Humanity has an honesty problem. The problem of dishonesty pervades every aspect of our lives. Dishonesty is why we have locks on our doors, banks, contracts, courts, law enforcement, passwords, firewalls, and the list goes on for eternity. People simply can’t be trusted.
If we’re truly honest with ourselves (which is a challenge) we know that we can’t be trusted. It’s not a “them” problem, it’s a “me” problem. We all suffer from it whether we like it or not. We all do things we regret, we’re unpredictable, we break our commitments, waffle on our priorities, and change like a chameleon in the rain forest based on the conditions around us.
It was against his backdrop that Jesus told his disciples, “Let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no.” Out of faithfulness to Jesus, Christians should be the exception to the rule of human dishonesty. Christians should be trustworthy because Jesus was trustworthy. Over and over again in the Scriptures, Jesus prefaces what he says with “Truly, truly I say to you…” (John 1:51, 3:3, 5:24, 6:47, 12:24, 16:20, 14:12). We must be faithful because God is faithful.
This is the context for the command not to test the Lord (Deuteronomy 6:16). This is the command that King Ahaz invokes in Isaiah 7:11 and Jesus himself while being tempted in the wilderness by Satan (Luke 4:12). God commands us not to test him because we should know, by faith, that he is true to his word. God doesn’t waffle. God doesn’t mislead. There is no falsehood or trickery in God. God’s “yes” is yes and his “no” is no. Testing the Lord is equal to saying, “God, I don’t know if you’re going to be true to your word so I have to test you to verify that what you’re saying is true and dependable.” This is prohibited for people of faith because this is the opposite of faith. The children of God trust their Dad.
What is not prohibited is humbly asking God for clarity, assurance, or help to believe (Matthew 9:23–25). Often it’s not God who we lack faith in but ourselves. We see this in the lives of many of the characters in the Bible. God makes big promises to people. People doubt what God promises not because they doubt he’s capable of, but because they doubt they are able to play a part in so great a vision for the future. Testing God in this sense flows out a mood that says, “Lord, I know you’re true! Help my unbelief!” The heart posture is one of humility rather than of cynicism, doubt, and subversiveness.
There are two major takeaways from this. The first is that unlike people, God is true to his word. He is completely and utterly honest. You can trust him and live out of that trust even when everything in the world seems to contradict what he says. This is hard, but the Holy Spirit will help us.
The second is that Christians must be trustworthy because God is trustworthy. This too is hard, but once again, the Holy Spirit helps us. Being honest means being vulnerable, but lest we forget that God honors those who honor him in all their ways.
