“He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly”; – Prov. 2:7; “He who walks with integrity walks securely, But he who perverts his ways will become known” – Prov. 10:9
INTRODUCTION
This article was first published in June 2014 but we find it challenging and feel led to share it with you again.
Please enjoy and pass it on!
We love to use the word ‘integrity’ but all our actions belie our understanding or commitment to it. And yet integrity should be one of the values we all need to imbibe and live by.
WHAT IS INTEGRITY
Integrity is an all-encompassing concept most often having to do with the matter of personal character or relationships. It is by no accident that the word has to do with the condition of something or someone being undivided, and thereby suggests a simplicity and completeness. The concern for personal integration and completeness is a much a concern in our day as it was for the authors of the various books of the Bible.
Throughout both the Old and the New Testaments, the question of integrity is most often related to the character of persons in relation to God and to their community. Perhaps this concept is most poignantly presented in the story of Job.
Despite the challenges and unimaginable trials he faces which include the murder of his family – Job 1:13-15, 18-20 , the killing of his herds and servants, and thereby loss of all means of support for he and his family – Job 1:16-17, and being afflicted with painful sores from the top of his head to the soles of his feet – Job 2:17, he is able to remain an “honest and innocent man; he honoured God and stayed away from evil” – Job 1:1. Despite his wife’s inability to not appreciate his commitment to innocence – Job 2:9, Job “did not sin in what he said,” thereby retaining his faith and integrity – Job 2:10.
INGREDIENTS OF INTEGRITY
(1) Integrity is made up of several ingredients, the first of which is honesty. One cannot have any integrity before God or with other persons if there is a lack of honesty. “Good people will be guided by honesty; dishonesty will destroy those who are not trustworthy” – Proverbs 11:3.
(2) TRUTHFULNESS is at the core of integrity. In the New Testament there is a fundamental distaste about appearing as honest when, in fact, one is not truthful. In confronting the Pharisees, Jesus talks about how when people see them they think they look good, “but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and evil” – Matthew 23:28.
Even some of the Jewish leaders who were against Jesus’ ministry nevertheless acknowledged His integrity. “You are an honest man. You are not afraid of what other people think about you, because you pay no attention to who they are” – Mark 12:13-14. Jesus condemned the false and ambiguous piety of the Pharisees and in the same way requires from each of us a whole and integrated commitment to God.
‘Therefore honesty, as an ingredient of integrity, means the relationship we say we have with God is sincere and straightforward, suggesting the absence of dishonesty or duplicity. Only in this way is God truly honoured, and are we truly leading lives marked by integrity. It means the good people we represent ourselves to be are the good people we truly are. Such simple honesty brings freedom that can be achieved no other way – as we read in Proverbs 11:6.
(3) INTEGRITY IS WHOLENESS
That brings us to another suggested ingredient of integrity, which is wholeness. This implies also a certain commitment to innocence. We have a commitment as integrated people to be “careful to live an innocent life” and to not look at anything wicked and therefore not relevant to a pure and holy relationship with God – Psalm 101:2-3.
The gift back to us with this commitment to integrity is a confidence and hope in our knowledge that “honest people will never be destroyed” – Job 4:6-7. In our commitment to innocence and integrity, we have the assurance of God being with us forever – as we read Psalm 41:12. Simple integrity makes our choices and therefore our lives simpler as we read in Proverbs 11:5.
INTEGRITY SPAWNS OBEDIENCE TO GOD
To be this whole and undivided person committed to sincerely serving Jesus Christ, we must stay away from evil and pursue the things of God with all our heart. No one can serve two masters as Jesus says in Matthew 6:24, and the thing we should want most is God’s kingdom and doing what God wants as we read in Matthew 6:33. Throughout the Bible there is a concern for uncorrupted character.
In the Psalms and the Proverbs these themes especially emerge. In 1 Peter 2:2 we are told that we must “rid [ourselves] of all evil, all lying, hypocrisy, jealous and evil speech. As newborn babies want milk, you should want the pure and simple teaching” The Lord said to Solomon: “you must serve me as your father David did; he was fair and sincere” – 1 Kings 9:4-5. This mark of integrity is undergirded by obedience to all that God has commanded, keeping all His rules and laws. We are reminded in the Gospel of Matthew that we must be as “innocent as doves’” and therefore immune to falsehood – Matthew 10:16.
INTEGRITY IS FAITHFULNESS
People of integrity can be trusted to be faithful – faithful to their word, to God, and to their community. It means keeping our promises to God and to others. It means doing what we do and meaning it, representing ourselves as godly and actually being holy! “Say only yes if you mean yes, and no if you mean no”– Matthew 5:37. Integrity is ultimately about the quality of our relationship to God and to each other.
TO PONDER
Are you a person of integrity?
Stay Blessed!
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