Perfectly Honest – Alma 27:27

The Nephites provided land and protection to a group of refugees fleeing religious persecution. The Nephites also benefited from this transaction, because the people they had welcomed into their land were spiritually strong and had a positive influence on their benefactors. Among other qualities, Mormon tells us that they were “perfectly honest and upright in all things.”

What does it mean to be perfectly honest? I think part of the meaning is to be as honest in seemingly small things as in seemingly significant things. As Howard W. Hunter taught:

There are some who will admit it is morally wrong to be dishonest in big things yet believe it is excusable if those things are of lesser importance. Is there really any difference between dishonesty involving a thousand dollars or that which involves only a dime? Is there any difference in principle between a little white lie and the perjury of a witness in a court of law or before a congressional investigation committee under oath? Are there really degrees of dishonesty, depending upon whether or not the subject is great or small? (“Basic Concepts of Honesty,” New Era, February 1978)