Audio Transcript
You’re sitting at your desk, running the numbers, and your boss has made it clear: If you want to hit your quotas, you’re going to have to bend the truth — just a little. Leave out a detail here; mislead a client there. If you don’t do it, you could lose your job, and your family is counting on you. But if you do do it, you would compromise the truth, and you know it. How can you survive a high-stress, cutthroat industry without selling out your soul? Today on Ask Pastor John: When your boss expects you to lie.
The question is from a 35-year-old man in sales: “Pastor John, hello and thank you for this podcast! My high-pressure job requires me to mislead clients to meet quotas. That’s the blunt reality. Jesus says in Matthew 5:37 that my ‘yes’ should be a firm ‘yes.’ I should mean what I say. To mislead is evil, and I don’t think any good can come from being evil, as Paul says in Romans 3:8. And if I am a new creature in Christ, I should not lie to others, as Colossians 3:9 says it. I tell my children all these things. So, how do I live out this life of honest virtue in such a cutthroat industry that requires coercive practices? Is it permissible to be reserved and not always forthright with clients about what I know? If I refuse to compromise, I risk losing my job, and my family depends on my income. How do I navigate ‘small’ daily compromises without losing my integrity?”
There’s a connection between faith in the promises of God, on the one hand, and obedience to the commandments of God on the other. That’s the crucial thing to see. All disobedience — little or big — is owing in some measure to a lack of faith in the promises of God, and not trusting God to fulfill his promises is a vote of no confidence in God. If God says not to steal, but we steal, it’s because we don’t trust him to take care of us. If God says, “Don’t be anxious,” but our behavior is governed by anxiety, it’s because we don’t trust his promise to meet our needs. If God says not to lie or bear false witness, and we fudge on the truth, it’s because we don’t trust him to work everything together for our good. Faith and obedience go together.
Costly Obedience
Disobedience is a sign of unbelief. Psalm 84:11 says, “The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.” If we don’t walk uprightly, it’s because we don’t believe this. We don’t believe this promise that he won’t withhold anything good from us.
Of course, the Lord may require you to have great sacrifices for the sake of your integrity and faith. Jesus said, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). He also says in John 12:24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
Obedience is costly — it always is sooner or later. But it doesn’t cost your joy. It doesn’t cost your significance, your integrity, or your salvation. Those are all intensified. Even though we may have to make sacrifices in order to walk uprightly and maintain our integrity, God won’t withhold from us what is most precious: himself, his fellowship, his salvation, his love, his care, the ability to do the will of God, to glorify his name, and to experience profound joy — no matter the cost.
Commit Your Way
Listen to these amazing promises that God gives to you directly to encourage you to do the right thing, to take the risk, to maintain your integrity, and to be a clear witness for him. For example, Psalm 37:5–6 says, “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.”
I remember my father telling me how, when I was six years old, he faced a terrible financial crisis that might have meant bankruptcy and losing everything because of a bad real-estate investment. He told me that the main lesson he learned was the difference between submitting to the Lord and committing his way to the Lord. What he meant was when you commit your way to the Lord, you do the right thing, you go the right way, and you totally hand over — commit — the consequences to God and trust him to vindicate your integrity. And he did.
“Obedience is costly. But it doesn’t cost your joy. It doesn’t cost your significance, your integrity, or your salvation.”
That’s what Jesus wants us to believe when he says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). Doing the right thing may be costly, but you will have what you need — what you need to do his will, what you need to glorify his name. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10). He’s a shield to those who walk in integrity. He will protect you from things that are far worse than financial stress or ruin. You get a shield; you get heaven.
And think of the good that will come to your children. If you only think of the material costs and what they may go without, you’re forgetting the deep, lasting lessons your children will get from seeing their father do the right thing at great cost. Proverbs 20:7 encourages, “The righteous who walks in his integrity — blessed are his children after him!” What a blessing to have a dad who does the right thing, not a dad who compromises.
In Good Company
Also, what a warning the Bible gives us about little compromises leading to great sins and great disasters. King David takes an innocent stroll on his roof, then a lustful glance, then adultery, then an attempt to deceive his friend, then murder, and finally the death of the child (2 Samuel 11–12). Little compromises lead to big tragedies.
But on the other hand, what wonderful examples the Bible gives us of people who did the hard thing and risked their own hurt.
O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?
Who shall dwell on your holy hill?He who walks blamelessly and does what is right
and speaks truth in his heart;
who does not slander with his tongue
and does no evil to his neighbor,
nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
in whose eyes a vile person is despised,
but who honors those who fear the Lord;
who swears to his own hurt and does not change. (Psalm 15:1–4)
In other words, you keep your word at any cost. If you do that, you will dwell on God’s holy hill. It may be costly. He calls it “hurt” — “swear to your own hurt.” But you’ll be with God on his holy hill. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego kept their integrity when thrown into the fiery furnace (Daniel 3). Daniel kept his integrity when thrown into the lion’s den (Daniel 6). Joseph kept his integrity by not sleeping with Potiphar’s wife and was thrown into prison (Genesis 39). Esther kept her integrity and said, “I’m going to do the right thing, and if I perish, I perish” (see Esther 4:16).
All these examples are meant to help us trust God’s promises, in little and big things, and to do his will no matter what. I am praying for you. I am praying that you will do the right thing and that you believe Philippians 4:19: “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Your joy will be deeper, and Christ will be honored.
