I wrote a paper roughly two years ago about moral integrity and I just got the urge to share the whole thing. The topic is brushed around and definitely brushed under the rug in today's society... here's a little something for your mind to work with.
"You don’t have to dig too deep these days to see that our world is drowning in moral failure and that any sense of integrity has been washed away with the rain. If no one see’s it, it didn’t happen. If it doesn’t hurt anyone, it’s not bad. If it’s not black, it must be white. Most web engines now have “incognito tabs” where your search history isn’t saved and to the naked eye, you didn’t search bad things, you didn’t watch or listen to bad things, so it doesn’t exist.
Pornography websites have 70+ million views each day and nearly 4 out of every 1,000 marriages end each year in Minnesota alone. It’s an epidemic that no one seems to care about, no one wants to stop it, no one wants to take the initiative and hold themselves accountable for their actions.
Integrity: “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness: he is known to be a man of integrity.” : “the state of being whole and undivided." : "the condition of being unified, unimpaired, or sound in construction: the structural integrity of the novel."
When we look at the definition of integrity, we see that it means to be strong, sound, and unified in your construction, your beliefs and your convictions. To be built from a solid foundation and to uphold the principles in all things, seen and unseen.
Proverbs 10:9 reads “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.”
This, one day, will come as a shock to our culture, the Bible says what it means, “he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.” When we lack integrity, we put up a false shield. “Oh! No one is going to see this, or hear this, or know that I thought this, so surely it’s okay for me to do! It’s not ruining my witness, after all!” Negative. Having a lack of integrity will unhinge us. It will tear us apart from the base up. When we think about it our families, our friendships, our ministries, our character, everything we do is founded upon our integrity!
Those that we lead are looking to us for guidance, especially if you’re in the ministry. People are looking at you saying “Hm, well if they can do it, then it must be okay to do!” Simply because they trust enough in your character and have enough faith in your integrity to base their beliefs on you, believing that you’re living what the Word of God says.
I hope to never find myself at the gate of Heaven looking into the face of a friend, family member, peer, young teen, etc and have to tell them that they believed in the wrong person, that their salvation was compromised, because I allowed myself to become compromised, that their eternity was in their hands, but was molded by my lack of integrity and disregard for lost souls.
While we may be playing the part, we’re not always living the part and to me, if you’re in ministry, you should be an open book to at least one person outside of yourself. You should have an accountability partner, in which, they can look and you and say “That’s not right.” so you can dig into the Word of God to find out just what is that true and perfect will of God for your life, as stated in Romans 12:1-2.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers,[a] by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.[b] 2 Do not be conformed to this world,[c] but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern 6what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."
