Cheating to Win

There was a time in the Western world when honesty and integrity were highly valued and intentionally cultivated.

People used to say, “You have my word,” and you knew they meant what they said. But our world is losing many basic moral values. Lying and cheating are too often considered normal. The annual Berlin Marathon —with a length of 26 miles, 385 yards (42.2 kilometers)— is one of the largest and most popular road races in the world. On September 10, 2000, a group of thirty-three runners skipped some of the timekeeping stations. They started off running normally, but after some time, they disappeared only to reappear near the finish line. It turns out they decided to take a shortcut, riding the subway instead of running. But their plan did not work —they forgot about the computer chips they were wearing, which automatically recorded their time every 3 miles.

All thirty-three runners were disqualified, and their times removed from the final race results. Cheating has become a common practice in many cultures, and sometimes it’s even perceived as cleverness.

But as faithful Christians, we cannot accept cultural practices that undermine the universal principles of God’s Word. Remember, “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity” (Proverbs 11:3, NIV).

God calls us to be honest in a dishonest society. We must not sell our souls at any price. Keep in mind Ellen White’s words: “The greatest want of the world is the want of men—men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.”23 May you and I be people of integrity and honor!