As you grow to be like Jesus, you learn to believe and trust in everything God says and does - because He’s always authentic and true and He always has integrity of heart. In the same way, as you grow to be more and more like Jesus, people will learn to trust in everything you say and do, and this integrity of heart will allow people to see Christ in you!

I want to share a piece of ancient wisdom with you: “A life of integrity stays on track – the opposite leads to catastrophe.” This wisdom is taken directly from Proverbs 11:3 which says: “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.” Eugene Peterson says it this way in The Message “The integrity of the honest keeps them on track; the deviousness of crooks brings them to ruin.” The New Living Translation puts it like this: “Good people are guided by their honesty; treacherous people are destroyed by their dishonesty.”

When you live a life of honesty and integrity – your life is under control and stays going in the right direction. But, try living a life in an opposite fashion – dishonest, false, secretive, conniving, shifty, and deceitful – and you’ll see your life fall off the tracks and get completely derailed.

James, the brother of Jesus, and leader of the Jerusalem Council when the Church was just beginning, talked about the importance of honesty and integrity. “Above all, my brothers, do not swear – not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your ‘Yes’ be yes, and your ‘No,’ no, or you will be condemned.” (James 5:12)

In Jesus’ day, people rarely signed written contracts for business and personal agreements. Instead, they swore oaths. The “thing” by which they swore supposedly bound them to keep their word. You’ve heard things like that in your own day-to-day life.

• I swear on my mother’s grave.
• On my life – I swear.
• Hand to God – I promise it’s true. (It’s where we got raising our hand to swear to God.)
• Hand on the Bible, I promise it’s true.
• I swan to Betsy. (My wife’s grandmother “Mimi” used to say that.)
• Cross my heart, hope to die; stick a needle in my eye.

We’ve come up with hands on Bibles, hands on hearts, hands raised, fingers making a “cross” on our heart, among other things as a sign of our honesty and trustworthiness. We use Bibles, crosses, and signs of all kinds to talk about or “prove” our honesty and integrity. All of these things were ways to force us to keep our word or assure someone else that your word was trustworthy.

It’s gotten to the point that we’re swearing to everything and by everything to validate our words, even invoking God’s name to do so. We sign contracts to pay credit cards and buy cars and houses – and then default on the loans or fail to pay what we agreed to pay and never go back and repay the debt. We go to court, and “swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God” and then withhold information, tell half-truths, and lie outright to get what we want.

The Jewish teachers knew all kinds of legal loopholes for escaping from such oaths without breaking the Jewish law – like keeping your fingers crossed or winking or whispering the truth under your breath or even holding your breath.

Jesus condemned this way of doing things. In Matthew 23:16-22 Jesus chastised the Pharisees about this: “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the One who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the One who sits on it.” (Matthew 23:16-22)

But Jesus taught this as well: “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is His footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. (Matthew 5:33-37) That’s where James got his teaching – from his brother, our Lord Jesus.

A person of integrity never has to say “I swear to God” to get people to believe him or her. We don’t have to take oaths to get people to believe us – when we say something – we mean it; when we agree to do something, we do it. We just say “yes” when we mean “yes” and “no” when we mean “no.” We say what is true. Our language represents our inner being; we say what we mean and mean what we say, and it can never be used against us.

But it takes on a whole new meaning in the life of a Christ-follower. When we say we’re going to love our neighbor “as ourselves” what do we mean by that? Do you do that? Do you love your neighbor as yourself – and what does that look like and how is that lived out? When we say that Jesus is our Lord – our Master – what do we mean by that? Is He your Lord and Master? Does He have complete control? How do you live that out? When we read that we’re to pray continually – do we really buy into that? Are you a constant pray-er? How do you live out constant and continuous prayer in your life?

These are just three simple things in a life lived for Christ. Love your neighbor as yourself, take Jesus as your Lord, pray without ceasing. The first one is a commandment – love your neighbor as yourself; the other two are teachings from Jesus and the Apostles. How well are you living these out?

Jesus truly loved people – but there have been times in my life when I have been irritated or repulsed by people who were so different than me. Jesus came and spent time defending prostitutes and sharing meals with tax collectors, and rubbing shoulders with smelly, rough-and-tumble fishermen, but I have had times in my own life when I’d do anything to avoid spending time with people like that. Ever watch “The Deadliest Catch” on TV? Those gritty, thick-skinned fishermen are just like Peter and Andrew – two of Jesus’ closest friends. Ponzi-scheme mastermind Bernie Madoff is not much different than the disciple Levi (a.k.a. Matthew) or Zacchaeus. Osama bin Laden could have been Judas Iscariot or Simon the Zealot – two more of Jesus’ disciples. The girls from Toledo’s seediest strip clubs could easily have been some of the women Jesus talked to and rescued and befriended – not out of His needs as a man, but out of the love in His heart that came from the purest of motivations.

I don’t know about you, but there have been times in my life when I couldn’t stand to be around sick and hurting and people who were down on their luck because they bothered me or scared me. Yet, Jesus’ expectations of me were to love them as much as I loved myself. Having a heart of integrity means that I must do exactly that. Now – after I’ve grown up a bit, there is no house too smelly, no nursing home too scary, no habit too repulsive, no social stigma too politically-sensitive, that will keep me from loving people like Jesus loves them.

How about you? Can you love your neighbor as yourself? Can you honestly say that and mean it?

I know of a time (or two) in my life when I have come to the stark and severe truth that I was not allowing Jesus to be my Lord and Master.

I had a friend in college ask if Jesus was my Lord. I was offended. “Of course He’s my Lord! Man - get off my case!”

My friend didn’t give up. “Does He have complete control in your life?”

“Well, duh! Of course He does.” I had my friend on the run.

“What has He asked you to do lately – and have you done what He asked?” was my friend’s comeback.

I had a quick and effective response: “See – that’s the thing. . . He’s never asked me to do anything! When He does – you can bet I’ll do what He tells me.”

And the truth was out.

We all sit around waiting.

• We’re “Mission Impossible” agents waiting to be sent on our impossible mission.
• We’re explorers waiting on someone to organize an adventure.
• We’re students waiting for our assignments.
• We’re teachers waiting on students to ask us to teach them.
• We’re soldiers waiting to be called up and sent out.

Of course He’s my Lord and Master – He’s just never asked me to do anything yet. Oh, really? Jesus has given us an entire library of instructions and commandments that help us love and serve and give testimony about Him – it’s called the Bible. Still, we sit around waiting to be “invited” or “ushered in” or to have our way made “easy.”

Being a person with a heart of integrity means that you not only accept the Lordship of Christ, but live it our every day. Do what He expects – don’t just wait for an engraved invitation. Jesus wants to be the Lord and Master of your life – can you honestly say that He is Lord, and will you sincerely and without hesitation do what He asks?

Elijah was a man whose words and actions could be trusted. Elijah was a prophet; a prophet is a person who receives a message from God – and then delivers that message exactly the way God wants it delivered. When a prophet speaks, he speaks the truth - the absolute truth - because he is speaking for God! Turn to 1 Kings 17:7-24 to read a story about two events that showed Elijah was a man of integrity.

Elijah spoke the truth. His words were honest and true; he spoke the words of the Lord, and there was nothing false in them or in Elijah, and the widow of Zarephath was able to exclaim “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.” (1 Kings 17:24)

Having integrity of heart means you say what you mean and do what you say. For our lives to be authentic – for our hearts to be hearts of integrity – for us to be real – we must be willing to be unconditional followers – disciples – bondservants to our Master. What people see must be our true self – our inner being. What they hear us say must be not only truthful – but also the Truth about our faith. What they see us doing must not only be honorable – but also God-honoring. When people see us living lives of integrity and honor – then they can begin to believe in the God we serve!

A life of integrity stays on track – the opposite leads to catastrophe.

As you grow to be more like Jesus, living a life of honesty and integrity – living out Jesus in front of the world – means that not only that your life is under control and going in the right direction, but that people can learn to trust in everything you say and do and begin to do see Jesus in you.

Let your “yes” be yes, and your “no” be no. Let the integrity that comes from a life connected to Jesus guide you each and every day – and may this integrity of heart allow people to see Jesus lived out in your life.