Keeping your morality in an immoral world

His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!”        Job 2:9

Can you maintain your integrity in a world that scoffs at doing right?

Many say, “To get along, you have to go along!” In other words, nobody likes a whistle-blower! Mind your own business.

When former Philippine president Joseph Estrada was asked how a policeman could be expected to be honest when no one could support a family on such a minimal salary, his response was, “Well, there are some honest policemen.”

There is a price to be paid for maintaining your integrity in a morally bankrupt world. John Bunyan paid that price by languishing in prison. Many modern martyrs have paid the price for holding on to their faith when even small compromises would have resulted in their being spared suffering.

Early Christians were martyred by Rome because they refused to take even a pinch of incense and go to a pagan temple and say, “Caesar is Lord.” Why? Because they were convinced that only Jesus Christ is Lord. Others told them, “Hey, what does it really matter? You don’t have to really believe that. Just say it, then go worship your Jesus.”

While people who maintain their integrity in an immoral world are often thought of as stubborn, out of step with their culture, bull-headed and obstinate, they can hold their heads high, having refused to compromise.

Can a moral person maintain his morality in an immoral world? It depends on what kind of answer you get when you ask, “Am I willing to be overcome by what I detest?”

Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Psalm 150:1-6