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In the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 3, we read the story of John the Baptist arriving on the scene to proclaim the Good News of the coming Messiah. John is the fore runner, the one to come before Christ and to prepare the people for the King who is soon to arrive.
In response to John’s call to repentance, we see the crowd, the tax collectors, and the soldiers all inquire, “What should we do?” Interestingly, in response to the tax collectors, John says, “Don’t collect any more than you are required to.” During this time period, the tax collectors egregiously overcharged those being taxed and they for took a huge portion of what they collected and kept it for themselves. John’s call to them was this – be people of integrity. Take what is due to the government, keep the appropriate portion that is your legitimate salary, and do not take any more. In essence, John was saying, “Be a person of integrity.”
I find this passage very intriguing. We see that this chapter starts with a proclamation of the coming King Jesus. The new Kingdom is being ushered in and John is giving insight to those who are around him as to how to live in the new Kingdom, insight into what the values of the new Kingdom are. One of these is clearly integrity – being a man or woman who keeps his or her word and does what is correct. Oftentimes, I think it’s easy to think of “The Kingdom of God” and living in light of this Kingdom as focused on the spiritual disciplines and evangelism – reading our Bibles, praying, going to church, sharing our faith. While all of these are aspects of the Kingdom, there are more subtle aspect that we might overlook. One of these Kingdom values is integrity.
Integrity is doing what you say you will do. Integrity is being true to who you are called to be. In my experience, we as Christians tend to be late. Meetings start late, people arrive to meetings late, people arrive late to pick someone up, and the list goes on. While we are called to live as gracious people, we are also called to live as people of integrity. What would it look like if Christians were the ones who were always on time? What would it look like if Christians were known to always keep their word, even when it was hard to do? I realize that “life happens” and that at times, we just can’t be where we planned to be due to an unexpected change in plans or a sickness in the family. But in the day to day existence, what if Christians were to live as people of outstanding integrity, even in this one area of being on time? What would that mean?
It would mean that a piece of the Kingdom of God was in our midst.
In response to John’s call to repentance, we see the crowd, the tax collectors, and the soldiers all inquire, “What should we do?” Interestingly, in response to the tax collectors, John says, “Don’t collect any more than you are required to.” During this time period, the tax collectors egregiously overcharged those being taxed and they for took a huge portion of what they collected and kept it for themselves. John’s call to them was this – be people of integrity. Take what is due to the government, keep the appropriate portion that is your legitimate salary, and do not take any more. In essence, John was saying, “Be a person of integrity.”
I find this passage very intriguing. We see that this chapter starts with a proclamation of the coming King Jesus. The new Kingdom is being ushered in and John is giving insight to those who are around him as to how to live in the new Kingdom, insight into what the values of the new Kingdom are. One of these is clearly integrity – being a man or woman who keeps his or her word and does what is correct. Oftentimes, I think it’s easy to think of “The Kingdom of God” and living in light of this Kingdom as focused on the spiritual disciplines and evangelism – reading our Bibles, praying, going to church, sharing our faith. While all of these are aspects of the Kingdom, there are more subtle aspect that we might overlook. One of these Kingdom values is integrity.
Integrity is doing what you say you will do. Integrity is being true to who you are called to be. In my experience, we as Christians tend to be late. Meetings start late, people arrive to meetings late, people arrive late to pick someone up, and the list goes on. While we are called to live as gracious people, we are also called to live as people of integrity. What would it look like if Christians were the ones who were always on time? What would it look like if Christians were known to always keep their word, even when it was hard to do? I realize that “life happens” and that at times, we just can’t be where we planned to be due to an unexpected change in plans or a sickness in the family. But in the day to day existence, what if Christians were to live as people of outstanding integrity, even in this one area of being on time? What would that mean?
It would mean that a piece of the Kingdom of God was in our midst.
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