Keeping Your Hands Clean

At the beginning of the 1993 film The Firm, Mitch McDeere begins work at Bendini, Lambert & Locke (BL&L), a small Memphis firm that specializes in accounting and tax law. The firm demands complete loyalty, strict confidentiality, and a willingness to charge exceptional fees for its services, which are designed to help wealthy clients avoid taxes by hiding large amounts of money in off-shore shell corporations.

After passing the bar exam, Mitch begins working long hours, which puts a strain on his marriage. While on a trip to the Cayman Islands, Mitch is seduced by a local woman and cheats on his wife. The encounter is a setup that is photographed, so that the firm’s security chief can blackmail Mitch to keep him quiet. Mitch soon learns why: the firm’s biggest client is the Morolto Mafia family from Chicago, and the firm’s partners, as well as most of the associates, are complicit in a massive tax fraud and money laundering scheme.

The FBI approaches Mitch and pressures him to provide evidence that the FBI can use to go after the Moroltos and bring down BL&L. If he keeps silent, then he likely will end up in jail. If he discloses information about the firm’s clients to the FBI, however, he will break attorney-client privilege and be disbarred. How can Mitch stay alive, remain a lawyer, and bring down the firm? [1]

While you have likely never worked for a truly wicked employer such as BL&L, you probably have encountered some shady business practices along the way. No one’s wages are labeled as “deceptive” or “legitimate”— all money is the same color, regardless of how it is earned or obtained.

In every work environment, God challenges us to keep our hands clean, even when the hands around us are dirty. Staying righteous in the workplace may not net us a higher income, but God promises a better reward: his favor. It’s a sure thing. In Memphis and everywhere else.

Questions for Reflection and Application

• “Cheaters never prosper.” Except when they do. When have you seen people who bend the rules get ahead? When have you seen them get caught and punished? Why does God allow some cheaters to prosper? What is God calling you to do when you witness people bending or breaking the rules to get ahead?
• Think about times when you have been tempted to cheat—at work or elsewhere. Did you succumb to the temptation? If so, what happened as a result? What has God called you to do with respect to cheating? If you have not heeded his call, then how can you get started on that this week?

[1] The scenes are from the 1993 film The Firm, screenplay by Robert Towne, David Rabe, and David Rayfiel (adapted from the novel by John Grisham) and directed by Sydney Pollack.

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