On Fox News the other morning, I heard them tell a story about a pharmacy who accidently overbilled the government for a medicaid claim almost 1 million dollars. The pharmacy caught the error and notified them of the error and wanted to know what to do to return the money. The government told them just to keep it and then just keep track of what they bill them and just subtract it out of the million. Don’t you wish that would happen to you?
What would you do?
Read Leviticus 6:2-5. Notice that all the instances of dishonesty relate to our neighbor yet, it is called a sin against the Lord. Remember I said one time that everything we do is spiritual? Since we are not only physical beings, but also spiritual beings everything we do has a spiritual context. God demands complete honesty. He tells us that when we sin against others, we sin against God. Doesn’t leave much wiggle room, does it?
Now, look at the penalty for being dishonest. God says we should pay the amount we were dishonest about plus a 20 percent penalty. That’s pretty stiff until you remember that the real penalty for sin is death. 20 percent doesn’t seem so much does it?
Have you ever bought something at a store and then realized that they undercharged you, or didn’t charge you for something? Did you go back and bring the discrepency to their attention?
The pharmacy did the right thing in trying to return it as soon as they caught the error. In my opinion, that isn’t dishonesty. But once they tell you to keep it, what do you do?
If you don’t attend my class, leave a comment on what you would do. If you do attend my class , we can talk about that on Sunday. See you there!
David, It’s a long drive to class for me, so I won’t be able to attend. To answer your question, “What would I Do?”, I would not charge the goverment until I made up that one million dollar error.
Your Brother and Friend, Paul