Take your time and think about what role plays integrity in your life and in your career. Think about what sort of values you develop, how you develop them, and how you can live a life of integrity.
Integrity is a value. Integrity is the foundation of character. It is your choice to live by those values that form your character and personality.
If we look from the perspective of the Bible we learn that hypocrisy is the opposite of integrity, and this is precisely what Jesus accuses the Pharisees and teachers of the law of in Matthew 23. Jesus criticized the Pharisees for saying one thing and doing another.
Their lack of integrity was not only imperfect for those who follows Christ, they were responsible of not telling the truth about God the Father.
When we talk about integrity today, we generally use other terms like ethics and morality. But a clear understanding of the concept of integrity requires clear thinking about all the words.
Each has a different meaning. Ethics refers to a standard of right and wrong, good and evil. Morality is a lived standard of right and wrong, good and evil. It’s what the Pharisees actually did. Integrity means complete. If you want to have integrity, you must choose your ethic and live to match it.
Biblical integrity is not just doing the right thing. Biblical integrity it is a matter of having the right heart and allowing your inside to match who you are on the outside. The biblical virtue of integrity points to a consistency between belief and behavior, between our attitudes and our actions, between our values and our practice.
Integrity is essential in the church, in the society, and especially at home. When you walk in integrity, you leave it as a legacy for your children to follow.
A lack of honesty and integrity will affect the relationship you have with yourself. The more integrity you have the less anxiety and stress you will experience. Having integrity means being totally honest and truthful in every part of your life. Integrity means having your insides match your outsides. This means that your behavior reflects those values that you say you believe in.
The Bible makes it very clear that from your heart comes your entire life. Your words, your thoughts, your deeds, all start in your heart. You are and you will become what you think in your heart. But the Bible says that apart from Christ you cannot have integrity. The core of integrity is a transformed heart and until Christ transforms your heart you can’t truly have it all together.
“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things”. Philippians 4:8 (King James Bible)