Integrity in Action
“As for me, You uphold me in my integrity,
And set me before Your face forever.” Psalm 41:12 NKJV
Do you ever struggle with the meaning of integrity? What is it really? The World Book dictionary defines integrity as honesty or sincerity; uprightness. Throughout the Bible I see it as righteousness.
How far does God want us to go with integrity? Is it acceptable to compromise at times? Can I set my standards of integrity too high so they become legalistic? If I spend an hour with God each day instead of half an hour during my devotion time am I more righteous than I was yesterday when I spent only half an hour. If I fast one day a week does that make me a person of greater integrity? Do I judge people’s integrity by their works?
The Pharisees focused on deeds to be seen by men as their righteousness. They prayed long prayers in public places to be seen by men but their motives were wrong. They focused on the act instead of the heart of the matter. They lacked mercy. They didn’t care about people’s needs.
Jesus warned the multitudes about the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Their righteousness consisted of works to make themselves look good. Jesus said that God demands more than that. The meticulous righteous deeds of the church leaders in Jesus’ day were highly regarded by the ordinary Jew. But washing of hands was more important to them than helping the poor or giving mercy or justice to the downcast.
I discovered only one way to be righteous and one way to stop judging others in their place of integrity. We become righteous when we accept Jesus’ atonement for our sins. Our integrity comes wrapped up in Jesus’ answer to what is the greatest commandment of all. He answered that we are to love God with all our heart, our soul and our mind and love our neighbor as ourselves. The only righteousness that satisfies God’s standard is faith in Jesus Christ.
Bible Truths for your kids:
The Bible is all about integrity. If you are a person of integrity that means you do the right thing even if it makes you look bad.
When I was a kid in grade two I was not always a person of integrity. Our teacher gave us some health rules to follow. I don’t remember them all but I know they included brushing our teeth in the morning, cleaning our fingernails and taking cod liver oil. I hated cod liver oil. In those days no one had invented vitamins so we were stuck with drinking a tablespoon of fish oil instead.
I grew up in a big family of fourteen kids so when we lined up for our cod liver oil my mom didn’t always notice who had taken some and who she had missed. It was easy to cheat. Sometimes I didn’t line up. But at school I placed a big check mark on my chart beside ‘cod liver oil’. I wanted to look good and I also wanted a prize for good health at the end of the term. What I did was wrong. My teacher couldn’t tell if I was telling the truth or lying, but God knew.
There are many ways to practice integrity or honesty. One is to follow the rules even when no one is around to check up on you; another is to hand that ten dollar bill you found on the floor to your teacher so he can find out who it belongs to instead of just stuffing it into your backpack; and still another is keeping your word like keeping a fun date with your friend even when a better offer comes along.
Practicing integrity means you not only talk the talk but you walk the walk. Jesus said we not only need to hear His Word but we need to do it. It’s easy to run off a list of things you know will put others first and bless them but it’s harder to do it
You need to match what you do with what you say or what you believe. This is hard to do sometimes because our group of friends will not always think we are cool when we choose to do right. On the other hand God and the people who really matter, especially later in life, will eventually honor you for being honest and you will develop confidence in yourself because you are being who you know you should be and not a clone of your friends.
“Assign me Godliness and Integrity as my bodyguards…” Psalm25:21[The Living Bible]
