1. Being a Christian in work is being truthful. Following Jesus Christ in our work means being truthful because Jesus is the Truth. If we love the Truth, we also love all truth. Because God is truthful, He loves it when we are truthful and work truthfully.²⁸⁶ From the Holy Spirit we receive the heart, wisdom, and strength to work truthfully.
2. Working truthfully means being pure at heart.²⁸⁷ We have a pure heart when we are sincere, when we truly love and genuinely want to serve God and humanity in our work. Genuineness means that we are undivided, that it comes from our whole being. Purity of heart does not come from the perfection of our will but from accepting God’s will.
3. Working truthfully means not just saying what people want to hear. If we do this, we silence our God-given conscience.²⁸⁸
4. Working truthfully means being completely honest in what we say. We work honestly always and everywhere.²⁸⁹ God abhors dishonesty,²⁹⁰ falsity,²⁹¹ and lies.²⁹² Lying prevents other people from functioning fully as human beings and therefore as God’s creatures.²⁹³
5. Working truthfully means telling the truth. Telling the truth is not only being honest about what we tell but also telling what the other person should know. God hates when we misrepresent, mislead, and deceive.²⁹⁴ To not tell the truth is to cheat and exploit others.
6. Working truthfully means telling nothing but the truth.²⁹⁵ Telling the truth is nothing but telling the only and whole truth. By telling too much, we mislead the other. By exaggerating, we mislead just as much.²⁹⁶
7. Working truthfully means being unprejudiced. Prejudices prevent a clear view. Prejudices prevent us from giving people a fair chance. We can be less prejudicial by seeing and continuing to see ourselves and every other person as creatures of God. Fortunately, God has no prejudices.
8. Working truthfully means working honestly. Working honestly is working without bribery, corruption, or other forms of undesirable influences. A bribe corrupts both the heart²⁹⁷ and the work. God does not take bribes or engage in favoritism.²⁹⁸
9. Working truthfully means not falling for ostentation. God sees and takes us as we are.²⁹⁹ He doesn’t like it when we make ourselves out to be better, prettier, and bigger than we actually are, either to Him or to others. This goes against God. Working truthfully is favoring the inside not the outside, the content not the packaging, the deeds not the (big) words.
10. Working truthfully means addressing injustice. Because we work as God’s representatives, we have a duty to assess whether the things that happen in our work environment serve or hinder God’s purposes. God calls upon us to act as prophets when we observe injustice.³⁰⁰ By addressing injustice in the workplace, we show that we disapprove of and combat evil.³⁰¹ We cannot tolerate evil because evil blasphemes Jesus Christ. We can however accept the one who commits the evil because Jesus Christ, despite our wickedness, also accepts us. Covering injustice under the cloak of love is therefore misplaced love. Addressing and reprimanding one another is neighborly love.
11. Working truthfully means contradicting and confronting others with the love of Jesus Christ. When we rebuke another, we do so as Jesus Christ would. Moreover, we realize that God can use us to speak to this person; therefore, it is quite offensive when we confront another with hostility or false accusations.
12. Working truthfully means being willing to blow the whistle. Jesus was the whistleblower: He blew the whistle about our brokenness. Sincere whistleblowers love the truth. However, we only blow the whistle externally after we have tried unsuccessfully to solve the problem internally. After all, God does not display publicly our own dirty laundry.

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Questions

1. Which Bible verse about truthfulness do I find particularly appealing and provides guidance for what working truthfully means (to me)?
2. To what extent do I agree with the above summary of what working truthfully means?
3. Are there any missing elements in the above list of what working truthfully means? If so, which ones?
4. How would I personally describe what working truthfully means for Christians?
5. How would I describe concretely what working truthfully means for me?
6. To what extent do I subscribe to the idea that truthfulness is an important characteristic/virtue for Christians in their work?
7. To what extent do I subscribe to the idea that truthfulness is an important guideline/principle for the behavior of Christians in their work?
8. To what extent is truthfulness an important virtue and principle for me in my work?
9. How do I experience the importance of truthfulness in my work?
10. Do I work to bring about the truth? Do I do so wholeheartedly?
11. To what extent can I work truthfully in my work?
12. How often have I recently brought the truth to my work?
13. How truthfully do I do my work? How does it show?
14. To what extent do I use truthfulness as a principle for my behavior in my work? Could I illustrate this using the decisions I have recently made in my work?
15. When I look back at my working life, could I say that I have increasingly become more truthful in my behavior?
16. To what extent do people I work with think I act truthfully in my work? What have they said to me about this?
17. To what extent do I think God thinks I act truthfully in my work?
18. How can I become and act more truthfully in my work? How would I do this concretely?
19. Which elements of working truthfully am I going to bring more of in my next working day?
20. What am I going to say in a prayer to God about working truthfully?