Does integrity exist anymore? Is everything we say worth repeating? Is everything we do worth exemplifying?
We are living in an age of questionable integrity. With the flick of a remote, our giant flat-screen TV's parade every sort of politician, teacher, priest, minister, every-day-person before us via live satellite filtration. Sadly, the most negative of creatures is the norm of public myopic magnification and microscopic scrutiny. As they are examined, vilified, impugned with innuendo, half-truths and out-right lies, the public has nibbled upon the appetizer of thinking that the whole pie is as poisoned as the waft of viral misinformation that's infected the air. i.e., If one priest molests children, all priests are suspect; if one minister is unfaithful, all ministers are culpable; if one police officer abuses his power, all police officers are abusers.
Availed to us is the fact-checking methods of Google, on line Newspapers, internet encyclopedias and Biblical interpretations. Yet, few people have time (or take time) to sit and get the information they need to make judgment upon the facts and evidence at hand. Most people are satisfied to take the nibble and consider it truth. Most people want to believe the worst of others. Most people do not trust anyone anymore. Why? Our world lacks integrity.
"Integrity means unimpaired purity of heart," writes Oswald Chambers. "Jesus Christ is not teaching ordinary integrity, but supernormal integrity, a likeness to our Father in heaven." Studies on the Sermon of the Mount, 1960.
Few people need exemplify this kind of integrity more than men who have the highest calling of God. Pastors. Ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I've heard and read from pastors who think that their flaws should be written off with the idea that they are only human: They are just like us. They are simply ordinary Christians standing on a higher geographical location on Sunday mornings than the folks in the pew.
I beg to differ.
I believe the men God calls to minister to His people are subject to the highest degree of integrity, the greater example of servanthood, the finest exhibit of spiritual fruit, and the noblest of intentions and motives. I believe it behooves our ministers to be above reproach. I believe God holds them accountable to this higher standard.
My pastor once preached from Job and he said, "If you have integrity, nothing else matters; but if you don't have integrity, nothing else matters." I can't remember if he quoted someone else. I just scurried to remember the statement as I scribbled it down on my notes. It plucked at my conscience and led me to post it by my computer. I've often looked at that little epithet as I've written things, and read things on my monitor. It begs me now to say, When we expect no better of ourselves, we get less than the best...and so does our Lord.
Christ has set the highest of examples: Forgive as He forgave. Give mercy as He gave mercy. Endure as He endured. Be submissive as He is submissive. Show compassion as He showed compassion. Sacrifice as He sacrificed. And as we dwell in Him and yield to Him in us, He will pour forth the seeds of change we need implanted in this world to bear fruit worthy of His name.
Never has the integrity of God's people been more examined and scrutinized than it is today. Never have we needed men of God to give us the walking, talking visible pattern of integrity than we do today. Never have we needed humility more defined, joy more expressed, and love more identifiably displayed. We need our pastors to lead us by their Christ-filled examples. We need them in our church hallways and hospital corridors. We need them in the pulpits and counseling offices. We need them in the vestibules of our lives--in our communities--in check-out lines and at restaurant tables, in sporting events. We need them to be the salt and light Christ called them to be and feed us with the Word of God as never before. We need their inspiration to hold our standards for Christ as our most valuable attribute and to live according to His teachings.
In an age of questionable integrity, we need pastors filled unquestionable integrity worthy of God's calling. We don't need ordinary men doing ordinary things. We don't need resume builders. We don't need maneuvering politicians. We don't need charismatic orators. We don't need word-parsing bloggers and argumentive critics. We need men willing to admit their mistakes without broad explanations. We need men willing to bow more to the Lord than bend to the ways of culture and the world. We need ordinary men doing extraordinary things that exemplify the "purity of heart" given them in Christ Jesus alone. We need them, and the world needs them. selahV
[© SelahV Today, hariette petersen, 2008]
