LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, June 4, 2024

There’s one more principle for financial integrity, and it may be the most difficult to live by. It’s found in Proverbs11:18. “The wicked man earns deceptive wages, but he who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward.”

We are to be honest wage earners.

Back on November 05, 2004, I wrote this challenge about financial integrity with regard to wage earning. It bears repeating.

“It seems like a no-brainer to most of us: don’t steal what belongs to someone else. But let’s define what it is that belongs to someone else. The obvious things are tangible- clothing, cars, boats, household goods, etc. Where it gets tough is when we think about the intangible things, i.e. TIME.”

For example, let’s say your boss hires you for an 8-hour day, with two fifteen-minute paid breaks and a one-hour non-paid lunch break. You will be paid $18.00 per hour. You arrive for work at 8:00 AM, and during the next two hours you work hard. You take your first 15-minute break. At 10:25, you finally arrive back at your desk 10 minutes late and work until noon, except for a ten-minute bathroom break which you didn’t do on your paid break. You leave for lunch at noon and return to your desk at 1:10 PM, and refreshed from your lunch break you put in two solid hours of work. At 3:10 you leave for a break and arrive back at your desk at 3:30 PM. During the next 90 minutes you again take five minutes to go to the bathroom, plus spend ten minutes reprogramming a couple of phone numbers on your personal cell phone. You then check out at 5:00 PM to go home.

Question – How much should you be paid?  If you said $144.00, you are guilty of stealing. You did not work 8 hours: you actually worked only 7 hours and 10 minutes. Now, that may sound picky and insignificant, but that $15 you just stole from your employer by making him pay you for personal time adds up to $75 per week, or $3900.00 per year. It is significant, not just from a cost of business perspective, but from a personal integrity perspective.

How much integrity in our finances is enough? Of all the people in the world, Christians should be the best to deal with when it comes to business and financial transactions. Unfortunately, that is not the case most of the time. For some reason Christians can be the most demanding and obnoxious of all people when it comes to money. Maybe it’s because we have put our trust in the deal or the money with which we make the deal rather than in the God who will provide for us richly when we are honest. Let’s consider all of this carefully today.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Monday, June 3, 2024

Here are the next two principles in our study of Wisdom for Financial Integrity. They are found in the following verses from King Solomon’s wisdom writings.

Proverbs 20:14  “It’s no good, it’s no good!” says the buyer; then off he goes and boasts about his purchase.”

Proverbs 11:1 “The LORD abhors dishonest scales, but accurate weights are his delight.”

Proverbs 20:10  “Differing weights and differing measures- the LORD detests them both.”

Proverbs 16:11  “Honest scales and balances are from the LORD ; all the weights in the bag are of his making.”

Principle number two is this – be careful not to take advantage of others. The example Solomon gives is of the person who loves to negotiate for a better price, but carries it to the extreme of actually finding fault with the product or service for which he is paying. Then, after making the deal, he brags about how great the product or service is and what a deal he got. I observed people close to me in my formative years who would actually get angry about not getting a better deal than someone else, or who would use their profession or their position to demand a discount. As a man of financial integrity, I have learned to respect the right of the merchant to sell his product for a fair price. If he chooses to make known through his business practices that discounts are available, I will wisely take advantage of those discounts. But we should never belittle a product or service or manipulate the merchant into giving us a better deal. To me, that proves selfishness on our part, and will not be blessed by the God who requires integrity.

Principle number three is connected to the previous one – we are told to be honest in our business dealings with customers. Have you ever wondered how you can trust the pump at the gas station to dispense the correct amount of gas for the correct price? One of the divisions of our state government is the division of weights and scales, and one of the young men acquainted with our family worked as the district weights and measures guy. He went around and verified all the pumps and scales at all businesses in Western Wisconsin. Because he is doing his job, we can trust the accuracy of our grocery store’s meat department to be selling us the correct weight for the correct price.

I worked in a meat department in high school and college, back in the days when there was no self-serve, pre-packaged meat. Everything was sold over the counter, and it had to be weighed and priced. I remember one of the managers of the meat department being fired from his position because he was caught using his thumb on the scale as he weighed the meat to increase the profit margin. He was cheating people for his own commissions and bonuses. This kind of dishonesty – the kind that is for personal benefit at the expense of another person – abhors the Lord. He detests it.

So next time you have a thrift sale, or sell something on an online marketplace, make sure you are completely honest about the product, and don’t try to make more than it’s worth.  The same principle of honesty that is required in your job applies to your personal life as well.

Pastor John