How to Live a Life of Integrity

How to Live a Life of Integrity

How to Live a Life of Integrity is a sermon from Psallm 101:1-8 on the importance of Christian integrity. Our moral compass which we follow is God.

Annually, the president of the United States brings his State of the Union address before a joint session of the Congress. Here the nation’s leader outlines his domestic policies for the coming legislative year. At the same time, he also raises foreign policy issues and gives his vision for the future of America. This moment is not merely a time for partisan politics. it is a time for statesmanlike leadership. Stepping into the national spotlight, the president hopes to unite the will of the people and a majority in the House and Senate behind his plans.

Similarly, in this psalm, we have a State of the Union address by the king. His concern, however, is not with domestic policy or foreign relations. His concern is with the moral character of the nation. Since the king is called by God to uphold His law and execute justice, his readiness to do this must be made known. God’s blessing upon Israel is contingent upon her moral obedience. 

Psalm 101 is attributed to David. We accept the traditional author ship here. As we have suggested, its form is that of a series of vows where the king affirms his moral integrity and plans. The thought moves from his vow to obey (vv. 1–2) to his vow to judge (vv. 3–8)¹

Don’t you like people who live honestly around you? One of the problems we encounter as Christians, even in the church, is the idea that we live dishonestly. We tell people a problem we have, but in reality there is a completely different problem underneath. Why do we do that? Because deep down inside, we are weak and we fear what other people are going to say. We are not self-secure. We worry about other peoples’ expectations. The way to overcome these feelings is to be true to yourself. That is what integrity is all about.

Integrity is defined as being true to yourself.

How can you and I live a life of integrity? How can I live honestly with other people so that people will trust me? Let me share with you from this psalm “ingredients for personal integrity.”

INGREDIENTS FOR PERSONAL INTEGRITY

1. Integrity begins on the inside (Psalm 101:1)

God points us to the way of true integrity. This is the reason that David sings praises to God.

2. Integrity requires that I follow a certain moral compass in my life. (Psalm 101:2)

3. Integrity requires that I take time to overcome sins that are controlling me. (Psalm 101:3)

This includes not paying attention to worthless things, and not allowing sin to rule your life.

4. Integrity requires a heart that stays true to my moral compass. (Psalm 101:4)

My heart can turn directions. It can be tempted. It can decide to trick me.

The heart has to stay pure, and not deviate. A devious heart and practicing evil are the opposite of integrity.

What is devious and evil? Anything that is not from God or directed by God. What does this look like? It can be summarized by the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20). It can be boiled down to two points: loving God and loving one another.

How does this look like? We have integrity when we:

LIVING A LIFE OF INTEGRITY WILL REVEAL GOD’S LOVE TO OTHERS

1. Speak up for other people who cannot defend themselves (Psalm 101:5)

“I will destroy anyone who secretly slanders his neighbor…” (Psalm 101:5, HCSB)

When someone slanders or speaks evil about another person, do you stop them or do you join them? You can destroy the gossip by stopping the slander.

2. Don’t be around people who think only about themselves (Psalm 101:5)

“…I cannot tolerate anyone with haughty eyes or an arrogant heart.” (Psalm 101:5, HCSB)

“…No one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart will I endure.” (Psalm 101:5, NASB95)

“I put a gag on the gossip who bad-mouths his neighbor; I can’t stand arrogance.” (Psalm 101:5, The Message)

Do you like to hang around people who are always full of themselves? Do you like being with people who only talk about themselves?

One way you can tell is to see how many selfies they take. Do you notice people and the pictures they post online, especially on social media? Do people post pictures of just themselves, also known as selfies, very often? The more selfies someone posts online, the more a chance that they are going to be selfish – or narcissistic in medical terms. Let me share with you a report about a recent study that connects men who post selfies and proud, narcissistic, and psychopathic behavior:

The picture isn’t pretty for guys who post a lot of selfies on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. A new study showed that men who posted more online photos of themselves than others scored higher on measures of narcissism and psychopathy.

In addition, men who were more likely to edit their selfies before posting scored higher in narcissism and self-objectification, which measures how much they prioritize their appearance. “It’s not surprising that men who post a lot of selfies and spend more time editing them are more narcissistic, but this is the first time it has actually been confirmed in a study,” said Jesse Fox, lead author of the study and assistant professor of communication at The Ohio State University. “The more interesting finding is that they also score higher on this other anti-social personality trait, psychopathy, and are more prone to self-objectification.”

Fox conducted the study with Margaret Rooney, a graduate student at Ohio State. Their results are published online in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.Fox emphasized that the results don’t mean that men who post a lot of selfies are necessarily narcissists or psychopaths. The men in the study all scored within the normal range of behavior – but with higher than average levels of these anti-social traits.

Self-objectification involves valuing yourself mainly for your appearance, rather than for other positive traits. “We know that self-objectification leads to a lot of terrible things, like depression and eating disorders in women,” Fox said.

“With the growing use of social networks, everyone is more concerned with their appearance. That means self-objectification may become a bigger problem for men, as well as for women.” While this study didn’t include women, Fox said she is currently conducting follow-up work that suggests the same findings found in this research also apply to women. Women who post more selfies also show higher levels of narcissism and psychopathy.

However, self-objectification plays a larger role with women, as would be expected. Fox said she believes there is a self-reinforcing cycle when it comes to self-objectification. People who score higher on self-objectification post more selfies, which leads to more feedback from friends online, which encourages them to post even more photos of themselves.

“It may make people objectify themselves even more,” she said. “We are running a study on that now.”

Overall, Fox said this and other studies suggest our personality traits may influence how we present ourselves online. “We are all concerned with our self-presentation online, but how we do that may reveal something about our personality.”²

3. Hang out with true friends (Psalm 101:6)

“My eyes favor the faithful of the land so that they may sit down with me. The one who follows the way of integrity may serve me.” (Psalm 101:6, HCSB)

Bad company corrupts good character. At the same time, good people help other good people. One of the ways to live a life of integrity and show God’s love is through the company you keep.

Who are your friends? Can you trust them? Would you let them have full reign in your home, with your kids or grandkids? Would other people trust you because of the friends you keep?

4. Be careful about the lack of integrity in other people. (Psalm 101:7)

“No one who acts deceitfully will live in my palace; no one who tells lies will remain in my presence.” (Psalm 101:7, HCSB)

5. Make a daily effort to purge the negative influences of other people to protect my integrity. (Psalm 101:8)

“Every morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land, eliminating all evildoers from the Lord’s city.” (Psalm 101:8, HCSB)

Let’s explain what does not say. It does not say that we need to wake up every morning kill all of the evil people around me. I don’t get up with a desire to hurt others.

What it does mean is that I have to make concerted effort every day and decide not to let negative people affect me. I have to wake up every day and choose who I am going to influence, and who I am going to let influence me.

“My daily task will be to ferret out the wicked and free the city of the Lord from their grip.” (Psalm 101:8, NLT)

Integrity is being true to yourself. True to yourself as God has made you and as God would have you live.