Value-Added Integrity ~ 1 Thessalonians 2.1-8

Good Day~

As we turn the page to chapter two, it would appear from the text that Paul stood accused of another agenda besides just preaching the gospel. In response, he decries any impure motives, trickery, or flattery in winning people to Christ. Rather, Paul writes, ‘we speak as messengers approved by God’, or as ‘men approved by God’ to preach the Good News. Take a look--


1 Thessalonians 2.1-3 You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not a failure. You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there. Yet our God gave us the courage to declare his Good News to you boldly, in spite of great opposition. So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery. v. 4-8 For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts. Never once did we try to win you with flattery, as you well know. And God is our witness that we were not pretending to be your friends just to get your money! As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else. (NLT)

In this letter to the Thessalonians, Paul illustrates how he had deliberately lived an upright life before them. Here, as in other places in his letters, Paul sets himself up as someone who should be imitated. Paul lived out of a pure heart, which is why he could say he was approved by God, and, his actions spoke loudly of his integrity. Hmmm . . . what is your definition of integrity? [Pause. . . think for a moment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ] Would you say something like, ‘what you do when no one’s looking’? Or integrity is ‘being honest and fair, of high moral fiber’? Before today, I would have been content with those answers, but not any more. You see, I came across Stephen Carter’s definition of integrity. . . and I am really taken with it:

“Integrity, as I will use the term, requires three steps:


1) discerning what is right and what is wrong

2) acting on what you have discerned, even at personal cost

3) saying openly that you are acting on your understanding of right from wrong.” Now, listen to this: “The first criterion captures the idea of integrity as requiring a degree of moral reflectiveness. The second brings in the ideal of an integral person as steadfast, which includes the sense of keeping commitments. The third reminds us that a person of integrity is unashamed of doing what is right.” [Stephen L. Carter has taught law at Yale for 30 years, and is author of the 1996 book entitled simply Integrity.]

If you agree with that definition of integrity, then #2 should galvanize you to action…right? And, for Christians, to live with integrity creates an even higher standard—sort of a ‘value-added’ integrity. For if we believe God has assigned us a task, and do not do it, our failure to obey is a breach of our integrity.

Paul reminds the people of the mistreatment he and Silas had suffered at the hands of the Philippians—Acts 16—who flogged them, and put them in stocks in jail. . . and yet, they continued on preaching the Gospel. . . why? God had called them to the task, and they obeyed, even at great personal cost. It was God they sought to please, and not people. Paul’s motives were not self-seeking; they were pure, because of his desire to please God.

How are you doing in the area of integrity?

Could you strive for more than just being honest?

Could you do what you say you are going to do,

and be moved to action in the ways God leads you—

--in small ways and big ways, even taking risks?

Then. . . you would dare to impact your world, in ways just like Paul.

Amen.

Christine