I was thinking about one of the many facets of what Integrity means and I came across another good Tozer devotional.
The book (Disciplines of a Godly Man by Hughes) gives several examples of the lack of integrity in our day and age and the disturbing trend is that there isn't much difference between the secular world and Christianity. Is it any wonder why the world calls us hypocrites? Well the following devotion goes into the idea that we are called out of the world - called to be different. We aren't to be like the world, just like the Psalmist said, the man that sits NOT in the way of sinners is blessed.
So men, men of God, I challenge you to be holy. I challenge you to do what is needed to be blameless! If you don't we may not see the quick and tragic and costly retribution that Ananias and Saphira received, but we will receive it eventually. Sin costs! But also, that sin, and lack of character no doubt grieves our God!
So here it is:
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DIFFERENT FROM THE WORLD
Tozer on Christian Leadership – July 23
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. —2 Corinthians 6:17
The church’s mightiest influence is felt when she is different from the world in which she lives. Her power lies in her being different, rises with the degree in which she differs and sinks as the difference diminishes.
This is so fully and clearly taught in the Scriptures and so well illustrated in Church history that it is hard to see how we can miss it. But miss it we do, for we hear constantly that the Church must try to be as much like the world as possible, excepting, of course, where the world is too, too sinful….
Let us plant ourselves on the hill of Zion and invite the world to come over to us, but never under any circumstances will we go over to them. The cross is the symbol of Christianity, and the cross speaks of death and separation, never of compromise. No one ever compromised with a cross. The cross separated between the dead and the living. The timid and the fearful will cry “Extreme!” and they will be right. The cross is the essence of all that is extreme and final. The message of Christ is a call across a gulf from death to life, from sin to righteousness and from Satan to God. SOS035-036
Lord, help me to be willing to be different. Forgive me for the sin of blending in. I pray that our neighbors would see something different in our church and our people and be drawn to the Savior. Amen.
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Additional notes:
Jesus saved us and sanctifies us (sets us apart) from the world so that we can be a light unto the world, not so we can blend in. Besides, who when they blend in, brings about change, or even brings an inkling that change is necessary? Nobody. Jesus was different. Paul was different. When Paul said he was all things to all people, he was not saying he stooped to live like them. He did not practice what they practiced, let alone practice their sin. He simply did not judge them unto condemnation.
And that is another thing to consider. If the Bible is saying not to judge, meaning not to make an informed assessment about the things people do, then how in the world would a Christian ever know who to preach the Gospel to? Therefore, it is not the assessment that God tells us not to do, but it is the judging unto condemnation.
We ought to be making judgments all the time – assessment – about other things external to us, as well as continually, making daily judgments about our own thoughts and actions (the Bible calls it searching our hearts). If we don’t we will be hypocrites because it will mean that we act differently than we think. We can think the Bible is true and is the Word of God, but we may be living like any other unforgiven sinner. And then we justify that lifestyle by claiming that we must be like them to win them to Christ. Hogwash! That will not win them to Christ but it will drag you into the muck that you were once saved from! So don’t do it!
Instead, be the light that God intended you to be!