S.S.S. Study Christian Character Traits Week 2

S.S.S. Study Christian Character Traits

Family School at Faith Baptist Church

Week 2: Integrity

Integrity defined- Wholeness; entireness; unbroken state. Purity; genuine, unadulterated, unimpaired state.

Integrity is impossible to protect without honesty, purity, and a solid defense.

Where honesty is being truthful, and not deceiving, and purity is keeping clean and undefiled, integrity could be described as doing both these things and more consistently, without fail, no matter the circumstance.

Just being considered by others to be a "good person" does not make you a man of integrity, 

John 12:3-6. The same man who was trusted by other disciples to carry the money was a thief with no integrity who would eventually betray Christ! Look also at, John 13:21-29. Your integrity has nothing to do with what others think of your behavior or personality.

Your integrity has everything to do with how you stand when temptation and adversity comes, and so often the hardest temptations we face come from our own lusts. James 1:14-16.

How can we keep our integrity? How can we stand against temptation and affliction? How can we remain pure and undefiled by the world?     Ephesians 6:13-18

Truth- Proverbs 12:17

Righteousness- Psalm 55:22

The Gospel- 1st Corinthians 1:17-18

Faith- Romans 5:1,2

Salvation- Hebrews 7:25

Gods Word- Psalm 119:133

We are encouraged to resist temptation, over and over in the bible because our integrity can be forever damaged or even lost entirely by one weak moment. 1st Peter 5:8-11, the devil is not stupid, he will come at you in disguise and wreck your testimony and pierce through your integrity as quickly as he can. 

We must keep our integrity in our minds, bodies, and beliefs.

The goal we must set, 2nd Timothy 2:3, 2nd Thessalonians 2:1-3, 2nd Timothy 4:4-8.

Psalm 26:1     "Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD; therefore I shall not slide."

We tend to be on guard for the "big assault" that we think is coming, but fail to see the little battles played out every day. Matthew 7:15, Acts 20:29, so how do we stand, how do we see the enemy coming?  

1st Corinthians 16:13. 

Watching, being a man, and being strong, as commanded in 1st Corinthians 16:13 is useless without the rest of the verse, "stand fast in the faith". In order to properly and successfully defend your position you must know exactly where you stand? If you stand on the Bible as your final authority then you can be prepared when temptation comes. 

Homework: take the temptations listed below and find at least two verses that you can stand on when tempted, verses you can use as a defense in order to protect you from losing integrity.

Fornication, Dishonesty, disobedience, wrong attitudes, debt, disrespect, laziness, corrupt language.