Integrity

I've had the privilege to be on the teaching side of a 6-week study on ethics (Doing the Right Thing by the Colson Foundation) with the college group at our church.  One of the principles we've frequently encountered over the course of the last month has been the idea of integrity.  I was reminded as we dove into the discussion that there is more to possessing integrity than simply having good moral quality, a positive reputation, or even honesty.  Integrity more than just a moral compass, more than just the intersection of belief and action -- though it is certainly not less than that.

Integrity is wholeness.

It's the secondary definition in Merriam-Webster, but it's ironically the more applicable when it comes to ethics.  If a boat's hull has lost integrity, it is full of holes.  If an argument has no integrity, it is structurally flawed.  By definition, integrity is completeness, soundness, stability.  It means being unified, unimpaired, of sound construction.  Waterproof.

James discusses this idea thoroughly in his epistle to the scattered believers in persecution.  In fact, spiritual integrity -- wholeheartedness -- is the main thrust of his entire argument.  Don't be double-minded, he says (1.8).  Don't separate faith and works into two separate entities, he pleads, because they are two sides of the same coin (2.26).  Don't doubt when you make a request of the Lord, he argues, but have faith that the One you are petitioning not only has the power to assist but also the desire to do so (1.6, 17-18).  Don't yield curses and blessings from the same mouth, he insists, because the practice of slandering is perhaps the quickest way to undermine a testimony of righteousness (3.10).

Don't be subdivided.  Be wholehearted.

There is no room for a Christian to have divided allegiances, even in the midst of such extenuating circumstances as the early church was enduring.  To serve two masters, to devote ourselves to Christ in word alone while our deeds are devoted to serving self, is to have no integrity.  To have no integrity means more than just a breakdown of moral responsibility: it's the inability to live righteously.  When society makes integrity more about the conscience or the ability to do good things, it becomes easy to bifurcate spirituality into religious components, but believers shouldn't separate civil service from the obligation that drives it.

Integrity, wholeness, is a crucial element to Christian living because it informs our hearts, not just our moral behavior.