What is integrity?

?Til I die I will not put away my integrity from me. I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go. My heart does not reproach any of my days.– Job 27:5-6

What is integrity? Integrity is doing what you say you will do, something that seems to lack moral authority in today’s culture and world. Employers often look at resumés and ask themselves, Did this person really accomplish what he or she claims to have done? Applicants exaggerate their skills and training because they desperately need a job. CEOs overstate their earnings because they want to impress stockholders, and employees call in sick because they have used up their paid time off and they would like a day off to spend with a relative who has come for a visit.

“Do you believe in life after death?” a supervisor asked a young man.

“Oh yes,” he quickly replied. “Good,” said his boss, “because your aunt – the one whose funeral you are supposed to have attended last week, called this morning and wanted to talk with you!”

There is one thing for certain. God’s standard is very simple – tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. “‘How many times shall I make you swear that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord,’ King Ahab of Israel instructed the prophet” (1 Kings 16:22).

“Therefore, having put away falsehood,” wrote Paul to the Ephesians, “let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another” (Ephesians 4:25). While our culture today may not esteem the importance of integrity, God’s demands are unchanging. And when your life reflects integrity, your conscience will be clear when you stand in God’s presence someday.

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Used with permission from Guidelines International Ministries. To learn more about Guidelines and the ministry, send an e-mail to [email protected]. You may also visit www.guidelines.org.