Treachery Never Ends Well

Woe to you, destroyer, who yourself have not been destroyed; you treacherous one, with whom none has dealt treacherously! When you have ceased to destroy, you will be destroyed; and when you have made an end of dealing treacherously, you will be dealt with treacherously.

Isaiah 33:1

We have all heard the saying “there is no honor among thieves”.

Yet why should there be any such honor? How could one thief possibly trust another?

A thief by definition sees what is not his, desires it, and simply takes it. A thief by definition has no regard for anyone but himself, no thought but his own want, his own desire, his own selfish gratification.

A thief by definition lives entirely in the moment. What he wants now he takes now. What he will want later he will take later. Having no thought but his own want, his own desire, his own selfish gratification, he can have few if any productive thoughts about either the future or the past, and so he is perpetually focused on the present.

A moment’s reflection is all that is needed to see that this is necessarily how it must be for anyone who deals treacherously with the world. By definition, treachery is a violation of one’s word, a deliberate breaking of a promise. The treacherous man is by definition no different from the thief in that he has no regard for anyone but himself, no thought but his own want, his own desire, his own selfish gratification.

But one more moment’s reflection is all that is needed to see the problem within such self-centered thinking: our wants and our desires are inherently fickle, existing only in the moment.

What we want today is different from what we wanted yesterday. What we want tomorrow will be different still from what we want today.

What we want in any moment has little or no bearing on what others around us might want. What they want is likely to be in a similar constant state of flux and change.

Thus if we focus solely on our own wants, our own desires, our own selfish gratifications, we are necessarily at odds with all those around us.

If we want what others happen to want, or happen to have, we can very quickly be in direct and even violent conflict with others.

When we want what others do not want, when we pursue what others reject, we quickly find cooperation, collaboration, and mutual effort of any kind difficult if not impossible. Cooperation collaboration, and mutual effort of any kind necessarily presume a shared want or a shared goal—some objective jointly held by all who are involved in such effort.

If pursuing our wants impedes the pursuit by others of their wants we very quickly can again find ourselves in direct and even violent conflict with others.

One does not need to be a deep philosopher or a devoutly religious person to see that there is a natural, inevitable, link between greed and violence, between treachery and conflict. Every act of thievery, every act of treachery, every word violated and every promise broken is invariably an attack on someone.

If we steal, we attack someone. If others steal from us, we are attacked.

If we break our promises, we attack those to whom we made the promises. When other break their promises made to us, we are again attacked.

If we are attacked—when we are attacked—the natural and appropriate response is to defend. Violence necessarily begets violence.

If we attack others, the natural and appropriate response again is to defend. Violence necessarily begets violence.

Treachery thus leads inevitably to violence, even if the immediate act of treachery itself is not violent. Treachery invites treachery, and therefore recommends conflict and violence.

We are not called to treachery and violence. We cannot build healthy and sane communities with treachery and violence. We cannot prosper and grow as human beings with treachery and violence.

We certainly cannot reverence and honor God with treachery and violence.

There is no doubt that we are called to build healthy and sane communities. There is no doubt that we are called to care for one another as we care for ourselves—that is how we may truly prosper and grow.

There is no doubt that we are called to reverence and honor God.

Therefore there is no doubt that we are called to put aside treachery, put aside thievery, put aside conflict and especially put aside violence.

We are called to deal with one another honestly, justly, and always with love.

We are therefore called to put aside selfish thoughts and greedy desires. We are called to weigh the needs of others as well as our own in choosing our actions. We might be tempted by selfish thoughts and greedy desires, but if we are honest with ourselves, we can see that selfish thoughts and greedy desires are exactly that: selfish and greedy.

If we can see that our thoughts are selfish and greedy, we can choose to focus our minds elsewhere, cultivating thoughts which are neither selfish nor greedy. We can focus on better choices, more positive choices—choices which invite neither conflict nor violence into our lives.

By so doing, we create the maximum possibility for everyone to avoid conflict and violence, none of which has any hope of ending well for anyone.

Should we fail to do this, we create the certainty for everyone of conflict and violence, none of which has any hope of ending well for anyone.

My prayer is that I will always have the strength to resist temptation, and not let desire rule my thoughts. My prayer is that I will rise above the urge to simply gratify my wants of the moment, and so deal honestly and fairly with everyone. My prayer is that I will resist any temptation to deal treacherously and greedily with anyone

My prayer for you is that you also will have within you the strength to resist temptation, and not let desire rule your thoughts. My prayer is that you also will rise above the urge to simply gratify the wants of the moment, and so deal honestly and fairly with everyone. My prayer is that you will resist any temptation to deal treacherously and greedily with anyone.

Treachery invites treachery, and so commits the treacherous to a path of conflict and violence. This is the inevitable order of things for the treacherous, and it is a path with zero hope of ever ending well.

We do well never to walk that path.