Definition of Integrity (from Webster’s Online) “Integrity is the quality or state of being complete or undivided or incorruptible.” This is saying that you can’t compartmentalize your life. Integrity means wholeness, unseparated, you’ve got it all together. Mark Twain, talking about this idea said, “One of the things about integrity is you don’t have to have a long memory.” You don’t have to remember what you said to whom. If you’re lying all the time and talk one way with one group and another way with that group or if you say bad things about a person then say nice things to their face, one day, if you’re posing all the time, you’re going to forget to pose. And you’ll be in trouble. He says with integrity you don’t have to have a good memory because you know you’ve always told the truth anyway.
Proverbs 12:22 “The Lord hates liars, but is pleased with those who keep their word.” Do you keep your word? Do you keep your promises? Or are you always making excuses? “I couldn’t do that because of….” The Bible says that God loves people who keep their word. If you don’t know how to keep your word, you’re not going to have very many great relationships. Integrity is the basis of all great relationships. Why? If you don’t have integrity in a relationship it’s going to fall apart. Truth and trust go together.
Standing is often more than just speaking up. It often involves action. Sometimes you have to do something because integrity demands that you take action. 2 Corinthians 13:8 “Our responsibility is never to oppose the truth but to stand for the truth at all times. We don’t have many people today interested in standing for the truth. They are interested in standing for their rights. We are living in a nation that is obsessed with personal rights. “I have my rights!” Everyday the courts are inventing all kinds of new rights that we didn’t even know we had or needed. And people are very interested in rights.
Has it ever occurred to anybody that wherever there are rights there also must be wrongs?
Here’s the bottom line. If you want to become a person of integrity, you have to care about the small things in life. You have to care about the things in your private life that nobody sees. You have to care about details that are really important. You have to care about things that seem inconsequential if you’re going to have integrity. Integrity is what you are when nobody’s looking. Integrity is what you are in the dark. That’s character. That’s integrity.
No one ever lived a more integrated life than Jesus Christ because He was God coming in flesh, in human form. No one ever lived a greater life of integrity. If you want to live a life of integrity, get Jesus in your heart. Get Christ in your life.