Man of Integrity

Have you ever done something you knew was not the right thing? Integrity is not only the way one thinks but the way one acts. In the movie Courageous, four men and their families are standing around ready to sign a resolution to be better leaders in their homes. Later in the movie, one man was caught stealing drugs from his own work environment. He was not a man of integrity publicly or privately when he signed that document. We as Christians must become a man of integrity in order for us to be true to ourselves and others around us. There are two observations of integrity that can be observed from the book of Daniel.   

        The first observation from the book of Daniel is a public integrity. Daniel 3 describes a situation between king Nebuchadnezzar and the three friends of bowing down and worshipping a golden image. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had a public integrity of proclaim who they were going to worship as their God. Their integrity was seen by two choices, dying or living of bowing down to the golden image. Our integrity will be proven through the choices we make in the public.

            The second observation from the book of Daniel is a private integrity. He was an excellent example of a man who had lived an honest life. The commissioners and satraps spied on him, talked to others about him, and watched him. They just had to find some kind of dirt on him so he would be lacking in integrity. However, there was nothing they could find on Daniel because he was living an honest life. Our private integrity will be proven through the honest lives we live.

            Paul tells us we must watch our life and sound doctrine closely (1 Tim 4:16). This means we need to pay attention to what we do in both our private and public life. The two cannot be coherent with each other.  I want you to write down everything you do every day, privately and publicly, and examine how integrity is being proven in your life. Let me just remind you, it is never too late to start doing the right thing.  We need to live it, commit to it, and start doing the right thing, not only for you but mainly for God.