Integrity in the Marketplace

What is Integrity?

- Being honest and having strong moral values. (Dictionary)

INTEGRITY Faithful support of a standard of values. Terms which occur in parallel with integrity (Hb. tom, tomim) suggest its shades of meaning: righteousness (); uprightness (); without wavering ( NRSV, NASB, NIV); (Holman Bible Dictionary)

Pocket Dictionary of Ethics Integrity

integrity. As a general concept, the quality or state of being whole or complete. As an ethical term, uprightness in character, authenticity; the situation in which outward conduct arises out of and coheres with sound, inwardly held moral principles. To act in accordance with such principles is to act with integrity. The Christian vision of integrity suggests that personal authenticity entails living in accordance with moral principles arising out of God’s intention for human existence, or acting in accordance with personal convictions that are based on an understanding of God’s purposes for creation, humankind and the person as a disciple of Jesus.

Brand, C., Draper, C., England, A., Bond, S., Clendenen, E. R., & Butler, T. C. (Eds.). (2003). Integrity. In Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (pp. 827–828). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

We think of Job, he was identified as be blameless or having integrity.

 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.”

We think of Solomon and what God said to him in 1 Kings

1 Kings 9:4–5 ESV

And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’

English Standard Version Chapter 9

4 And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, 5 then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father

“The Lord judges the peoples; judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.”

English Standard Version Chapter 5

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

English Standard Version 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.

“May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.”

English Standard Version Psalm 7

The LORD judges the peoples;

judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness

and according to the integrity that is in me.

English Standard Version Psalm 25

21  May integrity and uprightness preserve me,

for I wait for you.

“Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering”

English Standard Version Psalm 25

May integrity and uprightness preserve me,

for I wait for you.

“Blesses are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

English Standard Version Psalm 26

1  Vindicate me, O LORD,

for I have walked in my integrity,

and I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

We are going to look into the book of Proverbs to see what the Lord has to say about Integrity

Turn with me to Proverbs chapter 10

“Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out. Whoever winks the eye causes trouble, and a babbling fool will come to ruin.”

English Standard Version Chapter 10

9  Whoever walks in integrity walks securely,

but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.

10  Whoever winks the eye causes trouble,

and a babbling fool will come to ruin.

Why should we have Integrity?

Proverbs makes it pretty clear along with the rest of the bible that we are to have integrity. First, those who are crooked will be found out—many business and companies have built empires only to have them crash down when there crooked ways are discovered. Meanwhile, the righteous man walks securely; people cannot challenge the worthiness of his work because he has done it correctly.

“God not only teaches and commands us to work hard, He also commands us to work honestly. We are going to discuss what it looks like to do our work with full honesty and integrity despite the fact that the world, the flesh—and yes, the Devil—constantly tempt us to cheat.”

English Standard Version Chapter 11

3  The integrity of the upright guides them,

but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.

“The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.”

“For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it.”

“Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool.”

“Whoever walks in integrity will be delivered, but he who is crooked in his ways will suddenly fall.”

“The Lord abhors dishonest scales, but accurate weights are his delight.

Scales were used for trading in the biblical times and merchants would try and adjust the scales to increase their profit. “As common as dishonest scales and inaccurate weights must have been in the ancient world, their twenty-first century equivalents are too many to count. After all, man’s natural tendency to sin has not changed. Greed can tempt us to seek an unfair advantage whenever we buy or sell. Laziness or malice toward employers can tempt us to cut corners in the quality of our work. Homemakers, students and other who certainly work, if not actually for pay, face their own regular temptation to act with lack of integrity.”

If I hire someone to take the leaves in my yard, I have the right to expect that person will rake all the leaves that can reasonable be raked. If I hire someone to pull weeds for one hour, I have a right to expect a full hour of focused weed-pulling. If I am being paid to work a particular job for forty hours a week, I have made a moral commitment actually to be engaged in labor beneficial to my employer for at least the entire forty hours, every week. Anything less is simply the modern equivalent of false weights or a dishonest scale.

English Standard Version Chapter 16

11  A just balance and scales are the LORD’s;

all the weights in the bag are his work.

“A just balance and scales are the Lord’s; all the weights in the bag are his work.”

We don’t have time to get into the story of Jacob but there is all sorts of times he was dishonest. He pushed Esau to cheat him out of his birthright, dealt dishonestly with his father-in-law, and so o and yet later in life he was a man of honesty, integrity and principle. His sons travel to Egypt to get grain; and when they returned with the grain and the silver he sent them with (remember Jospeh when he saw his brothers that had sold him off, put the silver back into the sacks without them knowing), Jacob didn’t congraulate them for being just like he was at their age. Instead he sent them back to Egypt not willing to deceive or cheat.

This proverb is a quick and direct reminder that everything is the Lord’s. Everything we do and everything we have is God’s. The irony of those who are trying to cheat or dishonestly gain using scales or weights? They are using the Lord’s scales and he is the one who created the bags.

God promised to give specific things to Jacob, yet Jacob spent much of his life trying to steal those things. What hard God promised you and me and every one of his children?

He will never leave us or forsake us ()

He makes all things work together for our good ()

He provides all that we need (, )

He will bring us safely to heaven ()

“God’s unbreakable commitment to us includes a promise to work all things for our good, and to provide all we need. Our proper response to those promises is to do our work (or school, or athletic, or anything else) to our best efforts and to the glory of God. Then we leave the rest up to him. He initiates the promises in mercy and love; we obey the promises in faith; and he fulfills the promises by grace, at the right time and in the right way.”

What are ways we lack integrity in school?

Not focusing on assingments

Cheating on a test

Copying answers off someone else

Looking up answers online?

Not doing your assignments and saying that you have

Phones, social media, video games, Netflix are all dangers to our integrity because we are do easily distracted by these things when we are supposed to be doing our school work, work, chores, etc.

What are ways we lack integrity at home?

Blaming others for messes

Covering up messes in our room instead of actually cleaning

Playing video games when we are supposed to be watching our sibling

Misrepresenting situations or the truth

We are called to be faithful in all that we do and do everything we can for the glory of God. We will not be watched all the time—but God is watching. Proverbs reminds us that the crooked will be found out. We are called to live with integrity in our work, schooling, and around the house.

I challenge you this week to ensure that you are living in a pattern of integrity. Do your school work to the best that you can and do it for the glory of God. When you are supposed to be doing something, fully dedicate your time to that.