Blue Umbrella Official Feb 2020 issue | Page 3

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.