Life Is For Living

If  you were to ask the average thinking person what does integrity mean to you? You will get a somewhat varied response. People who answer such a question might also consider themselves to be spiritual. There is, however, a problem with what the world might call integrity. For the most part their definition looks sound but dig a little deeper  and you uncover some interesting thinking on the subject.

To illustrate what I mean I did a little online research and found some insightful observations.

Firstly a definition from Wikipedia on integrity:

"The concept of integrity is that of basing of one's actions on a consistent framework of principles."

Ok we will come back to this quote in a minute. Here are some quotes from people who were asked, online, what their thoughts on integrity are:

"I define integrity as being true to your principles"

"Having the moral courage to make your actions consistent with your knowledge of right and wrong"

"Integrity is allowing that part of your conscience which tells you the right way to do things, to determine your actions"

I have chosen these examples because I think they sum up pretty well how integrity is understood in the modern world. Please note the underlined words as they are the key to understanding integrity and the problem with the worlds view on it.

 Now back to the Wikepedia example, it states that integrity is based upon a framework of principles. The first problem I see here is who's set of principles? They could be any man's principles which have the tendency to change with the current modern flow of thought. It might be a set of principles set by a governing body elected by the masses to guide the county into a new era of modern society. But again these principles often change with what gets the most votes. Even a criminal is said to be a man of integrity if he sticks with the code (principles) by not dobbing in or becoming an informant.

The general thought is you must live by your own conscience of right and wrong, if you are doing this then it is said you are a person of integrity. But how do you know your principles are  not flawed? On what are you basing you code?

An example of the worlds view on integrity goes something like this:

John goes to work every day, he rarely has a sick day, produces consistent profits for the company, and he is the man to see if anything goes wrong. Management love him, his wife loves him, all is well for John. John tries to stay modest but on occasion has a little boast why he is fairing well in life. "I'm a man of integrity, he says, I stick to my principles if  I say I'm going to be there I'll be there, if say I'm going to do something I'll do it ect ect. But what those who love him don't know is that John is having an affair with the boses wife. How can this be? Isn't John a man of integrity? Well the problem is that Johns principles are flawed. He believes that if two consenting adults want to play around its ok just so long as nobody is getting hurt. He reminds himself "I'm a man of  integrity therefore  I will never force my passions onto a woman,"yet he is having an affair and sees nothing wrong with it!

My point here is that while the world espouses integrity as something to aspire too it has no foundation to hold it up.

Now back to the Wikipedia definition again.

Notice that it states that integrity is based on a consistent framework of principles.

I think we have already established that the worlds framework of principles is far from consistent.

What dose this mean for the Christian?

Simply this, our framework of principles must be based on something consistent, and the only thing that the Christian has that is consistent in every way is the bible. The word of God is unchanging, established forever in heaven and here on earth. This is our foundation, this is where the Christian must go to gain a consistent framework of principles.

Dear reader go to the word for in it you will find integrity, you will find He who authored it. Search the scriptures for you will find Jesus a man who is integrity personified. Aren't you glad that He is? Aren't you glad that you have a saviour who will treat you the same way every time you approach Him because He never changes.

Christian integrity, therefore, is the strength of the practising believer. Integrity means wholeness of character, an uncompromising adherence to a code of values, and consistency of word and deed based squarely on the word of God.

Let us cry out as king David did. "Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee" Psalm 25:21