Oftentimes we fall into the trap of forfeiting integrity, you know: “tell them I’m busy right now and I’ll call back later” or the classic one: “the check is in the post” or the modern version “I made the transfer into you account last night, dun no what went wrong, you know how it is with this modern technology”
Pro 8:7 For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is hateful to my lips. 8 All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; nothing twisted or perverse is in them.
This verse is not only a call to us to take heed and listen to the instruction of wisdom, it also serves as an example for us, on how we should conduct ourselves.
Truth should always be our companion, always speaking the truth and always speaking the truth in love. Wickedness “causing injury or harm, troublesome, offensive or unpleasant (according to the dictionary) This kind of behavior should have no place in our words or actions, if our desire is to walk in integrity.
Pro 8:13 (msg) The Fear-of-GOD means hating Evil, whose ways I hate with a passion-- pride and arrogance and crooked talk. 14 Good counsel and common sense are my characteristics; I am both Insight and the Virtue to live it out.
A short story I read:
Tell the Truth Every Time
A small boy was on the witness stand in an important lawsuit. The prosecuting attorney cross-examined him, then delivered, he thought, a crushing blow to the testimony. "Your father has been telling you how to testify, has he not?" "Yes," the lad replied and did not hesitate with the answer. "Now," said the lawyer triumphantly, "just tell us how your father told you to testify." "Well," the boy said modestly, "Father told me the lawyers would try to tangle me in my testimony, but if I would just be careful to tell the truth, I could repeat the same thing every time."
Walking in the wisdom of truth and integrity has it`s reward:
Pro 8:18 Wealth and Glory accompany me-- also substantial Honor and a Good Name. 19 My benefits are worth more than a big salary, even a very big salary; the returns on me exceed any imaginable bonus.
The worst pronouncements Christ ever made were not against the out-and-out sinner and unbeliever but against the hypocrite.
We can see this for ourselves in the twenty-third chapter of Matthew. Both God and your fellowmen can tell the difference between the real and the counterfeit, the real and the imitation.
These people are like an old apple tree which stood at the fence line by the roadside. Its branches spread both into the field and out over the highway. There was always a contention as to whether the fruit of this tree belonged to the farmer or to the public.
An unwritten law said it belonged to the first one to club it down. Every boy, big and little, watched to see when the apples were beginning to turn red, and then the battle was on. The owner never got a ripe apple from that old tree. The tree on the side of the highway always had lodged in its branches a lot of broom handles, sticks, and old wagon spokes. That tree got more clubbing than a whole orchard. It presents a true picture of the professing "Christian" who hangs on both sides of the fence and thus receives clubs from every direction.
Wisdom says:
Pro 8:33 Mark a life of discipline and live wisely; don't squander your precious life. 34 Blessed the man, blessed the woman, who listens to me, awake and ready for me each morning, alert and responsive as I start my day's work. 35 When you find me, you find life, real life, to say nothing of GOD's good pleasure. 36 But if you wrong me, you damage your very soul; when you reject me, you're flirting with death."
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