Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, "Teacher, what should we do?" (Luke 3:12 NRSV Bible)
You have probably heard about tax collectors in Jesus' day. They collected taxes on behalf of the Roman government. They were despised as collaborators. They were also infamous for their lack of ethics. They would add extra fees to the amount they collected. This generally made them quite prosperous. John does not tell them to give up their jobs. After all, somebody has got to do this dirty business. What he tells them is to exercise honesty in their work. They are in a position of trust. They need to honor that trust.

Christine Sommers published an article sometime back titled "Ethics Without Virtue." In this article she criticized the way ethics is being taught in American colleges. She pointed out that students taking college ethics classes debate abortion, capital punishment, DNA research, and the ethics of transplant surgery, while they learn almost nothing about private decency, honesty, personal responsibility, or honor.

A colleague of hers did not like what she said in that article. The colleague told her that in her classroom, she would continue to focus on issues of social injustice--women's oppression, corruption in big business, and transgressions of multinational corporations in Third World countries. The colleague explained, "You are not going to have moral people until you have moral institutions. You will not have moral citizens until you have a moral government."

At the end of the semester, that same colleague came into Ms. Sommers' office carrying a stack of exams and looking very upset. "What's wrong?" she asked. Her colleague said, "They cheated on their social justice take-home finals. They plagiarized!" More than half of the students in her ethics class had copied from secondary sources. "What are you going to do?" she asked. Her colleague said, "I'd like to borrow a copy of that article you wrote on ethics without virtue.

An important way for us to prepare for Christ's coming is by living trustworthy and honest lives.

Lord Jesus, you honored me by coming to be my savior. May I honor you by being trustworthy and honest. Amen.

Ron Newhouse

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