Integrity of Living a Life IN Jesus

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 A true witness of Jesus is a witness of integrity, humility, compassion, and truth.

The flesh cannot mimic these traits of Jesus consistently.  The flesh is always self-saving.  It hates to lose arguments, it needs to save face, it is prideful, and resists the true life Jesus shows us.

Think about the people you know that truly have integrity of JESUS' Spirit... Not integrity the ways the world defines it, which is respectability, but consistency with Jesus' life.  The flesh doesn't respect the integrity of life lived in God. It wants to know more and possess more... do more... it just doesn't want to die more.  The apparent weakness of the integrity of a life lived in Jesus isn't valued by most.

Jesus' life is a DESIRABLE  and admirable one to the meek.  It's a curiosity to the proud.

Those who live consistently and steadfastly in Jesus' life are often overlooked, even by people that know them really well.

Luke 4:22-32 NLT — Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” Then he said, “You will undoubtedly quote me this proverb: ‘Physician, heal yourself’—meaning, ‘Do miracles here in your hometown like those you did in Capernaum.’ But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown. “Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine devastated the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner—a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian.” When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push him over the cliff, but he passed right through the crowd and went on his way. Then Jesus went to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and taught there in the synagogue every Sabbath day. 

Why?

Because most people aren't trying to live Jesus' life. Even those who claim to be. They simply want to feel like good people while walking in instability, self-saving, and selfishness.

Self-saving (including saving face) and the salvation Jesus offers are entirely incompatible.  We all have to decide: do I want to win and lose my soul or lose and win my soul. There is no other option.

Nearly all who claim to follow Jesus are unwilling to lose in this life.  For those, they love the idea of Jesus, the truth of scripture and people who walk in the ingrity of the Spirit, but they don't value any of these as something to follow.

Those who recognize a true saint are usually wanting to die to themselves and live that same life.  Most can think about a person after God's heart and see their integrity, but misunderstand the great value of it... Few can value the integrity of a life lived in God.  Those who do will generally live one, too.

2 Corinthians 2:14-17 NKJV — Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.

The worst false witnesses are those who want to be experts in who Jesus is, but do not completely commit and learn to fully value and desire living like Jesus lived.

Statistically and Biblically most... let's say 70%... of the people that read and agree with this post are false representatives of Jesus to at least part of their world.  The Bible is clear few find the narrow road.  A quick inventory of how you secretly, and openly, deal with people that disagree with you, resist you, or even curse you will reveal what you really value right away.


Integrity, especially in the secret place, matters more to God than all the veneer of claiming to love God while living self-serving lives.

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