Elevate your integrity standards

Integrity is a rare commodity even among professing Christians. Yet it is the attribute that God values highly in the lives of His children. A man or woman of integrity is highly esteemed in the sight of God and man.  Such a person is immovable, impregnable, invulnerable and impervious to negative conditions of all types. He or she is the despair of the devil because he cannot find a point of weakness through which to enter the lives. 
A person of cultivated integrity is the darling of God, and therefore the worthy recipient of God’s power and the inheritor of His lavish abundant blessings and favour.
Jesus Christ was such a man; neither God nor Satan could find sin in his life, hence he found favour in the eyes of God and man. And he wrought marvelous miracles that blessed humanity.
If Christ was too high an example for you to imitate because he was the Son of God then Job of Uz, who was a man like you, is the ideal man to throw the same challenge on you.
Job was so true a man of integrity that God boasted of his integrity before Satan and even challenged him to test Job’s integrity.
In the opening verse above we hear Job’s solemn protestation of his integrity in response to the false charges laid up against him by his three miserable comforting friends.
God knew of Job’s integrity and Job himself was aware of his integrity. He told his false accusers that if his integrity were to be weighed before God he would not be found wanting.  Few of us can ask God to prove our integrity because we know we lack it. But we need not lack it because God has made known to us the standards of integrity in His word and has given us the Holy Spirit to enable us to cultivate and exhibit it for our benefit.
Integrity comes from the Latin word integrita, which is translated wholeness in English. It means wholeheartedness.
Other words which mean the same or almost the same with integrity are fidelity, honesty, truthfulness, faithfulness. In our context the word integrity refers to practical righteousness in our relationships with God and man.
You see, we offend few in our exercise of faith but we offend many where love (relationships) is concerned. Thus, the catalogue of the standards of integrity or practical righteousness in the scriptures mostly involves our relationship to God and our neighbours.
In the Old Testament, we have Job’s estimation of integrity involving purity in the look, cleanliness of hands, thoughtfulness for domestic servants and underlings, justice to the poor, widows and orphans, willingness to share our food with the underprivileged, clothing the naked, heart weaned from the love of gold, refusal to worship idols, inability to rejoice at the destruction of those who have derided and hated you and frank confession of wrong-doing (Job 31).
David claimed that the one who practices integrity or practical righteousness will never be moved and will dwell securely and happily in the presence of God.
He hinted on the above list of standards of integrity by emphasising uprightness, righteousness, truthfulness, charitableness to neighbours, fulfillment of vows and avoidance of usury or bribery (Psalm 15).
You may want to argue that these standards are part of the law and we are now under grace so they do not apply to us today. Well, they are   also mandatory in the New Covenant.
The Apostle Peter highlighted the need to fulfill these requirements when he said: “For he that will love life, and see many good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: let him eschew evil, and do good; let him speak peace and pursue it” (1Peter 3:10,11).
Peter was here talking about the fact that practical righteousness tends to life and he who loves long satisfying life must practice integrity.
The Lord Jesus put the divine seal on the need for integrity when He summarised all the standards or requirements of integrity in one word — love. He said in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give unto you now, That you love one another; as I have loved you.”
In essence, the Lord said that if you pass the love test then you will have unconsciously fulfilled all the requirements of the law. For example if you love God, you will obey Him in all things. And if you love your neighbour, you will not kill him or steal his goods.
So if you want to raise your standards of integrity or practical righteousness you need to walk in love towards God and man.
This, you cannot do apart from the help of the blessed Holy Spirit who has shed abroad the love of God in your heart. 
Allow the Holy Spirit to direct your steps, control your speech and to lead you in the path of righteousness.
By so doing you will raise your integrity level and soon God’s power and blessings will come upon you and overtake you.

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