What Integrity is Not? || What is Integrity || Week 1

It’s been a little bit since we’ve had an actual series. You have since seen an introduction of a blog series called “Mid-Week Midrashes.” I recently had to walk through a re-understanding why I started writing these blogs and realized I had missed something. I missed the life applicability. When I first started out, I wrote about what went on in my work life because I felt like I had no one to talk about it with. It was my way to build a connection and relationship to share my life with the world. Once the pandemic hit, I started writing sermon series about my life and a hopeful motivation that others can apply to them via what the Bible has shown me. When 2021 hit, I shifted gears and moved from life applicability studies to actual Bible studies. The amount of work, studying, and effort that those blogs required, in addition to writing a lot of series for my ministry, was overwhelming. After a while, I got burnt. I tried to work through it, but it didn’t work out. So…here we are. There will be less structure when it comes to the more extensive series. Each series will be released together, but there may be gaps between each series. I plan to release a new series at the start of each month. If a series finishes before the end of the month, then it ends. You’d have to wait until the next month before the next one. Another more significant change is that these series will be shorter. Each series is 3 to 4 parts long at most. I release my series when they’re fully complete. Trying to complete a seven-part series in one time is a lot, so I’m forcing myself to keep it simple. So again…here we are. I’m glad this site is still going strong and that we’re still growing each week. I am so excited to get back into this rhythm one more time. Without further ado, let’s get into our new series. 

Welcome to a brand-new series called “What is Integrity?” Throughout this series, we look at different parts of a term that gets thrown around a lot. We will talk about what integrity is not today, but before we dive into it, let’s define integrity. Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. Integrity means to be truthful. Integrity means to be rational. Integrity means to have morals. Sounds like a good trait to possess. We’ve understood what integrity is, but what is it not? For that, turn to Proverbs 11:3. 

3 Good people are guided by their honesty, but crooks who lie and cheat will ruin themselves.

So this pretty much says what we just talked about. Good people lead with honesty. Bad people lead with cheating and lying. There must be more to the story, right? Yep. Let’s jump to Proverbs 13:6

6 Goodness protects honest people, but evil destroys those who love to sin. 

Marc isn’t this just saying the same thing that Proverbs 11:3 says. Kind of. We’ve learned that integrity isn’t about lying and cheating. Now we see the integrity is not acting sinfully. Those sinful actions can include lying and cheating, but now we have painted a bigger picture. Good people are protected by their honesty, a characteristic we’ve learned connects to integrity. Evil people are those who love to sin, which we’ve seen integrity is not. There’s one more verse to look at that gives us an exciting look at what integrity is not. It’s Proverbs 19:3, and it says this. 

13 When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the Lord.

This simply states that the fool blames God for his failure and troubles. So, we’ve learned that integrity is about acting sinfully, including cheating and lying. Now integrity isn’t blaming God for our troubles. We see this in three different instances in the Bible. Check out Genesis 4:5, Isaiah 8:21, and Lamentations 3:39-41. These are all stories about how men will not take responsibility for their own actions but instead turn and blame God. So, what does all this mean? How can we take this and apply it in our life today?

Let’s remind ourselves about integrity; Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. Integrity means to be truthful. Then we see in Proverbs that integrity isn’t acting sinfully and blaming God. I think this reminds us very quickly about what we need to do. We need to act honestly, telling the truth every time the situation is needed. It’s telling the truth in those challenging moments because we know it’s the right thing to do. We know being honest includes having a solid moral compass. Being moral is described as being concerned with right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character. Integrous people are focused on having a strong sense of morality. They are focused on God’s definition of right and wrong instead of their own. Integrous people take responsibility for their actions and their emotions. They don’t blame others for their own reactions nor blame others for the circumstances. May you live with integrity, with God guiding the way.