In Part 1, I talked about the way our lives have been stripped down by this virus. Many of us are in isolation at home, with changed work lives and greatly diminished social lives. It is an opportunity for us to think about what it means to have our identity established “in Christ”. In Part 2, I looked at the Old Testament for clues as to what it means to live wholly for God. I said that it mirrors the way God acts toward us: consistency in word, thought and action. Now we will look at the particular application of being whole-hearted: living with integrity.
Integrity is the concept that most captures the idea of living wholly for God, of being a living sacrifice. Integrity is also in the semantic range of tamim, as it is used in Amos 5:10 to describe a society which has fallen away from God:
There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in court
and detest the one who tells the truth (tamim).
Integrity points to the core of what it means to be integral, to be whole-hearted. It is being honest and truthful in word and action and thought. It refers to consistency in all areas and at all times.
NT Wright describes this as being the core of John’s Gospel:
In his letters, John expresses delight at believers who are 'walking in the truth': those who behave with an integrity that reflects the gospel. For him, such people show their love for God by obeying him. Obedience involves not just understanding correct doctrine and proper outward behaviour, but also loving fellow believers. This love for God and humanity, John writes, shows that the truth of the gospel has really been grasped not only as an abstract idea, but as the very life of God himself at work in his people.
And Tim Keller talks about prayer as being the key to discovering integrity:
If we give priority to the outer life, our inner life will be a dark, scary room. We will not know what to do with solitude. We will be deeply uncomfortable with self-examination, and we will have an increasingly short attention span for any kind of reflection. Even more seriously, our lives will lack integrity. Outwardly, we will need to project confidence, spiritual and emotional health and wholeness, while inwardly we may be filled with self-doubts, anxieties, self-pity, and old grudges. Yet we won’t know how to go into the inner rooms of the heart, see clearly what is there, and deal with it. In short, without putting a priority on the inner life, we turn ourselves into hypocrites.
You may speak a great deal about what a “blessing” your faith is and how you “just really love the Lord,” but if you are prayerless—is that really true? If you aren’t joyful, humble, and faithful in private before God, then what you appear to be on the outside won’t match what you truly are.
Prayer is the key to our relationship with God, just as speaking and listening are the key to all our other significant relationships. Through prayer and God’s Word we open ourselves up to being shaped by the Spirit, to learn what it means to be integral again.
This is what has been enabled for us through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Through his sacrifice, he has opened up the way for us to live as a living sacrifice, for all the different areas of our lives to be fused together.
However, for many of us it will take intentional acts, such as prayer and other spiritual disciplines, to be shaped in the image of Christ.
As we rediscover our identity in Christ, we will be able to live wholly for God, being people of integrity, consistent in thought and word and deed.