Trust is the most important social commodity.

Without trust, marriages flounder. The foundation of the societal fabric is based on trust. Sadly, the majority of marital unions are founded on distrust, rather than trust. Money is often given precedence, even where the odds would not favour such marital unions. It is extremely essential to explore qualities of trust, before settling for workable ideas.

Trust comes with unquestionable confidence in whatever is understood. Passengers often board omnibuses, trusting that the driver on the steering wheel would carry out his duties responsibly. They trust that the driver would not be intoxicated, or that the vehicle would be mechanically sound. Such trust is often not based on reason, as people just hop into a bus, without the prerequisite certainty. Such behaviour exposes the naivety of ordinary humans.

All problems of humanity emanate from settling in between falsehood and truthfulness. A valuable commodity, such as trust cannot be premised on suppositions. At times, even the loving parents, actually, confer their valuable trust on strangers, only to reap consequences. Young children, especially girls, get exposed to rape, due to the unqualified trust of cunning males in responsible positions.

Basically, trust cannot and should not be freely awarded to mortal humans. Marital heartbreaks are a result of unqualified trust in physical beings. There are many cases of religious leaders committing heinous crimes of rape, involving congregants, resulting from the unqualified trust, granted to them.

Desiring to protect their entrenched commitment to trust, the naive believers even find it difficult to utilize the services of the law-enforcement agents. This is how deep, the matter of trust can hypnotize human beings. The starting point is at the time of appreciating those to whom trust has to be conferred.

Otherwise, humans, regardless of background, whether parents, husbands or wives, should never be trusted. However, trust starts with a person desiring to trust other people. Unless one is trustworthy, he cannot be guaranteed of people to trust. Hence, the principle of doing unto others as one would like them to do to one perfectly applies (Matthew 7:12).

It is always necessary to understand the principle of truth, to avoid being duped. The condition of trusting Church ministers, leading to being raped, can be a case in point. Innocent congregants commit their unqualified trust in Church leaders. The naive congregants blatantly violate the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).

This first Commandment allows a person to be in control of his environment. Everything, said by the person to whom trust must be accorded, should be based on truth. Those having had no other gods before the Supreme God, cannot be duped by anyone. Deceivers find that person impossible to deceive. Godliness, actually, influences another person to become trustworthy, as well.

The safest way to avoid deceit is by applying the first Commandment. However, due to being nurtured in this sinful world, ordinary people often find it impossible to avoid deception. This makes it the only reason why Jesus should be the only individual to be trusted, in this world. As clearly documented in history, the subject of trust is complex.

Others commit their trust to materially accumulated wealth, yet becoming unable to live eternally. Wealthy people die, just as poor people die. Others lead trouble-free lifestyles, although living under unpredictable conditions. While there is no easy formula for leading comfortable lives on earth, the value of trust can never be minimized.

Trust, obtainable in Godliness, carries no mixture of good and evil. Hence, extremely necessary, to be selective on matters of trust. As Godliness carries no shadow of a doubt, trust cannot be premised on doubt. Nevertheless, it is impossible to obtain absolute goodness or absolute evilness in humans. Choices can be based on probabilities, when selecting the greatest benefit, favouring the majority.

For instance, some people denounce ancestral spirits, in favour of Christianity. But, Christianity has also come with various causes of unrestrained deceptions. Yet Christianity carries the only hope for humanity. Without understanding Christianity, the majority live under incomparably foulest deceptions. The starting point, in avoiding deception, is by applying the first Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).

Trust is obtainable when aware of what constitutes the state of goodness, as compared to evilness. Godliness is the stable datum of goodness. Evilness is not problematic, as long as aware of what constitutes evilness. This is just as one can be comfortable when striving towards righteousness, as long as aware of what righteousness entails. Without the technology of evaluating data, it can, actually, be impossible to settle for goodness.

Righteousness comprises the ability to confer survival to the majority. Evilness comprises conferring survival to the minority, at the expense of the majority. This is the only provable form of accessing trust, from fellow humans. There is no other way of guaranteeing commitment of the trust to humans. The principle of always providing service to other people is the only virtue leading toward Godliness.

However, discussing matters that favour the majority, does not, necessarily, mean what is popularly liked. For instance, the majority may prefer non-survival issues, rather than pro-survival issues, accessed through careful evaluation. The benefit towards the majority should be premised on pro-survival, rather than anti-survival behaviours. Jesus may not have been liked by many people, but aiming at serving the majority, rather than the minority.

A properly converted person seeks to benefit the majority, rather than the minority. God gave us the mind, with which to reason and evaluate data. Trusting the group that focuses on benefitting the majority at the expense of the minority, is safest. This includes the attitude to be employed when choosing marital partners. As long as inclined towards self-centeredness, such groups or individuals should be regarded as dangerous.

The aspect of leadership serves to influence others to behave well. Responsibility implies avoiding blaming other people for bad conditions in one’s environment. The value of influencing others to adopt Godliness cannot be compared to anything else, in terms of superiority. This is, actually, what entails Christianity. For married couples, this is what was implied by Peter.

“Wives, in the same way, be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behaviour of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornments, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewellery and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight” (1 Peter 3:1-4).

Apparently, in this Scripture, the wife would have taken full responsibility. She does not blame the husband for being ungodly. This is confirmed in that her husband ends up being converted, as well. The principle can be understood when observing the effects of light and darkness. The impact of the light serves to remove darkness, rather than the other way round. The husband is the head of the family. But the spirit takes precedence over everything so that the wife becomes responsible for the husband.

The subject of trust is anchored on God. The ungodly husband gets influenced by the Godly wife. There is no conflict on the aspect of the role of leadership, which emanates from God. A true leader forgoes leadership privileges for those under his or her leadership. Hence, by default, the Godly wife influences the ungodly husband to also become Godly. Typically, Jesus represented this type of leadership. Although being the leader, Jesus chose to die for sinful humanity.

Also, another example is that of Abraham, giving his nephew, Lot, to choose a piece of land ahead of himself (Genesis 13:5-11). The worldly viewpoint is that Abraham ought to have taken his preference, before allotting the remainder to Lot. I suppose Lot would not have had any qualms if Abraham had chosen the preferred piece of land ahead of his junior? This is the acceptable world standard, being the reason for which Jesus came to correct (Matthew 20:25-28).

The subject of trust starts with God. It is impossible to discuss matters of trust without putting God ahead of everything. The first Commandment is fundamental. “You shall have no other gods before me.”  (Exodus 20:3). The object at which one commits his trust is what the person worships. Therefore, before aligning trust, God comes first.

All deceptions, whether marital or governance, start with the failure to put God ahead of everything. Those choosing partners for marital union, fail to make choices that give an advantage to the majority. Failure to observe such realities is what leads to bad experiences in marital unions. God’s Laws define the living standards, whether enjoyable or not enjoyable.

All problems of humanity start with the failure to recognize Godliness. Jesus came to reveal Godliness. The only reason why people rejected Jesus’s way, is that it does not give an advantage to self, ahead of the majority. Self-centeredness spells the effects of wickedness. Godliness causes trustworthiness. Those with whom the Godly person deals, get attracted to Godliness, as well.

The influenced people become trustworthy, also—as captured in the power of influence. From this viewpoint, flows trust, as the most important social commodity, emanating from the person concerned. One cannot be trustworthy without being connected to God, because trust is a Godly attribute. People can trust scientific discoveries, without God’s involvement. But Science helps in augmenting Godly trust.

Careful observations show that nothing carries truthfulness without God’s involvement. Those scientists obtain their wisdom directly from God, even though not aware of God’s existence. A scientist who discovers workable theories, but fails to acknowledge God, might, himself be confused.

That scientist ought to be helped to understand that there is a superior being, through whom the scientist came to be. The scientist represents clear evidence of God’s existence. Nothing else should be trusted in this world, except the only God, who exists spiritually.

Everything about life hangs between the balance of trust and lack of trust. Without trust one is completely unbalanced. Nevertheless, trusting things, other than God is unreasonable and can be dangerous. Trust is synonymous with faith. It is based on understanding that God is the source of everything leading to survival. To attain stability on the datum of trust, it is necessary to understand that truth takes precedence over everything.

When Jesus walked on this planet, He never took instructions from anyone. However, unlike Jesus, as long as embroiled in ignorance, humans are susceptible to deception. To avoid deception, they need to evaluate data, before adopting any piece of information. The basis of evaluating pieces of information is described on the benefits that prefer the majority, rather than the minority.

Whether involved with issues of survival or relationships, trust is fundamental. All problems of humanity emanate from the deficiency of trust. Where does one put his or her trust? Life becomes as smooth as dealing with people who are trusted with everything necessary for handling problems. To obtain trust, one ought to be trustworthy, before expecting confidence in trusting other people. If confused on matters of Godliness, the starting point is to appreciate the significance of having been created in God’s image.

Other people were also created in God’s image. It can be very unwise to denounce other humans, without evaluating their information. God may, as well, be using those people, even though appearing as embroiled in sinfulness. All humans, regardless of background, ought to be accorded a proper audience, before denouncing their information. God could, actually, be using any of them, for providing constructive information.

This makes the instruction to treat others, similarly to how one wants to be treated, vital. However, this does not mean trusting without evaluating the information given. The principle is in highlighting the benefits that encompass the majority, rather than the minority. Those providing such information may, actually, be helped to see errors in their information.

Of course, this does not guarantee that a person’s information would be automatically accepted. Otherwise, Jesus would not have been rejected. Good examples of wickedness include, a corporate manager earning a salary that could sustain the livelihoods of thousands of his employees whose employment is terminated for whatever reasons.

Rather than think of the welfare of his unfortunate employees, a wicked manager, would rather survive, at the expense of his workforce. The contradiction of this behaviour is from Jesus who opted to die on the cross, to save the entire humanity. When using Jesus as a standard, it is easy to evaluate between goodness and wickedness.

The subject of trust can be understood by those willing to evaluate information based on granting benefits to the majority, rather than to the minority. Another special example of wickedness involves promises of assumed self-benefits, without necessarily benefiting other people. The Christian charlatans are known to dangle such presumptuous benefits, showing that God, favours the individual recipient, more than everyone else.

“Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave–just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'” (Matthew 20:25-28 NIV).

No other information provides the datum of trust, except as enunciated by Jesus on the above Scripture. This information is based on altruism, rather than self-centeredness. When objectively looking for information on the question of trust, it is perfectly summarized in the above Scripture. It then becomes impossible for one to be deceived by the charlatans

Andrew Masuku is the author of Dimensions of a New Civilization, laying down standards for uplifting Zimbabwe from the current state of economic depression into a model for other nations worldwide. A decaying tree provides an opportunity for a blossoming sprout. Written from a Christian perspective, the book is a product of inspiration, bringing relief to those having witnessed the strings of unworkable solutions––leading to the current economic and social decay. In a simple conversational tone, most Zimbabweans should find the book as a long-awaited providential oasis of hope.

The Print copy is now available at Amazon.com for $13.99

Also available as an e-copy at Lulu.com  for $6.99