Simple Honesty > Shady Twistedness.
Sure, I think you’d agree -- a lifestyle of wise integrous transparency beats a complicated foolish lifestyle of fake news, lying and deception.
How candid are you? Are there people you desire to impress! Do you seek to gain and then cover up how you did gain adding one lie to another to another? If you’re honest in conversations you don’t really have to remember as much in order to match new lies to obfuscate what’s so.
Do you keep your promises (about what percentage of them)? How’s your personal character and personality? How do you love God and His people looking out for them and others? What do you feel you deserve? Do you express gratitude and praise to God? Do you lead a most integrous life? What’s been your aim, or biblical strategy?
Have you ever lied or tried to make someone believe something that didn’t happen or wasn’t so (have you ever tried to deceive someone)? How honest are you? How do you plan to maintain a lifestyle of integrity and repentance in the future? Is it like that now, or not as much as you really want your life to be like?
Make it your ambition to lead an honest, peaceful, and quiet life in harmony with Jesus. That involves minding “your own business and working with your hands…so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”
"..make it your ambition to live quietly and peacefully, and to mind your own affairs and work with your hands, just as we directed you, so that you will behave properly toward outsiders [exhibiting good character, personal integrity, and moral courage worthy of the respect of the outside world], and be dependent on no one and in need of nothing be self-supporting." 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 amp
Daily choose to die to self and lying. A quiet simple life helps me. Let’s all try a simple life of humility, contentment, fellowship, clean celebration and godly faithfulness. When your mind is set on things above where there’s zero lies or deception, when your life is hidden in Christ, our lives display what is God-honoring and God-glorifying. Living with simplicity of conversations and living with less (with what you need). This could mean less distractions, less time with people that pull you down (we need to spend some time witnessing to the lost), with far less clutter, less noise.
“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:2-3
“For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.” nlt
Ethical integrity is one of the indispensable attributes of Christlike character. As vital as it is to be sound in doctrine, in spirit, in thoughtlife and faithful in teaching the truth of Scripture, it is by no means less crucial for Christians to be upright in heart and consistent in our obedience to Direct Authority – to the moral and ethical principles of God’s law. Thanks Lord for the many ideas from my So Cal and Texas Pastor friends who live the life and regularly challenged me.
That is no simple duty, by the way. The moral standard that God’s people are supposed to live by far surpasses even the highest principles of normal human ethics.
This was one of the main points of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: “I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20). The whole sermon was an exposition of the Law’s moral meaning. The heart of Jesus’ message was an extended discourse against the notion that the Law’s moral principles apply only to behavior that others can see.
Jesus taught, that the sixth commandment forbids not only acts of murder, but having a murderous heart as well (vv. 21–22). Hating people is wrong. The seventh commandment, which forbids adultery, also implicitly condemns even adulterous lustful desires (vv. 27–28). And the command to love our neighbors applies even to those who are our enemies (vv. 43–44).
How high is the moral and ethical standard set by God’s holy law? Unimaginably high. I need the Christ and His Holy Spirit every day of my existence here. Jesus equates this standard with God’s own perfection:
“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (v. 48).
Yes, that sets an unattainable standard..in our own power. Do you clearly see the great need for Jesus yet? It is our duty to pursue integrity in Him relentlessly. Perfect ethical consistency is a vital aspect of that consummate goal — absolute Christlikeness — toward which every Christian should continually be striving in prayer for (Phil. 3:12–14). Will it take cooperation with the Spirit. Absolutely, so pray without ceasing. No believer, therefore, should ever knowingly sacrifice his or her ethical integrity.
When you blow it, please own it and go tell on yourself to God. He sees it all and knew what would happen before you poorly chose. Before it happened.
So ask for free forgiveness from Him and then from others you’ve hurt. Receive God’s cleansing, trust Him to change you from the inside out, and make then restitution as He leads you to. He can do it, can alter your habitual lifestyle of dishonesty.
The perfect One can help you live righteously, with right relationships. He can help you tell the truth in this so called post-honesty kind of world.
What are some Bible verses about deception?
What does the Bible say about cheating in school?
Got some Bible verses to memorize about honest and godly character?
Here are three powerful reasons why safe-guarding integrity is important:
1.) It’s for the sake of a good name. God wants you to have one as His representative. What’s your our own reputation like? Of course, Christians should not be concerned with issues like status, class, caste, or economic prestige. In that sense, we need to be like Christ, who made Himself of no reputation and took on the form of a servant (Phil. 2:7).
There is a true sense, however, in which we do need to be concerned about maintaining a good reputation — and that is especially true in the matter of ethical integrity. One of the basic requirements for an elder is this: “He must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil” (1 Tim. 3:7 nasb).
Nothing will ruin a good reputation faster or more permanently than a deliberate breach of ethical integrity. People will forgive practically any other kind of error, negligence, or failure — but ethical bankruptcy carries a stigma that is almost impossible to rise above.
Have you messed up in the area of honesty? Please take a lesson from Zaccheus: repent and do whatever you can to restore your reputation in the community. In the meantime, stop representing yourself as a Christian. You’re destroying the whole church’s reputation.”
According to Proverbs 22:1, “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.” You don’t have a good name at all unless your ethical integrity is intact and above reproach. Do people trust you? How much? It takes a long time to gain the trust, but trust can be lost in a few seconds. If you’ve lost it, then through Christ rebuild what you can of it okay.
2.) It’s for the sake of our personal character. There’s a good reason why Jesus’ exposition of the moral law in Matthew 5 focused so much on uprightness of heart as opposed to external behavior.
The real barometer of who we are is reflected in what we do when no one else is looking, how we think in the privacy of our own thoughts, and how we respond to the promptings of our own consciences. Those things are the true measure of your moral and ethical fiber.
As important as it is to keep a good reputation in the community, it is a thousand times more important to safeguard our own personal character. That is why Jesus dealt with the issues of morality and ethics beginning with the innermost thoughts of our hearts. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matt. 15:19).
The single most important battlefield in the struggle for integrity is your own mind. That’s where everything will actually be won or lost. And if you lose there, you have already ruined your character. A corrupt character inevitably spoils the reputation, too, because a bad tree can’t bring forth good fruit (Matt. 7:18).
3.) Another reason why it is vital to prayerfully safe-guard our moral and ethical integrity: is for the sake of our Christian testimony. God allows tests to see if you pass and so you’ll have a testimony. What’s your story like? Is it one of victory in the name of Jesus or one of spiritual compromise? Your reputation reflects what people say about you. Your testimony is what your character, your behavior, and your words say about God.
Consider what is being communicated when a Christian lacks ethical integrity. That person is saying he doesn’t truly trust, follow or believe what Scripture plainly says is true of God: That “to do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice” (Prov. 21:3). That “the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is acceptable to him” (15:8). And that God “delight[s] in truth in the inward being” (Ps. 51:6).
The person who neglects ethical or moral integrity is telling a lie about God with his life and his attitude. If he calls himself a Christian and professes to be a child of God, he is in fact taking God’s name in vain at the most fundamental level.
What does the Bible say about being honest, yes, a person of integrity?
What principles should distinguish a Christian business?
What does the Bible say about non-deceitful, godly Christian character?
Need some more content related to Christian Character organized into subcategories?
“In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word translated “integrity” means “the condition of being without blemish, completeness, perfection, sincerity, soundness, uprightness, wholeness.” Integrity in the New Testament means “honesty and adherence to a pattern of good works.”
Christians are called to know, follow and be like Jesus Christs. In Christ, we are new creations and can be considered without blemish before God (2 Corinthians 5:17, 21; Ephesians 1:4–8). In Christ, we also have the indwelling Holy Spirit at work in us, sanctifying us and making us more like Jesus (Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18). We are also to strive to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Philippians 2:12–13). It is by God’s power that we become increasingly people of integrity. We are called to obey God and, in so doing, to be people of uncompromised morality and integrity. Christians should be those who adhere to the truth and who do good works.
“Integrity” in our world today implies moral incorruptibility. Christians should be those who cannot be bribed or compromised because we serve God rather than men (Colossians 3:17, 23; Acts 5:29). We are to be people who keep our word (Matthew 5:37; James 5:12). We are to love those around us in both word and deed (1 John 3:17–18; James 2:17–18; Ephesians 4:29). We are called upon to believe in God and therefore to follow Him in all our ways (John 6:19; 15:1–17). Our lives should line up with our belief in God and evince a trust that His ways are best (Proverbs 3:5–6).
"For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11 nlt
I am His doulos forever--(that word is found at least 127 times in 119 verses in the New Testament Scriptures and means "slave owned by another"). Yes, Jesus is my Master and full, on-fire obedience from the heart is what Christianity is all about. No cold hard-heart, no lukewarm-ness, no spiritual compromise, and no excuses. Is Christ your Master today? Do you have an assurance inside that you are right with Him? You can. You can turn and trust the Lord today -- even now.
