Insight for the Journey

Perhaps the greatest character quality for an effective Christian life is integrity. Integrity means that there is a wholeness about our lives, a thorough integration of our beliefs and behavior. We are consistent.

Paul uses a special word picture in 2 Corinthians 1:12 that has always meant a lot to me. He says, “Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God’s grace.”

Paul says look, “I know there are these critics that are attacking my integrity but I have a clear conscience and I’m telling you we have been on the up and up, we have been sincere, our motives have been holy and I’m promising you that I’m the real deal.”

The word translated “sincerity” in that verse comes from a compound Greek word that literally means “sunshine judged.” The ancients made fine porcelain vases that were very expensive. Sometimes when a vase was heated in the kiln, it would crack. Dishonest merchants would pour pearly white wax over the cracks which would hide the flaws unless the vases were taken outside of the dark shops and held up in the bright sunlight. It was only then, in the revealing light of the sun that the cracks would be obvious. So, honest merchants would advertise their porcelain “heilikrinos” — sunshine judged. In other words, without wax, no cracks, no covering of the flaws. That’s the kind of integrity God wants in us. When sincerity flow from our lives, there’s no deception or embellishing the truth for personal advantage. Paul says, “My life is sunshine-judged.” Can we say that of ourselves?

There’s a great book from 2001 called Lessons from the Top: The 50 Most Successful Business Leaders in America—and What You can Learn from Them by Thomas Neff and James Citrin. Through the guidance of Gallup Poll surveys and other sources, the authors studied who they felt were the top fifty business leaders in the US. Some of them are household names like Bill Gates. Some of the names you would not recognize. But based on the finest research available, these were deemed the top business leaders in the United States. The authors went to each leader, interviewed them and asked “What took you to the top? What has made you so successful?” And the fifty chapters in the book reflect those responses.

At the end of the book the authors collate everything they’ve learned from these fifty people, and they ask “What are the top lessons we can learn about being a successful leader? And they reduced it to six principles that all of these leaders had in common. Do you know what number one was?

The number one principle of becoming a great leader:
“To live with integrity and lead by example.”

Those are their words, not mine. Wow, think about that. The number one quality: to live with integrity and lead by example.

When disciples of Jesus live that way, we are letting our lives be our ministry.

Who do you want to influence? If you want to impact people for Christ, it is imperative that they believe in you and your integrity first. People usually buy into you before they buy into Christ. Your message will always be heard in context with your character.