Like a Good Pair of blue Jeans . . .

Mike Hosey, An Elder

The non-Christian wise man, Confucius, once argued that the strength of a nation flows from the integrity of the home. He may have been a pagan, but he got that truth right. The same thing can be said of the strength of a church. Her strength, in part, derives from the integrity of her congregants. But this leads us to ask, how should we define integrity? And where or how do we get it?

My friend, Drew Castoral, defines integrity as being an undivided

Losing Jean Integrity!

whole. He likens it to blue jeans, or other woven fabrics in which all the threads are interlinked into a seamless wearable tapestry. He points out that if the cloth becomes frayed then those individual threads can be pulled out, and the whole thing unravels. It can quickly cease to be an undivided whole.

A church needs to to have integrity if she wishes to remain useful to God. For her to be an undivided whole means that her members must be wholly devoted to God. They must be an unbroken whole when it comes to their love for Him. This is an impossible task without the Holy Spirit, because the truest integrity is completely dependent on His presence and action. We can achieve this integrity by being diligent. That is if we exert our energies with careful and persistent effort toward pleasing God and keeping His commands then we will have spiritual growth toward that integrity. This is, after all, our duty (Ecclesiastes 12:13). And we should exercise that persistent effort daily with any task or mission he gives us. He tells us that if we seek Him diligently, then we will find Him (Proverbs 8:17).

But we can't just be diligent. We must also be consistent. Consistent means to be the same throughout. It means being the same where ever we are. C.S. Lewis put it this way. He famously said that integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching. So in order for us to be church members of integrity, we must be the same out in the world that we are at church. Our lives should be consistent.

Colossians 1:17 teaches that Jesus is the key to true integrity, because it is Jesus who holds all things together! So strive for integrity - to be that unbroken whole - by being diligent in your search and obedience as it regards God, and by being consistent in the application of the wisdom and character that he gives you through Jesus!