Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out. —Proverbs 10:9
I’ve heard it said that honesty is telling the truth to others, but integrity is telling the truth to yourself. It’s doing what is right, no matter who’s looking.
Integrity isn’t based just on what you know but how you live. Jesus told a story in Matthew 7 about the wise man who built his house on a rock and the foolish man who built on the sand. Usually I think of wisdom as something you know. But Jesus puts the emphasis on what you do. He said, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man” (v. 24).
Jesus used this story as the punctuation mark at the end of His Sermon on the Mount. He had just addressed anger, lust, divorce, retaliation, loving your enemies, giving to the needy, and laying up treasure in heaven. It was as if He laid out the blueprints for a sturdy life, then asked, “Now, who’s going to build according to My plan?”
Make it Personal
Ask God to show you if you’re living according to His “blueprints” or if your life is “crooked” like it says in Proverbs 10:9.