The man of integrity does what he does because he is what he is. He is the same in public or in private, during times of relative ease or of great pressure. He does not pretend to be something he is not-ever. There is a powerful simplicity to that kind of life and the ministry that springs from it.
The Old Testament's word for integrity (tummah) captures this simplicity or innocence of life, along with completeness or fullness. Both the Old and New Testaments underscore the reality that no human being but Jesus Christ is sinless, so integrity for the believer does not mean sinlessness, but sincere and single-hearted devotion.
In Psalm 25:21 David prays, "Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee." The preceding verses weave together a tapestry of intimate trust, humble repentance, and holy desire. In Psalm 26:1-3 David catalogs the ways he has displayed his integrity, but he starts at the root of it: his heart relationship to God. "Judge [vindicate] me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD; therefore I shall not slide. Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart. For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy truth." Integrity must reside in the heart, the home, the marketplace, and the pulpit.
In the heart
First, we must forge integrity in the heart. Doing so is impossible apart from God's redeeming grace and regenerating Spirit. A minister of the Word lives under the constant danger of becoming a professional Christian leader rather than an authentic man of God. In Matthew 15:8 Jesus quoted Isaiah 29:13: "This people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by precept of men." Greatly used servants of the Lord often stress this theme. In a letter to a gifted young man about to enter the ministry, John Newton wrote, "Beware, my friend, of mistaking the ready exercise of gifts for the exercise of grace.
