INTEGRITY

What is your understanding of integrity?

Keywords: honesty, upholding principles, singleness (not living a dual life), trustworthy

Was there a time that your integrity was tested? or share someone that you know has integrity and
what was the situation that you experienced that.

What does the bible say about integrity? The answer actually is not much. The bible didn’t explicitly
say “be a man of integrity”. In Psalms (11:3), it spoke about integrity, “The integrity of the upright
guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity”. We also know that the bible is filled
with passages urging integrity in believers - "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there
is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit" (Galatians 5:22-25). Such a list is a
command to live a life of the highest integrity.

We will read through people in the bible that has high integrity and hopefully we can learn and
relate with their experience:

Questions

- What is the character’s background?

- What is the specific situation?
- How did the character respond?
- What can we learn about the character’s integrity?

Read: Genesis 39, Daniel 6, and Matthew 4

Conclusion

Sometimes keeping integrity does not always result to good things, we can be mocked, we can be
separated, we can even face difficult decisions to make.

Joseph went to prison, Daniel was thrown into lion’s den, Jesus’ life was pure example of how his
integrity was tested over and over again and resulted to his death.

But how did their story end:

- Joseph being in prison gave an opportunity for his gift to be noticed. It was actually a turning
point in his life, in the next chapters of Joseph’s life, he became the ruler of Egypt, he was
able to save Egypt against the upcoming famine, he was reunited with family and this was
the start of the Israelites’ story of redemption.
- Daniel on the other hand, going into lion’s den, similarly gave him a platform to a point that
the King (Daniel 7:25-27) issued a decree to honour the God Daniel believed in.
- Jesus temptation in the wilderness actually marks the beginning of his ministry. We should
realise that he was tempted against lust of eyes (materialism, kingdoms/wealth, Matthew
4:8…), lust of body (hedonism, do what makes you happy/satisfaction, Matthew 4:3…), and
pride of life (egoism, self-interest, Matthew 4:5…). Jesus being grounded in the scriptures
makes him able to keep his integrity during the temptation. Ultimately, because of Jesus’
suffering, it brought redemption and salvation to mankind.