Cheat ing: What t he Bible says about it
By Luke V.
You?ve been working on schoolwork for
hours, and you are so close to finishing. All that
stands in your way is a test. You really want to
be done with your school work, so you just jump
straight in without reviewing. About two
questions into the test, you realize you should
have studied. You know you will fail the test, so
you decide to do something that you know is
wrong. You open a new tab, copy the question,
paste it there, and press enter. You find the
answer you need, so you do it for every question
in the test. You get 100%, but you?re being eaten
up morally.
Does this sound familiar?
Why is cheating wrong? First of all, cheating
is sinning; it?s lying. Yeah, I know that sounds
strange, but if you think about it, it kind of makes
sense. Cheating is answering a question you?re
supposed to answer with knowledge you?ve
reviewed and learned yourself. Instead, you
answer it with knowledge someone else has
learned. So you?re lying, and lying is sin.
Additionally, you're stealing from the source
you got the information from, and you?re lying to
your school about the fact you?ve reviewed and
know the information. Ultimately, you've sinned
also against the Lord.
All sin is against the Lord. In Psalm 51:4,
after King David recognizes his own guilt over
killing Uriah and taking Bathsheba to be his wife,
David wrote in his prayer of confession to the
Lord, ?Against you, you alone have I sinned and
done what is evil in your sight, so that you may
be justified in your words and blameless in your
judgment? (ESV). Here we see that all our sin is
not only against those we harm and lie to, but to
the Lord as well.
With this said, we see the reason why we get
all wrenched up inside about cheating. Our
conscious scream that it?s wrong. Cheating is
plagiarism, dishonesty, theft, lying, and,
ultimately, sin against the Lord.
As hard as it is, if this article is convicting you,
you need to repent. But, how do you do that?
Well, start by praying and asking God for
forgiveness, then tell your parents. There will be
consequences, but it?s the right thing to do. Also,
message or call your teachers to tell them what
you've done, and talk to them about it. Not only
will there be consequences, you might have to
redo some assignments. Repentance will be
hard, but it will result in a renewed heart,
because God sent his only son Jesus to die on a
cross to save us from our sins.