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We live in a world where the word integrity seems to have lost its power. Maybe we have lost the definition of what it means to have integrity. According to Webster, integrity is adherence to a code of moral or artistic values. Another word used is “incorruptibility.”

To have integrity is to stand on what we know, what is right despite the circumstances we find ourselves in, or when it becomes unpopular in the society in which we live. I think we can be honest and say that integrity is sorely missed in the days in which we live. We just voted for those who will be in leadership for at least the next four years, and we could probably all agree that integrity wasn’t a voting point because there just isn’t any. People will say and do whatever they must to get what they want.

This is not to be so for the followers of Jesus. Integrity should be one of the greatest attributes of a person of God. We see a great example of this in Job. Here is a man who had almost all his earthly possessions and even his health taken away from him. Even his wife looked at his situation and told him just to curse God and die, give up.

Yet, amid his circumstances, even his friends were declaring that Job must be in sin for this all to happen to him. Job would not submit to circumstances, nor would he turn his back on God. Through it all we see Job speak these words in chapter 27, verses 2-6, “As God lives, who has taken away my right, And the Almighty, who has embittered my soul, 3 For as long as life is in me, And the breath of God is in my nostrils, 4 My lips certainly will not speak unjustly, Nor will my tongue mutter deceit. 5 Far be it from me that I should declare you right; Till I die I will not put away my integrity from me. 6 I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go. My heart does not reproach any of my days.”

You can almost read his passion and resolve to stay faithful to the Lord and not go against what he knew to be true and right. This is a great measuring stick of our spiritual maturity. The challenge for us is not to allow the current of our society to dictate to us how we should behave, nor dictate our integrity.

We belong to Jesus and because of that, we have in us an inner strength given by the Holy Spirit that will help us to be faithful, to walk with our heads held high, and to be people of integrity. Let us be the lighthouse that draws others to the harbor of salvation.