A wicked man receives a bribe from the bosom To pervert the ways of justice. Proverbs 17:23

When someone reverts to bribing others in matters of justice - you can guarantee that they are doing so because they are guilty of the charge that has been brought. That is what we learn from today's proverb of the day.

The "wicked man" to whom this proverb refers is a man who is guilty of the offense with which he is charged. The Hebrew word used here is "rasha" which means someone who is guilty or wrong. It is used of people who are transgressors, criminals, and honestly - who are just plain wicked. The word is an antonym of the Hebrew word "saddiyq" which has as its meaning - to be righteous or in the right. Therefore someone who is turning to a bribe is wrong - and therefore guilty as charged. When used in the Old Testament it refers to those who are enemies of God - and enemies of His people. God is a God of righteousness and justice - therefore anyone who desires to pervert true justice will find themselves an enemy of God.

The phrase ". . . from the bosom" has the idea of someone who is slipping money to another in a secret fashion. This is how most bribes pass hands - through subversive and secretive ways. This happens because the wicked man offering them - and the wicked man receiving them to pervert justice - both do not want to be exposed. Therefore everything is done in a cloak and dagger fashion.

This is done to "pervert the ways of justice." The one offering it is wicked - and the one receiving it is perjerous. They perjure themselves - for they make it clear that truth is not something they value (at least not as much as money). Where such judges rule - there cannot be justice - because the hearts of such men are corrupted by various means to twist justice as the bribes have purchased. In 1973 Charles Ashman wrote a book entitled, The Finest Judges Money Can Buy. This is a very depressing book because it exposes the chronic problem of bribes in our own justice system. In his book Ashman reveals eight judges involved in Mafia-type organizations, ten who were guilty of receiving bribes, sixteen who were guilty of petter larceny, at least six who were guilty of sexual impropriety, seven who were guilty of being drunk on the job, and ten more who have used their position and authority for impure political gain. Those who bemoan the corruption in our nation should see clearly one of the chief reasons it exists - and that is gross corruption in our legal system. This is why God makes it clear to all the judges within the biblical judicial system that they were NEVER to take a bribe to pervert justice. God also promises special judgment upon those who do!

The one thing we can be eternally grateful for is that our ultimate judge is nothing like these men and women who parade as judges, yet have no integrity. He is the One Who sits enthroned - and Whose very throne is founded upon justice and righteousness. He hears and sees all things - and judges accordingly. He is incorruptible and cannot make an unjust decision, for such a decision is contrary to His very nature which is holiness and purity. When it came down to how God would deal with sin, He even judged His only Son when He took sin upon Himself. He is completely and absolutely just and righteous in all that He does. Therefore know that although justice and righteousness may not be given to us here on this fallen earth - we can know that there will be a day when God will judge ALL men according to His righteous standard.

Therefore be of good cheer and be greatly comforted! Your God has the ultimate bar of justice - which will be held before Him alone. In the meantime, we can thank Him daily for His gracious kindness and for His unparalleled love!

He who profits illicitly troubles his own house, But he who hates bribes will live.   Proverbs 15:27

Ours is a society that is quickly becoming corrupt at multiple levels.  It has been sad to watch our country turn from one that valued integrity and honesty, to one that is moving toward the kind of values that exist in a banana republic.  The frequency of elected officials being charged and convicted with fraud is alarming.  The fact that we watch them use their positions of power to enrich themselves with laws they impose on us, while exempting themselves from their own statutes is terrifying.  That is because, as we will learn from today's proverb, those who do such things bring trouble to their own home.  This is true on a personal level, but also on a corporate and even national level too. 

We read that those who profit illicitly trouble their own house.  This simply means that when we choose to leave our integrity at the altar of greed and the pursuit of wealth at any cost, we are going to create serious problems for our family.  This is for several reasons.  First and most importantly is the trouble that is caused for our children and our grandchildren - even to the third and fourth generations of our family.  They watch as we abandon God and embrace the pursuit of riches.  Paul wrote young Timothy and warned that the love of riches is a root of all kinds of evil.  He warns him in the book of 1 Timothy that some who have done this bring harm to themselves and pierce themselves with many a harmful desire.  This will infect our families to several generations. 

We see this in our current immoral business climate in the United States banking and financial sectors.  Hardly a day goes by now without learning about another failure to preserve any moral foundation - as the generation that watched their parents make money and financial security their only goal now take those lessons to new lows.  They are now grabbing all the money they can - in any way that they can - regardless of who is hurt and what businesses are destroyed in the process.  The courts are now filled with men who set up ponzy schemes and who criminally mismanaged funds.  We are learning that raw greed motivated them to steal money that was not theirs.  Oh, and before we get too far away from our proverb, has brought great shame and trouble to their wives, children, and posterity even into the future. 

We are given a protective against this in the second part of this proverb.  The one who hates bribes will live.  He will be protected against the devastating effects of greed.  Bribes blind those who receive them.  They are unable to see the truth because they are focused on easy money that is put in front of them.  The bribe can be anything from the cash handed to a politician to look the other way of pass legislation that gives unfair advantages to certain businesses or groups - to the more subtle bribe that encourages someone to cut corners and cook books to cover their own greed for money.  No matter how the bribe presents itself it is lying to us.  It promises easy money, quick wealth, a way to get whatever we want without hard work and sacrifice.  But the bribe lies to us - not telling us of the pitfalls and dangers that are inherent in living for the world and the flesh.  These two foes of our spiritual growth and maturity are truly deadly - and can not just polute our spirits - but those of many future generations of our family.  That is why we need to protect ourselves from "every kind of greed," as our Lord warns.  For the truth is that a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.  Life comes as we learn to submit every area of our lives to the Lord for Him to use for His glory.  So the next time you are offered a bribe to lay aside biblical principles and values - see it for the dangerous thing it is.  Reject it and turn to the Lord for strength to be content with what you have.  That is the path to life!

A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, And the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.   Proverbs 13:22

What kind of inheritance are you leaving to your children?  What kind of inheritance are you leaving to your grandchildren?  That is what today's proverb wants us to consider.  There is a blessing that we should pass to our families.  From what we read in Scripture there is one that we can pass to several generations if we choose to live as God would have us to live.  Let us take a look at this today.

The good man leaves an inheritance to both his children and his grandchildren.  He approaches his earnings in life in such a way as to use them frugally and save for the future.  This is how he provides an inheritance for his family.  Note that he is called a "good" man - which refers to his character.  In order to be such a man one needs to be selfless and desire to bless his children - rather than to spend it all on himself. 

One thing we need to remember is that God does not promise riches in wealth to all men in equal amounts.  Therefore to say that this refers only to money is foolish.  Solomon laments of the man who had worked himself to death to obtain money, only to leave it to a son who is a fool.  This man may have left wealth to his son, but he forgot to leave him spiritual wealth and wisdom.  Therefore the money he has earned and saved will only be wasted by a son who is a complete moron when it comes to how to live. 

We need to leave our children an inheritance of godliness and wisdom as well as one that we can financially.  Without this our children will suffer far worse than if they miss a few luxuries according to the dictates of society.  There are those who will have wealth, but may spend eterntiy in abject poverty in hell when they die.  This is no inheritance that you want to pass on to your family.  If we leave them with wisdom and with knowledge of the Word and of their Savior Jesus Christ - they will be rich for eternity - even if they don't live on the upper east side in this life. 

The wicked will leave their wealth to the righteous.  This means that although they live wealthy for the few years of this life, they will eventually die and leave all of it to others.  Since they have lived for wickedness, their children will most likely waste their wealth and have it transfer to those who use wise principles in how they do business.  These are those who are godly and good in their business as well as their daily lives. 

There is something that we desperately need to leave to our children and their children.  It is a good thing if we can leave them an inheritance that will help them afford a home or other things financially.  But more importantly is to leave them with an inheritance in the things of the Lord.  This is something that can never be lost.  God promised that a godly man can touch thousands over the lives of his children and grandchildren.  But to do so we need to be willing to invest, not just in stocks and bonds - but in a godly heritage that will take a lifetime to develop and prepare for our families. 

There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, and there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in want.  Proverbs 11:24

What does God think about those who are stingy with their time, their talents, and their  finances?  Here we see two people.  The first is constantly scattering what he has.  He does not hold it tightly to his chest and consider it his own.  He scatters his time to those who need to be encouraged, loved, counselled, built up, and at times rebuked and corrected.  He scatters his talents to the church - to the business he owns or works at - to the community when they need him.  He scatters his finances as he invests in the kingdom of God and into the needs of others around him.  This man is constantly scattering - not just money - but godly influence and the love of God.  He is like a man walking through a barren-looking field - tilled - but without anything on it.  As he walks he does not see the barrenness, but rather what that field can be if someone sows it properly.  His scattering is not just giving away what God has given him.  It is planting.  It may not look like much as he scatters seed everywhere.  But as that seed dies and comes to life first as a seedling, then as a plant, then as a full grown crop, then as a field that is white unto harvest - the man is seen for the wisdom that he had.  He has scattered - yet he increases all the more.  He will increase in influence - in favor with those whom he selflessly loves - in financial strength as God blesses him for his giving - in favor with God as he gives himself to obey the Lord and follow Him fully.  This man will not be poor for scattering what was given to him.  On the contrary - according as he has sown - he will reap thrity, sixty, and a hundred fold.  He will take his talent and not bury it in the ground.  He will invest it - return it to his master - and be put in charge of many things. 

The stingy man's end is much different.  We read that he withholds what is justly due.  There is a pregnant statement if ever there was one.  What is justly due?  For those of us who know the Word of God - we are to give God a tithe of all that we have and produce.  That does not come from the Old Testament Law - although it does teach tithing.  It comes from Abraham's example before the Law was given.  He gave a tenth of all he gained to Melchizedek.  He did so as our example of giving - as well as he is the example of our faith as well.  What is due though is everything!  We are not just to surrender to God 10% and think we are done.  We are to give all that we are and all that we have for God's glory.  But the unwise man withholds what is due.  He is not just a stingy man, he is a selfish man.  Like the unwise farmer he thinks everything is his - to be used as he sees fit - for his own glory and his own selfish ends.  When blessed with a bumper crop he does not consider giving some away.  He chooses to tear down his old barns and build new ones that can keep all his stuff for himself.  He is selfish to his own harm.  The wisdom of God tell us that this man only winds up in want.  The rich fool planned to keep everything for himself and died that very night.  What he gained was nothingness for all eternity.  The rich man who disdained to feed Lazarus with the scraps of his table did not die rich.  He died selfish and self-centered.  He died poorer than Lazarus - for he died and went to eternal punishment in hell.  He had everything he could think of in life - but in death he wound up destitute for eternity. 

Dear saints of God - learn to be one who scatters rather than one who only gathers and holds tighly.  The tight-fisted man will have his hand broken - and his grip crushed in the end.  Everything he thinks he holds tightly to will be gone in an instant.  He will ultimately lose everything.  The generous man who scatters will not lose anything.  In fact his sowing guarantees that a crop will come and a harvest 50 times greater than he had before will come.  Truly the wise man is the generous man - the giving man - the scattering man.  Be that man.

The wicked earns deceptive wages, But he who sows righteousness gets a true reward.  Proverbs 11:18

There are those who spend their entire lives chasing money and riches.  They think that they are receiving good wages for their work and their pursuit.  The sad thing that many do not realize until it is too late is that they are living their lives for something that will disappear the moment they die.  As Proverbs 11:18 warns us, they are earning deceptive wages.  They are placing their hope in something that moth and rust will corrupt, and thieves can break in and steal.  If they were wise, they would seek to sow and reap in a way that would bring them a real return for their labor and their efforts.

We read in today's proverb that the wicked earn deceptive wages.  It is imperative that we recognize immediately that we are dealing with the wicked here.  There are many godly men who are working hard, earning money, and providing for their families whose wages are true and real.  But the wicked are those who reject God - who reject His moral compass - and who reject any authority except their own.  They do not work to bring glory to God - they work to bring glory to themselves.  The wicked play by their own set of rules - and those rules often mock the moral standards that God calls us to follow.  They tend to be ruthless in business.  They cheat and steal and use what God calls, false scales, that deceive those who buy their wares or use their services. 

We are told that the wicked is earning deceptive wages.  These men think they are getting rich, but they are actually going in greater and greater debt every day.  Their money and wealth is an illusion.  Their bank account may look wonderful outwardly - but since money is worthless at the judgment seat of Christ - all that remains is the "way" they got it.  That trail is filled with lying, cheating, and the strewn corpses of all those they trampled upon as they clawed and scratched their way to the top.  Unfortuantely for them the view from the pinacle of their success is the view of hell.  They have received their "reward" on earth in the things of this world and the praise of men.  They have not stored up treasures in heaven - and all those they had on earth are gone in that moment.  Their money has deceived them - and their wages are now being paid in full as they learn the horrible truth that they shall stand before God miserable, blind, naked, and poor. 

The second man revealed to us in this proverb is the righteous.  A wonderful picture is painted for us of this man's activities.  He is a man who "sows" righteousness.  He was not looking for a "quick fix" or a wage that would add to his riches.  He knew that the "wages" of sin is death.  Therefore he knew he needed to "sow" as unto the Lord.  Sowing refers to planting things.  Sowing involves taking what you have and letting it die as you place it into the ground.  But when you do this, it will grow over time into a plant.  You wait and look forward to the time of harvest where you will reap 30, 60, 100 fold what you planted.  The righteous man knows that life is a distance run and not a sprint.  He knows that every day you need to sow according to God's Word.  You sow godly choices and a godly lifestyle that is defined by God's Law - and lived out by Christ's presence and power within.  When you do this you plant in such a way as to harvest for God's glory and honor.  You do not sow to the flesh and the world.  You sow righteousness - and you reap the fruit of the Spirit as God works in and through you.  The man who does this received a "true" reward.  The word "true" here is the Hebrew word "emet" which means true, faithful - and is frequently connected with the idea of lovingkindness.  This is important because the word lovingkindness refers to God's covenant love.  This man is wanting the reward that comes from knowing and loving God.  He wants the reward that is promised by God in His covenant with us.  He is investing in a relationship with God - sowing obedience and submission to Him.  That is why he receives exactly what he has sown.  It is a true reward.  It is a covenant reward.  It is a Scriptural reward.  It is God's reward to the ones who live for righteousness and - for His glory.

He who is guarantor for a stranger will surely suffer for it, But he who hates being a guarantor is secure. Proverbs 11:15

There are at least six different times when Proverbs warns us against being either an guarantor or against surety.  Here we are warned against being a guarantor for a stranger.  The warning we are given by Solomon (and by the Lord) is that we will surely suffer harm for such an action. 

When you guarantee another's debt - you are responsible for their action or their inaction.  If they pay their debt on time, you will have no problem.  If they do not - then you have to pay their debt.  The reality though is that a person who has to ask for a guarantor is usually someone that a bank or a business considers a higher risk.  We should learn from their concern that we too, should be concerned as well.  This is why so many who become a guarantor regret it dearly.  The high risk the bank is unwilling to take - becomes the risk of the guarantor.  It is no shock to learn then that more often than not - the guarantor pays the money in the end. 

But what do you say to someone who comes to you asking for surety - or for you to be their guarantor.  First, you graciously decline citing your desire to be their friend longer than the terms on the loan you are being asked to sign.  When you become a guarantor your relationship with that person changes.  It changes either for the length of the loan or, in the case of thsoe who default on the loan, possibly forever.  Your friend may not like hearing this at first - but they will appreciate that you view a friendship as more important than a loan.  Second, you graciously decline citing Scripture.  You explain that your refusal to become a guarantor is being done because you want to obey God.  In this case their frustration will be with God more than you.  Third, you can encourage them lovingly that desiring something they cannot afford is eventually going to be harmful to them.  Those who take this path consistently pay a much higher price in the years to come.  It is better to control our desires, and keep them within the means that God has given to us.  We may not get whatever we want when we want it - but - honestly, has that ever worked out well for anyone?

The Scriptures counsel us to be those who "hate" being a guarantor.  The reason God tells us this is not to make us stingey.  He says it for our protection, for the protection of the friend or family member who asks, and for the protection of relationships we want to keep far into the future - so we can be of long-term encouragement and blessing to those we love.

It is the blessing of the LORD that makes rich, And He adds no sorrow to it.  Proverbs 10:22

There is a wrong view of wealth that says that God does not bless men with wealth - therefore if anyone has it - they have it due to sin.  This is contrary to what we see written in the Scriptures.  God does make men wealthy.  He blesses some men with the ability to accumulate and make a great deal of wealth. 

Eccleiastes 5:18-19 says the following, "Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one's labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward.  Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God."  God grants people the ability to receive great wealth from His hand - and also grants to them the ability to enjoy it.  This is truly a wonderful gift.  It is also what our proverb today is telling us from the Lord.  It IS the blessing of Jehovah that makes a man rich, and when God grants this - there is also no sorrow with it.

There is often great sorrow that attends the rich men of this world - who have put their hope in these riches - rather than in the Lord.  These men do not enjoy their riches - because that is all that they are living for.  Paul warned young Timothy to beward of living for riches - because when a man loves money - he pierces himself with MANY sorrows.  Not only this, but when a man sets his heart on wealth - it is as if wealth takes up wings and flys toward the heavens.  This is the malady that strikes those who think if they could just get a little more they would be happy.  You see the folly of this when you see men who are billionaires who are not satisfied with their wealth - but struggle and strive to become even richer.  Their lives are consumed by their wealth - and even as the Scriptures tell us - their sleep flies away from them because they cannot stop thinking about their money and how they will continue to protect it. 

God does bless some with wealth.  But we know those when we se that there is no sorrow that comes with it.  They are happy - and do not allow wealth or riches to consume their thinking.  They even use their wealth to bless God and to expand the work of the kingdom here on earth.  Therefore they are among the blessed whom God has given riches - and the ability to enjoy them and use them without harm to themselves.  If you are one of these people - fall on your knees and thank God - for their numbers are few indeed.

"I walk in the way of righteousness, In the midst of the paths of justice, to endow those who love me with wealth, That I may fill their treasuries. Proverbs 8:20-21 

What is the way to wealth in this world?  Today many would see that wealth and earthly riches are attainable by any means possible.  People do very ungodly things in order to get rich.  Yet from what we see here in today's proverb, wisdom says that she wants to give wealth to those who walk in righteousness and justice.  So which way is it?  The world's way or wisdom's way?

First of all we read in this passage that wisdom walks in a righteous path.  The words used here indicate that wisdom always walks this way.  This is the very lifestyle of wisdom - to embrace and to walk in righteousness.  Therefore we can rightly assume that those who receive the wealth that wisdom endows also walk in this way.  Second, we read that wisdom also walks in the middle of the path of justice.  The idea here is not that wisdom is trying to walk in the middle - meaning that wisdom sees the path of justice as a tightrope - and that walking wise is a difficult path to follow because it involves walking with a balance.  The idea is that there is the road of justice - and wisdom drives right down the middle of it.  Wisdom does not hug to one side or the other of the road, trying to live as close to the edge as possible.  Instead, wisdom drives right down the middle - choosing the right way every time. 

Wisdom walks in this way so that she can offer to men true wealth.  When wisdom says this to us, we need to see that she says that she wants to endow those who love her with wealth.  The picture painted though is not that our eyes are on the wealth.  Our eyes are fixed on wisdom.  It is not money we love - it is wisdom.  The wealth that she gives us is simply an offshoot of living for her.  This is emphasized even further by the next statement made here - "that I may fill their treasuries."  For those fixated on wealth and money - they see money as the goal.  For those whose hearts are right - they see that wisdom herself is filling their treasuries.  The wealth is wisdom and her ways - wisdom and her paths - wisdom and the ability to walk and choose rightly and justly. 

Will wisdom gives us money?  There are times when this is true - when making a wise choice will help us immediately in the bottom line of our finances.  But there are other times when the right and just choice will negatively affect our immediate bottom line.  No matter which one it is - the man who truly walks in wisdom and seeks her and her ways is not fixated on his bank account.  He longs for wisdom herself.  He desires for the wisdom of God to fill the treasuries of his heart and mind all his days.  This is the promise of wisdom - not a greed-motivated desire for a fat wallet, but rather a love-motivated desire for the fullness of the mind of Christ as we make every decision of life. 

Better is a little with the fear of the LORD Than great treasure and turmoil with it. Proverbs 15:16

More is better.  That is the attitude of the world toward money.  But the Scriptures tell us a different story.  We learn from Proverbs that it is a far better investment to have the fear of the Lord than it is to have treasure without it.  What is interesting to me as I read this particular Proverb today is that the guy who wrote it was arguably the richest man to ever walk the earth.

We read that a little with the fear of the Lord is a good thing.  The fear of God is a proper reverence for God.  It is not a cowering fear that trembles at the thought that God might strike at any moment.  It is a respect and reverence that puts one in their proper place - and in so doing this encourages in them a proper response to God.  This respect for God will bless in far more ways than money.  Since there is a respect for God Himself, there will also be a respect for His Word.  This respect for the Bible leads us to read it and apply it.  That in turn will bring blessings untold over time.  The fear of God also leads one to have a great distaste of displeasing the Lord or disobeying Him.  Therefore the principles that one reads in the Word will be followed with great caution. 

The other option is to get wealth no matter what is at risk.  We read there is "turmoil" that comes with this great treasure.  Turmoil here means to have confusion, panic, tumult, and distrubance.  There are those who have a tremendous amount of money - yet with their riches they also have incredible trouble as well.  Their family is destroyed - relationships are strained - and since what they truly value is money - they have few real friends.  Instead they have sycophants who hang around them because they think they will be receiving something from them at some point in the future. 

Solomon had a heart for God at the beginning of his reign in Jerusalem.  He had wisdom and turned to seek the Lord.  His heart was geared toward pleasing God - and thus it could be said that he feared the Lord.  But Solomon loved many women - way too many women.  They turned his heart as they had him worship their false gods.  Solomon may have been wealthy and may have had anything his heart desired financially, but he was a man filled with turmoil as he grew older.  His desires ran rampant in his heart - and he became a fool who sought only after his own pleasure.  In the end, his kingdom became more and more difficult to maintain - and his son - who followed his ways wound up losing almost all of it.  If you interviewed Solomon at the end of his days, he would have been a man filled with regret - and also filled with a jaded view of things.  That is exactly what we see in the book of Ecclesiastes.  We watch Solomon looking over everything he had and saying that it all was vanity and like striving after wind.  What we learn from his life is exactly what he wrote in this proverb.  It is better to have just a little while fearing God - than having it all and living in a constant turmoil over it.

Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, When it is in your power to do it.  Do not say to your neighbor, "Go, and come back, And tomorrow I will give it," When you have it with you. Proverbs 3:27-28

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  These are the words that God has left us to help us define how we are to interact with our neighbors.  To help us further there are also proverbs that instruct us how we are to handle specific situations involving our neighbors.  These two verses in Proverbs chapter three are some of those verses that give us that instruction.

This proverb has to do with how we treat our neighbor when we owe him money - in short - this is about how we pay our debts.  The phrase "from those to whom it is due" means to those who are its rightful owners.  The word "those" is the Hebrew word "baal" which means a master or an owner.  Some want to make this passage about taking care of the poor - and while there are many verses that instruct us to do just that - this is not one of them.  It is about withholding good from the owner who is present.  If this were not about repayment of debts - we might have an interesting time defining the "one to whom it is due." 

When we legitimately owe someone money - we need to repay it.  Since we have incurred the debt - they deserve to receive from us what we owe them.  Most debts in our world are negotiated debts - so there is a payment that is due each month or week.  It is our responsibility to give them the money on time.  If our financial obligation is due - it is sinful for us to ask our creditor to wait till tomorrow to be paid.  This is especially true if we have the money with us.  This is what is means when we read that we have it is our power to do good toward them.  The good is to be faithful to pay our debt in an acceptable amount of time. 

We are told in verse 28 that it is a sinful thing to tell our neighbor that we will pay them tomorrow when we have the money with us today.  Thus to wait out a creditor because we have something to gain - or because we may not want to part with our money today - is sin.  If we have the money with us - we need to pay it to the person we owe immediately.  The way we pay our bills is a testimony to our faith in the Lord.  If we are constantly late with our bills and are not wise with our money - it is a very poor testimony to the Lord.  To pay our debts wisely and regularly lets the world around us know that we manage our money well.  The truth is that it is not "our money" anyway.  It is money that God has entrusted us with for the sake of using it for His glory.  When we handle our financies this way - we do Him honor and remind those around us that Christians are trustworthy, faithful people.  When we do not - great shame is brought to God's name.  May God always grant us to be the people who are the former - and who honey and magnify God with how we handle His money and pay our debts.