The Power of Integrity E-Book

John MacArthur

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 1997

Beschreibung

We live in a society that has largely abandoned moral standards and Christian principles. Unkept campaign promises, false advertising, exaggerated tax exemptions, employee theft—compromise has become a way of life. Such moral concession has even invaded the church. Faced with an opportunity to proclaim Christ to unbelievers, we feel intimidated and keep silent. Or we water down God's Word on ethical issues at work or in our community to avoid rejection. Too often we prefer hypocrisy to integrity. But God longs for His people to be different—to maintain a commitment to His standards, no matter what the cost. Is consistent obedience to God—integrity—attainable in this world of sin and self? By the grace and power of God, yes! One of the nation's most respected pastors points the way to persevering character in Christ. Drawing from scriptural examples of godly men who modeled integrity during severe testing, MacArthur makes a compelling case for the impact a man or woman of integrity can have in our world. A helpful study guide for individuals or groups is included.

Leseprobe

THE POWER

The Power of Integrity

Copyright © 1997 by John F. MacArthur, Jr.

Published by Crossway

              1300 Crescent Street

              Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided by USA copyright law.

Cover design: The DesignWorks Group, www.thedesignworksgroup.com

First printing, 1997

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Bible quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible, copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1977 by the Lockman Foundation and used by permission.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

MacArthur, John, 1939

The power of integrity : building a life without compromise / John

F. MacArthur, Jr.

        p.      cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 13: 978-0-89107-942-2

ISBN 10: 0-89107-942-4

1.  Integrity—Religious aspects—Christianity. I.  Title.

BV4647.I55M33     1997

241'.4—dc21                                                         97-7861

VP          16    15    14    13    12    11    10    09    08    07    06 21   20   19   18   17   16   15    14    13    12    11    10    9    8

CONTENTS

Introduction vii

THE ESSENTIALS OF INTEGRITY

1Value Unsurpassed 152Doctrinal Integrity273In Pursuit of Godliness39

THE EXAMPLES OF INTEGRITY

4Results of an Uncompromising Life555Fire and Lions696In Defense of Integrity81

THE ETHICS OF INTEGRITY

7With Fear and Trembling: The Antidote to Hypocrisy1038Render Unto God1159The Responsibilities of Personal Holiness12510The Obligations of Practical Holiness137Study Guide159Scripture Index179General Index187

INTRODUCTION

We live in a world of compromise—in a society that has abandoned moral standards and Christian principles in favor of expediency or pragmatism. The underlying philosophy is based on accomplishing goals by whatever means are necessary. This self-centered perspective should have as its motto: “If it works for you, do it”—a notion that inevitably leads to compromise of conscience and convictions. Because compromise is so prevalent in our society, you could say we no longer have a national conscience; guilt and remorse are nonfactors in determining behavior.

Politicians, who should be upholding the high ideals of our country, instead are leading the way in compromise. They promote their lofty standards and high ideals prior to their elections but compromise them once they are in office. The same holds true in business, from corporate executives down to salespeople; in the courts, from judges to attorneys; in sports, from owners to athletes; and in all walks of life. As a result, people learn to lie, cheat, steal, and shade the truth—to do whatever is necessary to get what they want. Thus compromise becomes a way of life.

Unfortunately, the philosophy and practice of compromise has even invaded the church. Because tolerance is the operative ideology in our society, the church adopts a similar perspective to reach the unsaved. Many churches now look for ways to give the Gospel to people without offending them. Yet the very nature of the Gospel is offensive because it confronts sinners with their sin. Ignoring that, many churches willingly compromise God’s Word instead of standing firm on the Gospel, and they give the world a watered-down version that can’t effect any change.

On an individual basis, the spirit of compromise hits closer to home in your personal interactions. You may have had opportunities to proclaim Christ to unbelievers, yet out of intimidation or lack of confidence, you have kept silent. Perhaps you’ve found yourself compromising God’s Word on some ethical issue at work or in your neighborhood and convinced yourself that such compromise was necessary to maintain your credibility as an employee or neighbor. Yet your Christian testimony is predicated on your complete devotion to God’s Word as the highest authority—no matter what the consequences may be. God draws the elect into the kingdom through Christians who prove to be different from the world—who reveal their true allegiance by their commitment and obedience to God’s standards.

Our difficulty in living like that is the opposition we encounter from the world. R.C. Sproul, in his book Pleasing God, describes the pull the world has on us:

The world is a seducer. It seeks to attract our attention and our devotion. It remains so close at hand, so visible, so enticing. It eclipses our view of heaven. What is seen vies for our attention. It entices our eyes lest we look up for a better country whose builder and maker is God. It pleases us—much of the time, anyway—and, alas, we often live our lives to please it. And that is where conflict ensues, for pleasing the world so seldom overlaps with pleasing God.

The divine call we receive is this: “Do not be conformed to this world” (Rom. 12:2). But the world wants us to be partners with it. We are urged to participate in the fullness of it. It presses upon us with the ultimate peer pressure. ([Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House, 1988], 59)

The church is now so adept at compromising with the world that it has forgotten how to be uncompromising. That’s because we readily accept the world’s value systems and indulge ourselves in them to the point that we personalize them and they become our desires. In essence our standards replace God’s.

Scripture calls us to the opposite of compromise. From one end of the Bible to the other, God clearly commands his people to live apart from the world.

When God established the nation Israel, He built into the Israelites’ daily living the principle of separation from the world. Their religious observances throughout the year served as safeguards to prevent them, as a unique people (Deut. 14:2), from intermingling with pagans.

Likewise, God calls all His people to be separate from the world (1 Pet. 2:9). Whenever we are tempted to compromise, we need only remind ourselves that God never compromises His absolute truths and principles for expediency. He always lives according to His Word. Psalm 138:2 says, “Thou hast magnified Thy word according to all Thy name.” God is committed to His Word, and as His children, we are to be also.

When you view God’s Word as the ultimate authority, that opens the way for developing integrity instead of compromise. The American Heritage Dictionary (Houghton Mifflin, 1992) defines integrity as “steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code,” “the state of being unimpaired; soundness,” or “the quality or condition of being whole or undivided; completeness.” It comes from the word integer, which means “whole” or “complete.” Integrity essentially means being true to one’s ethical standards, in our case, God’s standards. Its synonyms are honesty, sincerity, incorruptibility. It describes someone without hypocrisy or duplicity—someone who is completely consistent with his or her stated convictions. A person who lacks integrity—someone who says one thing and does another—is a hypocrite.

Nowhere is integrity more critical than in the leadership of the church, because the spiritual leader must maintain integrity to set a credible example for all to follow. Yet there are many in leadership who lack integrity and thus by definition are hypocrites.

Our Lord has no patience for such people. The scribes and Pharisees were frequent subjects of Christ’s blistering attacks on their hypocrisy. Of them He said, “They say things, and do not do them” (Matt. 23:3). That is a lack of integrity—they lived by one set of ethics while commanding others to live by another. After pronouncing several woes on them, Jesus offered this final rebuke: “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of hell?” (v. 33).

But to the man of integrity, God promises blessing. When Solomon finished building the house of the Lord, the Lord appeared to him and said:

“I have heard your prayer and your supplication, which you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built by putting My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. And as for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My statutes and My ordinances, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised to your father David, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’”

—1 Kings 9:3-5

The conclusion is simple: those who maintain a life of integrity will be blessed by God; those who don’t will be cursed, especially those in spiritual leadership.

Integrity is essential if any believer is to represent God and Christ in this world. Anything less than total devotion to our Lord in both character and conduct amounts to compromise with the world. A mistake often made by well-meaning Christians is to go too far in the other direction—to adhere to the biblical code of conduct without the proper internal motivation. That, too, is hypocrisy.

How to cultivate integrity from righteous motives is the scope of this book.

The first part will examine the essentials to developing that motivation. That involves a desire to know Christ intimately, a commitment to the Word of God as the ultimate authority, and a desire to live a godly life. We will examine each of those in the first three chapters.

In the second section we’ll look at some biblical examples of godly men who saw their integrity constantly tested. The book of Daniel will provide Old Testament examples of how Daniel and his three friends responded without compromise when tempted by worldly men to deny God. Our New Testament example will come from the apostle Paul. Throughout his ministry he endured attacks on his character, and in 2 Corinthians he answers those attacks and presents a model life of integrity.

The final section will show how you can manifest a life of integrity. Since the avoidance of hypocrisy is so critical, in the first chapter of this section we’ll look at how disciplined effort on your part, coupled with complete dependence on God, is the key to conquering the temptation toward hypocritical living. The final three chapters will detail how you can actively cultivate integrity by examining your responsibilities and duties toward God, toward yourself, and toward others—both believers and unbelievers.

Ultimately this book’s goal is that you will be able to answer the following questions as David did: “O Lord, who may abide in Thy tent? Who may dwell on Thy holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart” (Ps. 15:1-2).

VALUE UNSURPASSED

The uncompromising spirit of Olympic sprinter and Scotsman Eric Liddell was made famous by the award-winning film Chariots of Fire. For months Liddell trained to run the 100-meter dash at the Paris Olympics in 1924. Sportswriters across Britain predicted he would win. But when the schedules were announced, Liddell discovered that the heats for his race were to be run on a Sunday. Because he believed he would dishonor God by competing on the Lord’s Day, he refused to enter the race.

Eric’s fans were stunned. Some who previously praised him called him a fool. But he stood firm. Professor Neil Campbell, a fellow student-athlete at the time, describes Liddell’s decision:

Liddell was the last person to make a song and dance about that sort of thing. He just said, “I’m not running on a Sunday”—and that was that. And he would have been very upset if anything much had been made of it at the time. We thought it was completely in character, and a lot of the athletes were quietly impressed by it. They felt that here was a man who was prepared to stand for what he thought was right, without interfering with anyone else, and without being dogmatic. (Sally Magnuson, The Flying Scotsman [New York: Quartet, 1981], 40)

Unlike the film version, which takes dramatic license with the facts, Liddell knew about the heat schedule months before the Olympics. He also declined to run in the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 meter relays, races that he had qualified for, because their heats also were to be run on Sunday. Since he was such a popular athlete, the British Olympic Committee asked if he would train to run in the 400 meters—a race he had performed well in before, but one he’d never considered seriously. He decided to train for it and discovered that he was a natural at that distance. His wife, Florence, says of his decision, “Eric always said that the great thing for him was that when he stood by his principles and refused to run in the 100 metres, he found that the 400 metres was really his race. He would not of known that otherwise” (Magnuson, 45).

Liddell went on to win the 400 meters and set a world record in the process. God honored his uncompromising spirit. But what was there about Eric Liddell that gave him the resolve to stand firm with his decision in spite of the pressure from the authorities and the press? The filmmakers of Chariots of Fire unknowingly provide the answer in a scene dramatizing the British Olympic authorities’ attempt to change Liddell’s mind about running in the 100 meters. After their unsuccessful attempt, one of the men comments, “The lad . . . is a true man of principle and a true athlete. His speed is a mere extension of his life—its force. We sought to sever his running from himself.” In spite of the writer’s labeling God as a generic “force,” the statement is true. The Christian life cannot be lived apart from God. To do so is to compromise your very being.

That’s where the power of integrity begins. Only as you and I derive our being from our relationship with Christ can we ever hope to live like He did, to suffer like He did, to withstand adversity like He did, and to die like He did—all without compromising.

The heart and soul of all Christianity is our relationship with Christ. Our salvation begins with Him, our sanctification progresses with Him, and our glorification ends with Him. He is the reason for our being, and thus He is more valuable to us than anyone or anything.

The apostle Paul knew well that the heart of the Christian life is building an intimate knowledge of Christ. That’s why he said, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil. 3:8). That was both his passion and his “goal” (v. 14).

What were the “all things” he considered as loss? They were the ultimate credentials of the works-righteousness religion Paul served before coming to know Christ. He was “circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless” (vv. 5-6). According to the conventional religious wisdom of his day, Paul followed the right rituals, was a member of the right race and tribe, adhered to the right traditions, served the right religion with just the right amount of intensity, and conformed to the right law with self-righteous zeal.

But one day when he was traveling to persecute more Christians, Paul met Jesus Christ (Acts 9). Paul saw Christ in all His glory and majesty, and he realized that all he thought was of value was worthless. So he says, “Whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ . . . and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ” (v. 7-8). In Paul’s mind, his assets had become liabilities—to such a degree that he considered them trash. Why? Because they couldn’t produce what he thought they could—they couldn’t produce righteousness, power, or endurance. And they couldn’t lead him to eternal life and glory. So Paul gave up all His religious treasure for the treasure of knowing Christ deeply and intimately.

That is the essence of salvation—an exchange of something worthless for something valuable. Jesus illustrated the exchange in this way: “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it” (Matt. 13:44-46). Those two men found something of far greater value than anything they owned. For them the decision was easy: sell all they thought was valuable for what was truly valuable.

That’s what happens to those God chooses to bring into His kingdom. The person who comes to God is willing to pay whatever He requires, no matter how high the price. When confronted with his sin in the light of the glory of Christ—when God takes the blinders off his eyes—the repentant sinner suddenly realizes that nothing he held dear is worth keeping if it means losing Christ.

Jesus Christ is our treasure and our pearl. At some point in our lives we discovered that He was far more valuable than anything we had—whether possessions, fame, or desires. They all became valueless in comparison to Christ. So we trashed it all and turned to Him as our Savior and Lord. He became the supreme object of our affections. Our new desire was to know Him, love Him, serve Him, obey Him, and be like Him.

Is that still true of you? Is there anything in your life that competes with Christ? Is there anything in this world that captures your allegiance, devotion, and love more than Him? Do you still desire to know Him as much as you did when He first saved you? If not, you have compromised your relationship with Him and are dallying with the trash of the world. That is the danger of compromise.

If you are not careful to preserve and protect the treasure that is your relationship with Christ, the exuberance and devotion of your first days with Jesus can slowly and subtly turn into complacency and indifference. Eventually cold orthodoxy replaces loving obedience, and the result is a hypocritical life that will compromise with sin.

Fortunately for our sake, God has given us the resources in His Word to combat our tendency to sin and to restore our relationship with Christ. The apostle Paul shows us how by helping us see what we gained when we exchanged the trash for Christ. We have the benefits of a new life and a new relationship.

A NEW LIFE

When you were brought into God’s kingdom, you were totally transformed. You became “a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17). You didn’t just receive something new—you became someone new. Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20).

This new nature is not added to the old nature but replaces it— an exchange occurs. The transformed person is completely new. In contrast to the former love of evil, the new self—the deepest, truest part of a Christian—now loves the law of God, longs to fulfill its righteous demands, hates sin, and longs for deliverance from the unredeemed flesh—where sin still resides. Sin no longer controls you as it once did, but it still entices you to obey it instead of the Lord.

Knowing full well the temptation that sin is, Paul addressed the Ephesian Christians regarding their new nature. By contrasting the lifestyle of the wicked unbeliever with that of the spiritual Christian, he sought to demonstrate that a changed nature demands changed behavior. In 4:17-19 Paul describes the former wicked lifestyle we all followed: “Walk no longer as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.” The word “Gentiles” represents all ungodly, unregenerate, pagan people. Like the church in our day, the churches at Ephesus and in almost every non-Palestinian area in New Testament times were surrounded by rank paganism and its attendant immorality.

Centered on Christ

To believers who had fallen back into such degradation Paul writes, “But you did not learn Christ in this way” (Eph. 4:20). The phrase “learn Christ” is a direct reference to salvation. Anyone who makes a profession of faith in Christ ought to have nothing to do with the ways of the world, either by participation or association. James 4:4 says, “Friendship with the world is hostility toward God”; the ways of God and the ways of the world are not compatible. Any participation with the world is in effect a compromise of your new life.The very purpose of receiving Christ is to “be saved from this perverse generation” (Acts 2:40), and no one is saved who does not repent and forsake sin. To hold on to sin is to refuse God, to scorn His grace, and to nullify faith.

One of the first things we have to learn as Christians is not to trust our own thinking or rely on our own instincts. We now have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16), and His is the only mind we can rely on. When we are faithful and obedient to our Lord, we will think like Him, act like Him, love like Him, and in every possible way behave like Him, so that “whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him” (1 Thess. 5:10).

To demonstrate the transforming nature of regeneration, Paul describes and defines the inherent realities of our new life in Christ. These are not exhortations—they are reminders of what occurred at the moment of conversion.

Strip Off the Old Self

Paul writes, “In reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit” (Eph. 4:22). In contrast to the unregenerate person who continually resists and rejects God, the Christian hears the call to “lay aside the old self.” The verb means “to strip off,” as you would take off dirty clothes. The tense indicates that this is a onceand-forever action that occurs at salvation.

The “old self” refers to believers in their unconverted state, which Paul describes as “being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit.” The gospel invitation is to lay aside that old self in repentance from sin, which includes not just sorrow about sin but a turning from sin to God.

Put On the New Self

As we lay aside the old self, we exchange it for something new: “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph. 4:23-24). Colossians 3 and Romans 6 characterize this exchange as a union with Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection, which can also be described as the death of the “old self” and the resurrection of the “new self,” who now walks in “newness of life.” Our union with Christ and our new identity clearly demonstrate that salvation is transformation.

Our salvation also means we will think differently: “be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” The best rendering of this present passive infinitive is as a modifier of the main verb “put on.” That means the renewal of our minds is the consequence of laying aside the old self and is the context for putting on the new self.

When you became a Christian, God initially renewed your mind and gave you a completely new spiritual and moral capability. That renewal continues throughout your life as you obey God’s will and His Word (cf. Rom. 12:1-2). This process is not a one-time accomplishment but a continual work of God’s Spirit in you (Titus 3:5). Your resources in this process are always God’s Word and prayer. Through them you gain the mind of Christ (Col. 3:16).

Your new self has been made in “the likeness of God [and] has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph. 4:24). That which was once darkened is now enlightened, learned in the truth, sensitive to sin, pure, and generous. Once characterized by wickedness and sin, we are now characterized by “righteousness and holiness.” According to Peter, we are “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4). Each of us now has a new self—a holy and righteous inner person fit for the presence of God. This is the believer’s truest self.

To compromise this new self—this new creation—is the greatest injustice we can do to God. He saved us, transformed us, gave us a new nature, and renewed our minds. Thus the capacity to live a life of integrity is inherent in our new nature. You must grasp this fundamental element of your salvation before you can ever hope to build a life without compromise.

A NEW RELATIONSHIP

There is another aspect of your salvation that is just as vital: your new relationship with Jesus Christ. It is the one relationship you are to value above all others for two important reasons: the intimate communion possible with your Lord and Savior, and the wondrous benefits that union can bring.

Intimate Communion

As we discussed earlier in the chapter, the most valuable pursuit of Paul’s life was “knowing Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:8). To know Christ is not simply to have intellectual knowledge about Him; Paul uses the Greek verb ginosko, which means to know “experientially” or “personally.”

Paul taught the Ephesians that one of the functions of the church is to build up the people in “the knowledge of the Son of God” (4:13). There the word “knowledge” is from epignosis, which refers to full knowledge that is correct and accurate. That is the knowing of which Jesus spoke when He said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them” (John 10:27). He was not speaking of merely knowing their identities but of knowing them intimately, and that is the way He wants His people to know Him. Paul’s desire is for every believer to develop this deep knowledge of Christ by building a relationship with Him through prayer and faithful study of and obedience to God’s Word.

Commentator F.B. Meyer describes our relationship with Christ in this way:

We may know Him personally, intimately, face to face. Christ does not live back in the centuries, nor amid the clouds of heaven: He is near us, with us, compassing our path and our lying down, and acquainted with all our ways. But we cannot know Him in this mortal life except through the illumination and teaching of the Holy Spirit . . . and we must surely know Christ, not as a stranger who turns in to visit for the night, or as the exalted King of men,—there must be the inner knowledge as of those whom He counts His own familiar friends, whom He trusts with His secrets, who eat with Him of His bread (Psalm xli. 9).

To know Christ in the storm of battle; to know Him in the valley of shadow; to know Him when the solar light irradiates our faces, or when they are darkened with disappointment and sorrow; to know the sweetness of His dealing with bruised reeds and smoking flax; to know the tenderness of His sympathy and the strength of His right hand—all this involves many varieties of experience on our part, but each of them, like the facets of a diamond, will reflect the prismatic beauty of His glory from a new angle. (The Epistle to the Philippians [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1952, 162-63])

That’s what it means to know Christ intimately. Growing in this deeper knowledge of Christ is a lifelong process that will not be complete until we see our Lord face to face.

A Beneficial Union

In addition to the personal interaction we have with Christ, several benefits accrue to those who have trusted in Him for salvation.

THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST. Paul desired to “be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith” (Phil. 3:9). To know Christ is to have His righteousness, His holiness, and His virtue imputed to us, which makes us right before God.

Throughout his earlier life Paul tried to attain salvation through strict adherence to the Law. But when he was confronted by the wondrous reality of Christ, he was ready to trade in all his self-righteous, external morals, good works, and religious rituals for the righteousness granted to him through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul was willing to lose the thin and fading robe of his reputation if he could only gain the splendid and incorruptible robe of the righteousness of Christ. This is the greatest of all benefits because it secures our standing before God. It is God’s gift to the sinner, appropriated by faith in the perfect work of Christ, which satisfies God’s justice.

THE POWER OF CHRIST. While having Christ’s righteousness frees us from the penalty of sin, we are still subject to the control of sin. Fortunately, we have the power of Christ available to us to vanquish sin daily. If there is any doubt that His might is strong enough, Paul says it is “the power of His resurrection” (Phil. 3:10).

Christ’s resurrection most graphically demonstrated the extent of His power. Raising Himself from the dead displayed His authority and control over both the physical world and the spiritual world. That’s the kind of power Paul wanted to experience because he realized he was helpless to overcome sin on his own. His self-righteousness gained him nothing but the awareness of his inability to deal with sin.