Possession 5: Integrity

Integrity guides what I do

“The integrity of the upright shall guide them…” (Proverbs 11:3a)

I was once told that integrity was defined as “keeping your actions and intentions aligned.”  I like that definition and find it to be extremely applicable in many areas of life.  When we looked at the list of things to leave behind we saw that the opposite of integrity is corruption.  People who are corrupt often do not keep their actions and intentions aligned.  But there was a critical element missing from this definition, something deeper, something that, without it, you actually open up the door for the question, “If the intentions are evil, and the actions evil, hasn’t the evil one acted with integrity?”  It is a classic “if-then” Venn diagram.  And it is a valid question.  When Shakespeare said “to thine own self be true” he didn’t mention whether “thine own self” was a saint or a brigand.  So there must be more to integrity.  There must be a more certain meaning.

We find it in scripture.

“But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity.”  (Psalm 26:11a)

The word here in Greek is “tom.”  One definition of this word is given as “innocence.”  As followers we are to carry our innocence with us.  Innocence is a freedom from guilt or sin.  Because we have been made whole and forgiven through the atoning work on the cross, because we have been washed and covered by His blood, we are innocent going forward.  Even, we are counted innocent completely.  And the key point of that innocence is the freedom we experience.  “Who the Son sets free is free indeed.”    We are no longer slaves to sin and death, but rather have been bought, redeemed, by our Savior.  It is in this purchasing of our souls, and the gift of eternal life we receive, that the Father declares us innocent, not guilty, free from the shackles that would carry us to the grave.  We will need this freedom if we are to be effective in our pursuit of His glory.  If we are to follow Him with all of who we are.  Innocence is like a clear canvas, a clean slate, on to which Christ can paint as He will.  

I had a teacher in high school who used a great technique to help us have a greater appreciation and understanding of the English language.  He would have us make up new words, using different root words and adding whatever prefixes and suffixes we desired as long as we could then give a definition that was in-line.  It was a lot of fun, and though I can’t remember the words that we came up with, I still hold onto that love of words and the search to understand them.  Like the word “tomorrow.”  Like many other people I would look this up and find “to” to also mean “until” and “morrow” to mean morning.  Thus tomorrow means “until the morning.”  However, in light of what we have learned about tom in Greek, I like to think of tomorrow as tom-morrow or “innocence of the morning” or “morning innocence.”  When we say “until tomorrow,” we are in a sense saying, “until the innocence of the morning.” 

The innocence of the morning; Integrity; when the darkness of the night is dispelled by the glorious light.  It is the fresh start that leaves all of what happened the day before in the past.

Lord,

That we would have integrity, that we would accept the innocence that only You can give, that we remove the rust and corruption of the past and lay them down at Your feet and take on the burden that You would have us carry.

In the integrity of our hearts we pray.

Amen.

SDG