness and obedience to God. They don’t blame or betray God no matter the circumstances. We should look at ourselves in the light of God’s words, and reflect on whether we possess these characteristics of honest people. Though we can work hard for the Lord, is it really done for the sake of loving or satisfying God? While we work toilsomely for the Lord, we still pursue reputation and status and show off ourselves so that others will regard us highly and look up to us—suffering and expending like this is not loving God. Some people work hard for the Lord entirely for the sake of their destination, wanting to gain God’s abundant grace and the blessings to enter the kingdom of heaven through their expending—this also cannot be said to be an expression of love for God but it is tricking and exploiting God. Some people misunderstand and blame God when they encounter natural or man-made disasters, or trials and refinement; this shows that they have conditions for their expending—they can expend for God when God blesses them, allowing them to be comfortable and at ease in everything, while they don’t have faithfulness to God when in adversity. This isn’t an expression of loving and obeying God. From all this, we can see that we have impurities and intentions in our hard work, and that our hearts are not honest at all. We are not honest people who give things up and expend for God with all their heart, mind and soul.

If we want to be honest people in God’s eyes, we should frequently come before God and reflect upon our intentions and impurities in expending for God. Once we discover that we have incorrect intentions or impurities, we should pray and repent to God and begin to expend for God truly for the sake of loving and satisfying Him. Only such people are honest people in God’s eyes.

Those who possess the above three characteristics are honest people in God’s eyes. And only by practicing and entering according to God’s words and becoming honest people in God’s eyes, can we gain God’s approval.