Leading with Integrity is Good Business

Proverbs 5:21 (MSG) Mark well that GOD doesn't miss a move you make; he's aware of every step you take.

• Job 31:4 (NIV) Does he not see my ways and count my every step?


• Job 34:21 (NIV) "His eyes are on the ways of men; he sees their every step….”


• Psalm 119:168 (NIV) I obey your precepts and your statutes, for all my ways are known to you.


• Jeremiah 32:19 (NIV) … great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds. Your eyes are open to all the ways of men….


• Proverbs 4:26 (MSG) Watch your step, and the road will stretch out smooth before you.


• Matthew 5:48 (NIV) Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.


• Romans 12:2 (NIV) Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/integrity/) “integrity is one of the most important and oft-cited of virtue terms. It is also perhaps the most puzzling.” Puzzling that it is puzzling! If you look up the word in a thesaurus, you will find words like “Moral or ethical strength; The quality of being honest; The condition of being free from defects or flaws; or The state of being entirely whole…” (http://www.answers.com/integrity) Those synonyms seem to make the meaning clear. According to one philosopher, even integrity has become a relative term so that it is based on what a person is committed to; therefore, a con-man who remains true to his commitment of deceit is operating with integrity, but not with an accepted moral basis.

I’m from a simpler school best illustrated by the old story of the preacher who preached on Sunday on honesty and integrity. On Monday, he had to take a bus downtown, got on, gave his money, received his change. Upon sitting down and counting his change, he discovered that he has been over-paid in change. At first, he was thankful that God had supplied some extra money that he did really need; but upon leaving the bus, he stopped at driver’s seat, took out the “extra” change, handed it back commenting that the driver had given him too much change. The driver smiled and told the preacher that that had been no mistake: he had attended that preacher’s church on Sunday and wanted to see if on Monday he put his life where his mouth was.

In my email that linked to his article, I referenced the work of David Leonhardt in his article in the May 3, 2006 NY Times titled, Rule No. 35: Reread Rule on Integrity where he quotes William Swanson who was “found-out” that he had plagiarized several of his business maxims from a work published in 1944. According to Leonhardt, Swanson “…has failed his own integrity test. 'Integrity,' to me," he [Swanson] writes, "is having the fortitude to do what is right when no one is watching."”

Well, he captured it! Being “perfect” or mature is about completeness. Walking your talk – day and night – as if everyone you know is watching what you do. God is watching.

Copyright (c) 2006 by P. Griffith Lindell