3 And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.” – Job 2:3
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines integrity as a “firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values: INCORRUPTIBILITY; an unimpaired condition: SOUNDNESS; the quality or state of being complete or undivided: COMPLETENESS.”[1] W.L Walker teaches the English Word integrity is the translation of the Hebrew words tōm and tummāh (תֹּם, תֻּמָּה) The translation of tōm is “simplicity,” “soundness,” “completeness,” rendered also “upright,” “perfection.” Its original sense appears in the phrase letōm, “simplicity” (1 Kings 22:34; 2 Ch 18:33). However, the translation “integrity” appears also (Gen 20:5, 6; 1 Kings 9:4; Ps 7:8; 25:21; 26:1, 11; 41:12; 78:72; Prov 19:1; 20:7), in all which places it seems to carry the meaning of simplicity, or sincerity of heart and intention, truthfulness, uprightness. Finally, the plural (tummīm) is one of the words on the breastplate of the high priest (Ex 28:30; Dt 33:8; Ezra 2:63; Neh 7:65), one of the sacred lots, indicating, perhaps, “innocence” or “integrity.”[2]
The first-time integrity made an impression on me was in high school. Do not get me wrong. My parents taught me integrity and raised me to have integrity. However, I learned the hard way that you know you have integrity when you lose it, and it is difficult to get back. Unfortunately, I had several instances of learning this hard lesson.
I am not going to get into all my sinful teenage debaucheries. However, the first time I really lost integrity was with my first boss. He was a good man—a man who was known in the community to have high moral standards. I was running with the wrong crowd and acting like a nincompoop. My nincompooperies reached the ears of my boss. One Saturday morning, we drove to his office, and he asked me to sit down. He proceeded to admonish me of all the hearsay. I tried to deny it. “Not me,” I said. Putting forth the best convincing argument (and I thought I was doing a masterful job), I told my boss that whoever was talking about me had got it all wrong. Then his following words hit me on the head like a brick, “Mark, it is one thing to be in sin and get caught. It is another not to have the integrity to own your sin.”
Proverbs 19:1 says, Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool. My boss was right. My speech was crooked, and I looked like a fool in front of him. Because of my double life, my integrity was slipping. My “badness” was becoming associated more with my name than anything else. Not only that, I was dishonoring the good name of my parents and other family members.
Integrity is a character trait Christians should strive to keep because it is a compass for their life. Proverbs 11:3 states, The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them. Not only does integrity offer the Christian direction, but it is also one of life’s issues by which God judges us. David prays in Psalm 7:8, The Lord judges the peoples; judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.
In chapter one of the book of Job, God summons all the heavenly beings before his presence, and Satan is among them. God asks Satan what he has been up to, and Satan tells him he is traveling around the earth. God presents Job to him as someone to test, knowing Job possesses strong integrity and would not fail (Job 1:8). After losing possessions and children to various tragedies, Job remained faithful—never once wavering in faith or righteousness.
When Satan presents himself before the Lord in chapter two, the second scene in heaven, God almost word-for-word repeats what he stated in chapter one, verse eight, except for one caveat—he still holds fast his integrity. God brings out what Satan has not been ready to say, that Job’s character has stood the strain of catastrophic misfortune and that Satan’s insinuation against it had not been justified.[3]
The next verse tells us that his wife did not think so because she wants Job to finish his “secret unrighteousness” by publicly cursing God and dying (2:9), and most of the first half of the book tells us Job’s friends implore him to confess his secret sin(s) that has caused all his misery. However, God does not judge Job this way—he still holds fast to his integrity. Indeed, God judges the heart, for how would anyone else know Job remained faithful to Him.
The Bible makes it clear God’s people must be diligent to keep sound integrity. Randall Lolley illustrates how William Willimon was confronted with the idea of having integrity in teaching and preaching by an unknown pastor. Lolley writes, “Some time ago, William Willimon, chaplain at Duke University, was preaching for a pastor who was away on vacation. As he entered the pulpit and opened the Bible, his eye caught sight of a brass plate affixed to the top of the pulpit. Dr. Willimon says that over the years, he has seen a number of these plaques generally bearing the same inscription. But this time, to his surprise, he read quite a different line— ‘What are you trying to do to these people?’ It is a good question. And one that every person ought to ask before attempting to proclaim the gospel.”[4]
To have steadfast integrity, a Christian must first look to Jesus. Jesus shows us what we strive to be like. The Apostle John reminds us that Jesus is the true light (John 1:6-9). The Apostle Luke tells us that Jesus never faltered when Satan tempted Him in the desert (Luke 4:1-13). Jesus shows us what perfect integrity looks like. Every Biblical account shows His integrity as a man toward God and people. When He lived on earth fully human and fully God, the eyewitness accounts and His own heart expressions show complete commitment to do only the Father’s will.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the gifted nineteenth-century London “prince of preachers,” said this in one of his later sermons, “I feel that, if I could live a thousand lives, I would like to live them all for Christ, and I should even then feel that they were all too little a return for His great love to me.”[5] May we strive to live our lives “all for Christ” with the utmost integrity.
[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/integrity. Accessed on 1/11/2023 at 3:32 PM.
[2] W. L. Walker, “Integrity,” ed. James Orr et al., The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (Chicago: The Howard-Severance Company, 1915), 1484.
[3] Samuel Rolles Driver and George Buchanan Gray, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Job, vol. 1, International Critical Commentary (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1921), 20.
[4] W. Randall Lolley, “Integrity in the Proclamation of the Gospel Titus 2:7–8,” Faith and Mission 4, no. 2 (1986): 86.
[5] Cited in Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon, 2d ed. (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1973), 20.
Andrews PCA 