Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool. — Proverbs 19:1
The world we live in is a lot different from the world we may have witnessed when we were younger. In the past, people tried to hide their sin. They were ashamed of their wicked ways and while they may enjoy it, they did not try to put it out in front of the world to see. That’s not the case anymore. It seems that there are very few places we can turn where we are not exposed to wickedness.
Television, movies, and online websites are filled with images that are meant to fuel lust and immorality. Songs that are popular on the radio are openly talking about sexual immorality, adultery, and the abuse of the body in ways that are sickening to describe. If that were not enough, just take a trip to your local Target or Walmart. Watch and listen to the people for a few minutes and you will quickly see the sad state of our world.
Even those that should be leaders of our nation have given way to immorality. They are open about their desire to see our nation fail, to abolish Christianity, and to end the existence of God’s chosen people, the nation of Israel. It truly is sad to see how far we have come from being a Christian nation to being a nation that seems to have lost all integrity. We still want to claim that we are the same nation we were, but we seem to be living a lie to say that we are “one nation under God.”
Integrity and morality are not simply ideas that we turn on and off when we need them. To have integrity and morality is a commitment, that no matter where you go or what you do, you will live to a higher standard. It is important that we remember we are Christians and to live to the standard of being a Christian no matter what we do. Even if it is an unpopular thing to do, we must stand in integrity. If we claim to be a Christian but fail to live our lives in integrity, we are a liar and as the verse in Proverbs says, a fool. The verse tells us it is better to have our integrity and be poor than to have anything else we can have in this world.