Integrity

What can wash away our sins?

What can make us hole again?

Nothing but the blood.

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Do these words sound familiar?

That's because they are part of a song called 'Nothing but the blood'. This song is full of integrity.

Integrity, according to the dictionary, is; The quality or state of being complete; wholeness; entireness; (and) unbroken state.

So integrity means whole, and, as it says in the song I mentioned earlier, nothing can make us whole except for the blood of Jesus.

So we know we can have integrity though Jesus' blood, but the word integrity has other meaning other meanings.

The dictionary says that the word integrity also means; The entire, unimpaired state or quality of anything; perfect condition; soundness.

So integrity also means unswayed or unchanging.

This brings to mind another worship song, 'Your love never fails'.

In this song it says: 'You stay the same through the ages. Your love never changes'.

The 'You' in the song is, of course, God. So God shows integrity through his love. And so did his son.

In Matthew chapter 4 we learn how Jesus was tempted by the devil. But Jesus' integrity and love for us were so strong that he easily withstood the devil's temptation.

So integrity can mean whole and steadfast, but it can also mean something else.

The third and final description of the word integrity listed in the dictionary is: The quality or state of being sound moral principle; uprightness; honesty and sincerity. In short, truthful.

When most people think of the word truthful they are reminded of the story of a little wooden puppet who tells all kinds of lies. He gets in lots of trouble for it because his nose grows every time he tells a lie, making it very easy for everyone else to tell when he's telling a lie.

But usually it is rather difficult to tell when someone is lying.

In the story of Joseph, located in Genesis 37, Jacob (Joseph's father) is told by his ten oldest sons that Joseph was killed by a wild animal, even though they knew full well that Joseph was alive. Jacob is unable to see through their lie any is grief stricken for quite some time before finally leaning that Joseph is really alive.

But God can help us see the truth.

For instance, in Acts chapter 5 we can read the story of Ananias and Sapphira. They sell some of their land and give part of the money to the apostles and decided to keep the rest for themselves. This would have been fine, but they decided to tell the apostles that the had given them all the money, so God told Peter that they were lying and he struck them down.

So there are three different kinds of integrity a Christian, or anyone for that matter, can have. Most of us have at least one of these three kinds of integrity, but it's only through God that we can have them all. So I encourage you to ask God to help you attain all three. They are all attributes worth having!