Possessing Integrity

Nothing tests my integrity quite like being offended. We can offend others. We might become offended ourselves. We may take up someone else’s offense. Handling offenses in a biblical way often precedes promotion. Handling it incorrectly causes division. Any offense is a test. God is watching us. Will I love the truth? Will I judge myself? Relational integrity requires truthfulness with others. Personal integrity requires humility in my heart.

Do you know what integrity is? This is an important concept to understand. A person with integrity is someone without falsehood. They are not pretenders. Possessing integrity, they are blameless but not necessarily sinless. Realize, there is a difference! 

In math, an integer is a number that is not divided. It is whole. To have integrity means soundness of substance, well integrated, fitly joined. A company, sports team, or church can have integrity. Someone with integrity is whole-hearted. A divided heart lacks integrity. The opposite of having integrity is to be a hypocrite. Hypocrites can be found everywhere.

Hypocrite is an ancient word. It came down to us from Greek, through Latin, to French, and then into English. Originally, it referred to an actor in a Greek play. The actor would wear a large mask that portrayed his character. His real face remained concealed. Later, the word came to mean a figurative mask. It meant someone pretending to be better than they were to deceive others to gain advantage. Today, it usually refers to someone who doesn’t measure up to their stated beliefs or ideals - like a religious leader who fails morally but denies it, or a politician who says one thing but does another. A hypocrite lacks integrity. 

Ever had to work with a hypocrite? You learned to never trust their words. You never know what they truly feel. They are pretenders, like a chameleon, changing color depending on the environment. God says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”

I’d rather work with someone real, with faults and flaws, who makes mistakes, who stumbles and sins but is honest, than work with a pretender who is a hypocrite. Pretenders wear masks when they don’t need to. They deceive others. Worse still, they deceive themselves. They believed a lie for so long and reinforced it with so much camouflage that they don’t know their true self anymore. This is a sad condition. These people lack internal truth and have no genuine peace.

The thing about integrity is that it describes an aspect of God’s nature. He is light and truth, without any darkness. God likes people with integrity who walk in the light. Integrity is the quality of being genuine or sincere. A person with integrity hates a coverup as much as the crime. A sincere person tells the truth even when it hurts.

Sincere is an interesting word. It’s Latin for “without wax.” It was used to describe flawless marble columns in the ancient buildings of Rome. Flaws in the marble were not concealed by wax.

In the Bible, God told Abraham that His covenant required that he be blameless before God. In other words, walk with integrity. Abraham became our model of faith. He wasn’t sinless, but he was true and real. Such a person can have faith in God who justifies the guilty through faith in Him.

When God chose young David to become king, the Lord was looking for a man “after his own heart.” David’s heart was true, undivided. David wasn’t perfect, but when he sinned, he repented perfectly.