This Week in the Word: Vow of Integrity
I will pay attention to the way of integrity.
When will you come to me?
I will live with a heart of integrity in my house.
Integrity. In English, to have integrity is to adhere to moral and ethical principles; to have sound moral character; to be honest. When exploring the depth of this word in the Bible, we find that to have integrity also means to be entirely in accord with truth and fact; to be complete, whole, sound and healthful; to be innocent and unimpaired.
Integrity at its full capacity is what the Lord requires of His children. Jesus is the Truth, and we are called to be entirely in accord, in agreement, and in harmony with Him. On our own, this is impossible. We are inflicted by the presence of sin which demands “our” way, desires and preferences over those of a Holy God. This is why we need Jesus.
When Jesus is our Savior, His Spirit lives inside us. When His Spirit lives within us, we are given the ability to know the thoughts, desires, and will of the Lord. Not only this, which is more than we could ever dream or deserve, but He gives us access to His power so that with His help we can grow in integrity in this fallen world. By His power, and only by His power, we are able to walk with Him out of love, and abide in His ways that are higher than our own.
He calls on us to be set apart, to be uncommon and unconformed to this fallen world. This world is filled with the effects and evidence of sin and wickedness, prizes “your truth” and “my truth” as separate and acceptable, and rewards getting ahead in whatever way works quickest and with the most benefit to “me”. We are not meant to succeed by the standards of this wicked world, but to seek the kind of success that leads us to one day hear “well done my good and faithful servant.”
As followers of Jesus we are commanded to follow His example of integrity by tapping into His power to do so. On our own we will fail, but by walking closely with the Lord, hand in hand, eyes and ears on Him, with a heart ready to obey His will, a mind ready to glorify Him in selflessness, He will succeed in us and be glorified through the integrity we bear in this world of temptations and tempers.
