Usually anything that has to do with cheating is always a sin. Whether it’s cheating on your taxes, cheating someone on a business deal, or cheating when you’re not married it’s always wrong.
When you cheat on a test you are deceiving yourself and deceiving others and this should not be. Not only is it lying, but it’s also stealing. It’s taking work that is not yours.
Whether it’s plagiarism from a website, passing notes with answers, googling questions on your smart phone, or the old fashioned looking on someone else’s paper, there are principles from Scripture that tell us it’s wrong.
Principles
James 4:17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
Romans 14:23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
Luke 16:10 “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.
Colossians 3:9-10 Don’t lie to each other. You’ve gotten rid of the person you used to be and the life you used to live, and you’ve become a new person. This new person is continually renewed in knowledge to be like its Creator.
It is said one third of teens use their phones to cheat in school. Do not follow the world.
Romans 12:2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
1 Peter 1:14 So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then.
Cheating on an exam is something serious. You can get kicked out of college for it. I know of a guy who had to repeat grades because he tried to cheat on the Fcat. The bad thing about this situation was the guy who couldn’t finish his test was the one who out of peer pressure was giving answers. Never let anyone persuade you to cheat or give them the answers. If they can’t study like you that’s their problem.
Be a good example to others.
1 Timothy 4:12 Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.
1 Peter 2:12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
It’s better to study and get a bad grade than to cheat and get a good grade.
Reminders
1 Corinthians 10:31 So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
Proverbs 19:22 What a person desires is unfailing love; better to be poor than a liar.
