Integrity isn’t free. It comes at a personal cost, sometimes a great one. I’ve lost countless friends over the years because of my stance on the Bible. Some of these individuals, who still see fit to attack me, are former Christian friends of mine. No matter.
So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
– James 4:17
In my eyes, I don’t have a choice here. If my faith says “yes”, I cannot say “no”; or if my faith says “no”, I cannot say “yes” just to appease someone whose love and respect I desire to keep. Jesus said:
Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.
– Matthew 5:37
Integrity means keeping your word no matter what, even when it is unpopular to do so. Integrity is unconcerned with human pressure; it only seeks to please the Lord.
With that said, is it fair that most of us are tempted to say, “Well, it’s easier if I just go along with the crowd,” especially when said crowd is family or friends or maybe our bosses at work? I’ll go one step further and hypothesize that we’ve all sinned by compromising our integrity in such moments. We further complicate things by attempting to justify it in light of all the good fruit we may be bearing.
In our weakness, we make excuses as to why perfect integrity shouldn’t be our goal in life. In other words, we suppose that one small aberration or one slight towards God’s divine will can be overlooked in light of our integrity in other areas of our lives.
There is no alternative form of integrity. By God’s standard, it is pure, 100% untarnished. There is no justification for disobedience. In whatever way you’ve broken God’s commandments, Jesus had to pay the price for that sin. We mustn’t suppose otherwise on the premise that God will give us a special dispensation just because we’ve decided, “it’s just easier this way.”
Holy Scripture reveals God’s expectations regarding our fidelity to Him.
The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
– Genesis 2:15-17
God plainly stated the boundary conditions of His will to Adam. He didn’t say, “Well, Adam, in extreme cases you may eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” He gave no leeway for Adam to modify the rule. He didn’t say, “Bah, what’s one extra little tree to eat from when there are so many, just do your best to eat from the others, OK, little buddy?”
When the Lord gives a command, it is law. Period. There’s never a justified reason for breaking it.
We learn of a similar case in the Bible with Joseph, who was put in charge of all that Potiphar, the Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, had.
From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; the blessing of the LORD was on all that he had, in house and field. So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.”
But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her.
– Genesis 39:5-10
In this story, Potiphar’s wife is analogous to the serpent in the Garden, tempting a man of integrity who had unmitigated access to everything under Potiphar’s charge, with one exception, his wife. In this case, Joseph maintained his integrity, which cost him dearly in the end (he was thrown into prison). The alternative, of course, would’ve been to compromise his integrity and avoid prison, maybe even have a little tryst with Potiphar’s wife, no one being the wiser. After all, he was a darn faithful steward – what’s one little side transgression when there’s so much other obedience to point to???
Sin loves to capitalize on this idea of somehow downplaying disobedience in light of obedience elsewhere in our lives. That type of compromise does not exist in Holy Scripture. Wrong is wrong. “Yes” must be “yes” and “no” must be “no”.
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
– Romans 6:16-19
Integrity comes at a high cost, but as Jesus said:
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
– Matthew 16:24-26
It may seem easier to bargain using the serpent’s logic while being tempted; however, we must seek absolute obedience (aka integrity to our Lord). The threat of personal injury (e.g., emotional or physical) is not a justification for compromise. Every sin counts and was felt by Jesus, Himself, on the Cross. Hasn’t He done enough for you already? Shouldn’t that be enough to keep you from sinning and hurting Him even more?
Our decisions should never be based on what’s “easier”; rather, they should always be based on what’s right. The great litmus test being, “Is what I’m about to do going to bring glory to God?”
Love in Christ,
Ed Collins