straight or crooked?

Whoever walks in integrity will be delivered,

but he who is crooked in his ways will suddenly fall.

Proverbs 28:18

The best possession any person can have to gauge the impact of their life has to be integrity. Rich or poor, famous or unknown, powerful or pawn, all of these are insignificant once compared to character. It is integrity of character that matters most of all. Our impact depends upon character. Our families depend upon it. Our hopes rest on the righteousness given to us, stewarded by us, displayed by Christ in us for the world to know. Integrity is therefore the most important thing. Get character! Hold to integrity! Really… in the end… it is the only thing!

This proverb tells us that integrity gets us through the hardest situations. It promises deliverance for the person of character and commitment to following God’s ways. Of course Christians are given the righteousness of Christ, are equipped to choose to be holy as He is holy, and are led by His Holy Spirit. We are given every integrity resource possible to enjoy the promise in this proverb. We can walk “straight on” (integrity has the poetic word picture of a straight and clear path elsewhere in scripture) with integrity. We are without fault (the Hebrew word translated “integrity” means “unblemished”) before God as His Word and truth direct our ways.

But the opposite of integrity here in this proverb is crookedness. The meaning of crooked is “perverse, twisted, or knotted”. Without the integrity Christ provides, this is our default condition. We still fight it with sin natures within us. We are hopelessly bent and twisted, unable to straighten ourselves. And the end of this twisted character? … sudden calamity. Without integrity a life is doomed. It’s that stark of a difference! With integrity— deliverance. Without it —- doom!

Lord Jesus,

Help me live with the integrity that You alone give to me… driven far away from my twisted thinking and my crooked ways by Your righteousness! Make my paths straight! Propel me with integrity to bless others until, led by Your truth and Your Holy Spirit, I arrive at the gates of my eternal home that Your righteousness has made for me.

Amen