We are a few weeks into a new school year, and we have a congregation that contains many students. Not only are there many students here, but there are many students here who are enrolled in very challenging programs—programs where failure is often a real possibility.
Now in every demanding circumstance, when you have a good number of people, there will be temptations to cut corners—to lie, cheat, and steal—and there will be those who fall to those temptations.
If you are under pressure to perform well, and you do not know if you can really do it, then the opportunity to shave the edges will arise. You can count on it. Prepare yourself, and seek God’s kindness in protecting you.
If you have already stumbled, what do you do? If you have lied about a completed reading, or looked on someone else’s paper, or taken work off the Internet to pass it off as your own, or anything else like this, what do you do? The first thing to note is that the time of confession here at church—apart from a commitment to put it right in an earthly way—will not help you at all. Loving God and loving your neighbor go together, and you can’t get right with God while refusing to put things right for your neighbor.
And, at the same time, once you have put things right, any guilt beyond that is false guilt, and is another distinct temptation from the enemy.