Honesty... The Foundation For All Virtue
Honesty in Everyday Life
Honesty shapes our character and builds trust in relationships. It helps us reflect on our actions and decisions, fostering personal growth while inspiring those around us to do the same. Embrace honesty, and watch how it transforms your spiritual life and connections with others.
The Path to a Close Relationship with God
When we are honest about ourselves, we are loving God with our heart, soul, and mind. By acknowledging our shortcomings and failures, we permit the Lord to shower us with His grace and compassion. We have to start by making an accurate assessment of where we fall short. The 12 virtues tell us some of the things we need to put at the foot of the cross. January is devoted to the virtue of honesty, but it actually pertains to all virtues since an honest self-assessment about all the virtues is the foundation. My hope is that we start on this journey together by reading and reflecting on the daily scripture passage and praying the Litany of Honesty. Please join this effort to “spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24).
January 1, 2025
Galatians 4:4-7
But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir.
January 2, 2025
1 John 2: 22-28
Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he has promised us, eternal life. I write this to you about those who would deceive you; but the anointing which you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that any one should teach you; as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in him. And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.
January 3, 2025
Philippians 4:8-10
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
January 4, 2025
1 John 3:7-10
Little children, let no one deceive you. He who does right is righteous, as he is righteous. He who commits sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God commits sin; for God’s nature abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. By this it may be seen who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not do right is not of God, nor he who does not love his brother.
January 5, 2025
Ephesians 4:25
Wherefore put away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members of one another. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.
January 6, 2025
1 John 4:6
Beloved, do not trust every spirit
but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God,
because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
This is how you can know the Spirit of God:
every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh
belongs to God,
and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus
does not belong to God.
This is the spirit of the antichrist
who, as you heard, is to come,
but in fact is already in the world.
You belong to God, children, and you have conquered them,
for the one who is in you
is greater than the one who is in the world.
They belong to the world;
accordingly, their teaching belongs to the world,
and the world listens to them.
We belong to God, and anyone who knows God listens to us,
while anyone who does not belong to God refuses to hear us.
This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.
January 7, 2025
Luke 16: 10-15
10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
13 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
14 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.
January 8, 2025
Proverbs 28:13
People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.
January 9, 2025
1 John 4:19-5:4
We love, because he first loved us. If any one says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.
Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and every one who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith.
January 10, 2025
1 John 5:5-13
Who is it that overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the witness, because the Spirit is the truth. There are three witnesses, the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has borne witness to his Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. He who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne to his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life.
I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
January 11, 2025
Proverbs 20:23
The Lord detests double standards; he is not pleased by dishonest scales.
January 12, 2025
Proverbs 6:16-19
There are six things the Lord hates–no, seven things he detests: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness that pours out lies, and a person who sows discord in a family.
January 13, 2025
Ephesians 4: 22-29
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26 “In your anger do not sin”[d]: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold. 28 Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.
January 14, 2025
Zechariah 8: 14-18
14 “For this is what the Lord of armies says: ‘Just as I determined to do harm to you when your fathers provoked Me to anger,’ says the Lord of armies, ‘and I have not relented, 15 so I have again determined in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Do not fear! 16 These are the things which you shall do: speak the truth to one another; judge with truth and judgment for peace at your [h]gates. 17 Also let none of you devise evil in your heart against another, and do not love [i]perjury; for all these things are what I hate,’ declares the Lord.
January 15, 2025
James 3: 3-6
3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
January 16, 2025
Hebrews 3: 12-15
See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. 15
January 17, 2025
Psalm 101: 7
7 No one who practices deceit
will dwell in my house;
no one who speaks falsely
will stand in my presence.
January 18, 2025
Proverbs 21: 2
2A person may think their own ways are right,
but the Lord weighs the heart.
January 19, 2025
James 3: 13-16
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
January 20, 2025
2Timothy 3 :1-5
3 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
January 21, 2025
2Timothy 3 : 6-10
6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7 always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9 But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.
January 22, 2025
2Timothy 3 : 12-17
12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
January 23, 2025
1Timothy 1: 3-7
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer 4 or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith. 5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6 Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk. 7 They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.
January 24, 2025
Revelation 21: 6-8
6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
January 25, 2025
Matthew 7: 1-5
Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3 Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
January 26, 2025
Proverbs 21: 6
Wealth created by a lying tongue is a vanishing mist and a deadly trap.
January 27, 2025
Hebrew 10:26
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.
January 28, 2025
John 8:32
And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
January 29, 2025
John 1:14
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seenHis glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
January 30, 2025
Psalm 25: 5
Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.
January 31, 2025
2Timothy 2: 14-18
14 Keep reminding God’s people of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen. 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. 16 Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. 17 Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18 who have departed from the truth.
Litany of Honesty
Declaration: Lord, You have taught us that the truth will set us free.
Response: Guard us from enslaving ourselves with deceit.
Declaration: Jesus, You are the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Response: Give us the strength to follow the path of truth in our lives.
Declaration: Lord, You call us to be salt and light.
Response: Forgive us for the times we have peppered our lives with darkness.
Declaration: Jesus, You were without deceit.
Response: Help us to be truthful in all we say and do.
Declaration: Lord, Your peace surpasses all understanding.
Response: Teach us to realize that dishonesty causes chaos.
Declaration: Holy Spirit, You guide us in all truth.
Response: Grant us the courage to always speak the truth.
Declaration: Lord, you implore us to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Response: Guide us to be honest and foster love, respect and trust in our relationships.
Declaration: Jesus, you seek to build us up and give us new life.
Response: Keep us from tearing down others with lies and gossip.
Declaration: Lord, You are the source of all goodness.
Response: Help us to realize the evil of dishonesty.
Declaration: Jesus, You were courageous about speaking the truth.
Response: Embolden us to confront sowers of confusion and false teachers.
Declaration: Lord, You have taught us that no human being can tame the tongue.
Response: We plead you restrain what we cannot restrain.
Together: Lord God, we ask you to help us love you with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Through Christ our Lord, Amen.