Agreed

Day 232

Prayer for the day

Love the LORD, all you who worship him; the LORD protects the faithful, but repays to the full those who act haughtily.

Scripture for the day

Psalm 107-109, 1 Corinthians 4

“He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.”

Paul discusses a life of integrity when he speaks to the church at Corinth. He says that Timothy’s job is to remind all of the people there that Paul’s life and way of life in faith matches what he preaches everywhere.

This seems a simple thing: live the way you preach. However, it has to be one of the most difficult things to live out. Life is tough, and living a life of integrity is equally difficult.

The life of integrity requires a few things: it requires that we preach the truth, and it requires that we live the truth. It requires that what we preach and what we do always, ALWAYS, match.

The Psalmist has a similar concern for the people of Israel. The people of Israel regularly viewed themselves as the righteous ones, the ones who were favoured by God. What the Psalmist exhorts them to do is to live according to the strictures and statues God has put in place. To help them do that, the Psalmist reminds them of all the times this has not happened. He reminds them of the times they have failed God, rejected God, and given God a reason to be displeased with them.

Between Paul and the Psalmist, we learn from these passages that God desires people who live according to what God says, and desires people who speak according to what God says. He desires people who match their actions to the words they say, and who match the words they say to the God they serve.

Let us be people of integrity.