Pondering Proverbs – Leadership (4)

 

“A false balance is an abomination to Yahweh, but a just weight is His delight.” Proverbs 11:1.

 

I have a friend who owns and operates an auto repair business to whom I recently mentioned Proverbs 11:1. He said to me, “I think of that verse every time I bill a customer. I want to make sure that I am fair with everyone.”

 

In my business career I thought of that verse in my dealings with customers, vendors, clients, and employees. And yes, as a pastor I also knew that I was called to serve without favoritism or with regard to my personal benefit.

 

I have a friend who is a pastor who was once offered substantial money for his struggling congregation if he would change elements of his teaching and ministry. He replied, “I have been bought once by the blood of Jesus, and I’m not going to be bought again.” When we live under the ownership of Jesus Christ, He becomes our justice and equity, for He is Righteousness and Justice and Equity, and just scales are grounded in Him. Christ does not change, but is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8), and in Him we learn not to change – including not changing the scales by which we live.

 

On the other hand, I have sadly known pastors who evaluate others by their financial giving. These pastors have forgotten James’s admonition, “My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.” (see James 2:1 – 7).

 

Not long ago I was in a self-service checkout line at a mega retailer when a man carrying a case, with a badge identifying himself with the state Bureau of Weights and Measures asked me if he could step in front of me for just a minute. Of course I agreed and then I watched him open his case and place various weights on the checkout scale to verify the scale’s accuracy. When I later mentioned this to Vickie she told me that the retailer in question had recently been caught overcharging their customers by using inaccurate scales.

 

O dear friends, if the Bureau of Weights and Measures goes about checking to see if we are using just scales in our businesses, are we so foolish to think that God does not know when we use unjust scales in our lives? Consider the man with the writing case in Ezekiel 9:1 – 11, to whom Yahweh says, “Go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst.”

 

The sons and daughters of the Living God are called to live righteously and justly, proving themselves to be “blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world…” (Phil. 2:15). Lying and cheating and playing favorites and using unjust scales may be the way of the world, but it is not the Way of Jesus Christ and it is not to be our way.

 

And this means that we apply just scales to ourselves, that we make no exceptions when it comes to ourselves. Psalm 15 begins with the question, “O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill?” Part of the answer is, “He who swears to his own hurt and does not change…” (verse 4c). This means that we tell the truth to our own detriment! We tell the truth even when it hurts us!

 

Now let me be quick to say that in the long run telling the truth never hurts us, for telling the truth is living within our union with Jesus Christ, telling the truth is confessing Him with our words and actions – whereas lying is repudiating the life of Jesus Christ within us. Do we want to live as children of the Light, or do we want to align ourselves with the devil – who is a liar and thief and murderer?

 

As far as I can tell, we all have opportunities to tell the truth to our own hurt – for none of us, as far as I can tell, are perfect. Telling the truth is using just scales, for I certainly want others to tell me the truth, and I certainly will take issue with others if they lie to me – so how can I expect others to tell me the truth if I will not tell others the truth? Would this not be using a double standard, an unjust scale?

 

When is the last time you heard a political leader, a church leader, an institutional leader, a business leader, say - “I was wrong”? Whether in government, politics, business, education, church, sports…in every sphere of life, we have “spin” and excuses and reasons to justify our ungodly and immoral and unethical actions – and it seems to always be someone else’s fault. We are masters at using unjust scales…which are an abomination to God.

 

Where do we see leaders, when confronted with their sin, say with King David, “I have sinned against the LORD”? (2 Sam. 12:13). Where do we see repentance, as we see in King David in Psalm 51?

 

In the political realm we are more interested in destroying the opposition and justifying our own thinking and behavior than in being truthful and honest with ourselves and others – for again, when do we see self – criticism and telling the truth and humility? When do we see just scales in politics, economics, in business? In education? In life? In the professing church?

 

Well, to live as citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:20) means, in part, that we use just scales throughout life, in every facet of life – for again, just scales have their foundation in Jesus Christ.

 

Am I using just scales in every facet of my life?

 

What about you?