A fresh coat of paint on the back wall, applied the week before the viewings. A dehumidifier quietly removed from the corner before the buyer arrives. A cheerful answer, “No, never had any problems”, to the question about flooding, from someone who spent three nights of last hurricane season bailing water from the living room.
Most of us would not call that lying. We would call it presenting the house well. And yet there is a line somewhere between showing a home at its best and hiding what a buyer or tenant has a right to know. Scripture has an old, vivid picture for what happens when we cross it.
The bag of weights
In the ancient market, goods were weighed on a balance against stones of a set weight. A dishonest trader carried two sets: a heavier one for buying and a lighter one for selling. The customer could not see the difference. The trader got rich a few grams at a time.
The prophets and wisdom writers came back to this image again and again. “A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is his delight” (Proverbs 11:1, KJV). Micah asks, on God’s behalf, “Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?” (Micah 6:11, KJV).
What is striking is how ordinary the sin is. It is not murder or idolatry. It is a small, clever, private advantage in a business deal. God treats it as a matter of the heart, because it reveals what a person really values when nobody is checking.
Modern weights
Property offers plenty of room for deceitful weights. A few that most of us will recognise:
- Rounding up the size of the lot or the house in an advertisement.
- Keeping quiet about a known leak, termite problem or boundary dispute when selling.
- Renting out a flat with faulty wiring and hoping the tenant does not notice.
- Keeping a tenant’s deposit for damage that was there before they moved in.
- A contractor using less steel than the drawings show, or charging for materials never bought.
- A buyer promising a family they will keep the old house “in the family spirit” and planning to demolish it the next week.
Some of these may also have legal consequences, and in many places sellers and landlords have duties to disclose certain things. But the deeper issue is not whether we can get away with it. It is what kind of people we are becoming.
Yes meaning yes
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus cuts through the elaborate oaths people used to make their promises sound more trustworthy: “But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay” (Matthew 5:37, KJV). In other words, be the kind of person whose plain word can be relied upon.
Imagine a housing market full of such people. A seller who says, “The roof leaked above the back bedroom two years ago; we had it repaired, and here is the receipt.” A landlord who says, “The water pressure is low in the mornings; here is what I am doing about it.” A builder who says, “I made a mistake with the setting out; we need to break this out and redo it, at my cost.” None of these statements is comfortable. All of them build trust that lasts far longer than any single deal.
The cost of honesty, and its reward
Honesty can cost money. Disclosing a problem may lower the price or lose a buyer. Admitting a defect may mean paying to fix it. It is easy to argue that everyone else hides things, so we would be foolish not to.
But consider what we gain. We sleep without wondering when the buyer will discover the crack. We keep our good name in the community, which in small places travels fast. We do not carry the quiet weight of knowing that a family’s savings went into a house we knew was flawed. And we honour God, whose delight, Proverbs says, is a just weight.
For reflection
- Is there anything about a property you own, rent out or are selling that you have been tempted to keep quiet about?
- What would it look like for your plain word to be completely reliable in your next deal?
Lord, You delight in a just weight. Search our hearts in the deals we make, the houses we sell and rent, and the work we do. Give us courage to tell the truth when it costs us, and let our yes be yes and our no be no. Amen.
This article is general information only and is not financial, legal, tax or other professional advice. Please speak to a qualified professional about your own circumstances.
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