¹Lord, who may lodge in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy mountain? ²One of blameless life, who does what is right and speaks the truth from his heart; ³who has no malice on his tongue, who never wrongs his fellow, and tells no tales against his neighbour; ⁴who shows his scorn for those the Lord rejects, but honours those who fear the Lord; who holds to his oath even to his own hurt, ⁵who does not put his money out to usury, and never accepts a bribe against the innocent. He who behaves in this way will remain unshaken.

Psalm 15: 1-5 – The Revised English Bible

¹⁷It is better to suffer for doing right, if such should be the will of God, than for doing wrong.

1 Peter 3: 17 – The Revised English Bible

²When pride comes in, in comes contempt, but wisdom goes hand in hand with modesty. ³Integrity is a guide for the upright; the perfidious are ruined by their own duplicity.

Proverbs 11: 2-3 – The Revised English Bible

As I sit and write this, we are on the eve of a General Election here in the UK. By the time it’s posted, it will be Polling Day. And by the time you read this, you may well know the results. I’ve heard from friends that they have no idea how to vote, as they don’t have a good feeling about any of the parties. It seems that we may be simultaneously in for one of the largest majorities in our parliamentary history, and one of the lowest voting turnouts ever. Why is it that so many politicians inspire such little trust? What might be the root cause of such lack of confidence? I’ve reached the conclusion that it’s the lack of Integrity. It’s a quality that’s massively under-valued in our modern world. It’s also one that many people seem to want actively to discard as a deliberate, conscious act. And finally, it’s also a quality that, once it’s been discarded, can never be retrieved or recovered.

The Oxford English Dictionary tells me that the root of the word integrity is the Latin word Integritas, which means whole or complete. The sense in which it’s used in the modern world, is that integrity represents our inner completeness, and our commitment to moral and ethical principles.

Integrity is, therefore, I would say, the guardian of our conscience, it’s the virtue that guides us through the decisions that we have to make in life.

Some of those decisions can easily become moments of high stress, and of course it’s right that we should have sympathy with those who in haste make a bad decision and then bitterly regret it. We’re not honest with ourselves if we pretend that we’ve never been in a situation like this. That is precisely why forgiveness is a Christian virtue. One of life’s most important lessons is to identify and learn to live with our failures. But it’s also to learn from our mistakes; it’s not just that we grow from making mistakes, although that’s important enough; it’s that we become more accepting of others, more able to ‘love others the way God loves us’, if we recognise that, ultimately, every one of us, without exception, is human and weak.

The problem, I fear, is that as the years go by, the world has come to favour the selfish and to scorn those who show compassion to others. Our integrity, our wholeness is God-given; it’s maybe one of those characteristics that underlines the way in which we’re made in God’s image. If we self-sacrificially give of ourselves to others, in a mysterious way we become stronger, more complete, more whole. Conversely, if we focus on ourselves at the expense of others, we become weaker, smaller, less whole. It’s yet another one of those lovely Christian paradoxes; as humans we have a burning desire to strive for something greater than ourselves.

The problem is not that we make mistakes; it’s that when we discard our relationships with others, when we lie to gain control over others; when we’re manipulative and devious deliberately and in cold blood, and turn our back on the fact that others are God’s much-loved creatures, we become unhappy, bitterly unhappy. Something inside us, our conscience if that’s how you’d like to put it, gnaws away at us. Even if the world lauds us for what are seen as our hard-won successes, we know deep down that they’ve been achieved at the expense of others and hence at the expense of our internal contentment and peace of mind.

We’ve been through the most horrendous period in our social history since the first lockdown in 2020, and frankly it’s one of the things that’s very unhealthy about our recent General Election campaign. Lockdowns, masks, coercion to accept without question an experimental gene-therapy, the rejection of others who had good reasons for not complying and all the other nonsense that accompanied this period is not even being discussed. The COVID controls and the hard-hearted removal of our basic freedoms have stalked this election like some ghastly ghost – forever present but never mentioned.

Integrity stands in direct opposition to hypocrisy. It epitomises honesty, consistency, moral principles, soundness, righteousness, which is why it is such a key to living a life ‘of good report.’ And it’s why its absence from this election has been so blindingly obvious.

One of the key principles of Judaism with which our Lord was brought up, is summed up in the word Shalom. It’s translated into English often as ‘Peace’, but it’s so much more than that. Shalom means to wish for somebody to become complete and whole, physically, materially, spiritually and economically. It’s to be harmonious in your relationships, to be at peace with yourself and the world around you. So, you could say, it’s to wish for integrity in others.

The problem is that integrity’s too easy to discard deliberately. The so-called ‘Credit Crunch’ in 2008 proved that you cannot prevent bad behaviour through regulation. The reason is simple; those who are used to lying and cheating, those who threw away their integrity a long time ago, would simply find a way around any regulations. They would find a way to cheat.

Even our Father instinctively knows this, which is why He’s quoted as saying this in the Book of Jeremiah (Chapter 31, verse 33):

‘I shall set my law within them, writing it on their hearts; I shall be their God and they will be my people.’

God knows that this is the only way that we will follow the right path, His path – by having it burned onto our hearts and consciences.

Otherwise, once we’ve told one lie, other, much larger and more serious lies follow, as night follows day. It becomes ever-easier. And that’s why there’s no going back, once we’ve thrown away our integrity.

To retain our integrity doesn’t just mean controlling our own behaviour. It also means sticking out our necks and calling out others. Are those politicians whom you’re watching, squirming with embarrassment when answering questions? They’re probably lying. Are they using ‘Word Soup,’ which could mean anything, or nothing? They’re probably intent on deceiving you. Do they show all the signs of being ‘in this’ for themselves alone and they’re only making noises about caring for you and for others? It’s a classic sign that they’ve thrown away all integrity and absolutely must not be trusted.  

What is it that holds society together? It’s the sum of individual integrity. Once that’s been discarded, and our politicians sadly have presided over the wholesale trashing of our collective integrity over recent decades, then the collapse of society, with all that means, will become inevitable.

The only way out of this dilemma is to hold God and His values at the very centre of our lives, and judge every decision we have to make, including how we vote, by those criteria.

By way of a concluding prayer, as a change from my usual practice, I’d like to share some important quotations about integrity with you and to ask God to write them on our hearts:

“If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters”. (Alan K Simpson)

“The time you spend alone with God will transform your character and increase your devotion. Then your integrity and godly behaviour in an unbelieving world will make others long to know the Lord”. (Charles Stanley)

“No man knows the value of innocence and integrity, but he who has lost them”. (William Godwin)

“Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right things because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity”. (W.Clement Stone)

“To me, integrity means always doing what is right and good, regardless of the immediate consequences. It means being righteous from the very depth of our soul, not only in our actions but, more importantly, in our thoughts and in our hearts”. (Joseph B Worthlin)

Amen