Honesty is marked as being free from deceit or untruthfulness, being sincere.

The Christian life should be one marked with integrity and honesty, yet because we all sin and find it easy to do so, honesty is something we must work hard at! A honest life is important on so many levels from relationships with spouses and children, at our workplace, and interacting with our neighbors. Matthew 7:16 tells us that we are known by our fruit. Let us be examples of a God of truth and life by living lives of integrity and truthfulness. Read the below Bible verses on honesty and remember God's blessings on those who live by truthful words and actions!

2 Timothy 2:15

15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

Colossians 3:9

9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices

Ephesians 4:25

25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

JEREMIAH 17

Judah’s Sin and Punishment

1“The sin of Judah

is inscribed with an iron chisel—

engraved with a diamond point on their stony hearts

and on the corners of their altars.

2. Even their children go to worship

at their pagan altars and Asherah poles,

beneath every green tree

and on every high hill.

3. So I will hand over my holy mountain—

along with all your wealth and treasures

and your pagan shrines—

as plunder to your enemies,

for sin runs rampant in your land.

4. The wonderful possession I have reserved for you

will slip from your hands.

I will tell your enemies to take you

as captives to a foreign land.

For my anger blazes like a fire

that will burn forever.”

Wisdom from the Lord

5This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans,

who rely on human strength

and turn their hearts away from the Lord.

6They are like stunted shrubs in the desert,

with no hope for the future.

They will live in the barren wilderness,

in an uninhabited salty land.

7“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord

and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.

8They are like trees planted along a riverbank,

with roots that reach deep into the water.

Such trees are not bothered by the heat

or worried by long months of drought.

Their leaves stay green,

and they never stop producing fruit.

9“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,

and desperately wicked.

Who really knows how bad it is?

10. But I, the Lord, search all hearts

and examine secret motives.

I give all people their due rewards,

according to what their actions deserve.”

Jeremiah’s Trust in the Lord

11. Like a partridge that hatches eggs she has not laid,

so are those who get their wealth by unjust means.

At midlife they will lose their riches;

in the end, they will become poor old fools.

12. But we worship at your throne—

eternal, high, and glorious!

13. O Lord, the hope of Israel,

all who turn away from you will be disgraced.

They will be buried in the dust of the earth,

for they have abandoned the Lord, the fountain of living water.

14. O Lord, if you heal me, I will be truly healed;

if you save me, I will be truly saved.

My praises are for you alone!

15. People scoff at me and say,

“What is this ‘message from the Lord’ you talk about?

Why don’t your predictions come true?”

16Lord, I have not abandoned my job

as a shepherd for your people.

I have not urged you to send disaster.

You have heard everything I’ve said.

17Lord, don’t terrorize me!

You alone are my hope in the day of disaster.

18Bring shame and dismay on all who persecute me,

but don’t let me experience shame and dismay.

Bring a day of terror on them.

Yes, bring double destruction upon them!