Rounding out our list of essential principles for a biblical worldview is integrity. This flows naturally from the principles we looked at earlier in this series: objectivity and rationality. Since Christianity places such a high premium on truth, we must acknowledge that integrity is an essential virtue and hypocrisy is a horrible vice.
Integrity is a fundamental biblical qualification for all ministry. One requirement heads every list of qualifications for church leaders in the New Testament: The man who would fill any such office must be “above reproach” (1 Timothy 3:2, 10; Titus 1:6–7).
Success in business, skill in public relations, or other earthly talents are not what qualify a man for leadership in the church. The supreme and primary qualification at every level of church leadership is integrity—a love for the truth and consistency in living it out practically. To ignore that principle is to sacrifice the premium we place on truth as Christians.
In other words, if we really believe the objective, rationally understood truth of Scripture is both authoritative and incompatible with error, we must not only preach it; we must live it, too. It is not enough to give lip service. If we genuinely believe that the Bible alone is divine truth, we must allow it to permeate our lives and ministry. To do otherwise is tantamount to denying the truth. Those who disagree may “profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed” (Titus 1:16).
Ezra, the high priest in Nehemiah’s time, is the prototype of what every godly minister ought to be. “Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel” (Ezra 7:10, emphasis added).
I learned this lesson from my father, who as a lifelong pastor has been my model of integrity, as was his father before him. I first began to appreciate how difficult the struggle can be when I began in the ministry in my twenties. I had been in the pastorate for barely a month when I was asked to perform a wedding for a girl in our church who was planning to marry an unbeliever. In a meeting of the church board, some of the leaders urged me to do the wedding because the girl’s father was an influential man. A lot was at stake, they said. We might lose this family from the church if I declined.
I said, “But I can’t do that. I can’t do what Scripture clearly forbids. Believers are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Second Corinthians 6:14.” They were already prepared for that. They replied, “Well, OK. We understand your feelings. We know a minister from somewhere else who will come in and do it, so that this girl can be married in the church.”
I asked them, “But whose church is this? Is this your church to be used at your discretion, or is this Christ’s church?” They replied, to their great credit, “You’re right; we can’t do it. This is Christ’s church.”
That was the Rubicon for Grace Community Church. That was the moment when the future of our congregation was decided. Yes, an entire family left, and several other people withdrew their membership over that incident as well. But we decided as elders that day that we would not only preach the Word of God; we would expect it to be lived out in the corporate life of the church.
That sort of obedience to the Word of God—an exclusive obedience to Christ—has shaped and molded our ministry over the years. It shows up even in the way we worship. We don’t entertain people. We don’t have a dog-and-pony show. We gather to worship God, to exalt Christ, and to hear the Word of God preached. We practice church discipline as outlined in Matthew 18:15–20. We seek to obey what Scripture teaches, no matter how politically incorrect or out of fashion it might seem. And at a time when many churches are becoming more and more like the world, our goal is to be conformed more and more to the standard set forth in the Scriptures. God has blessed that, and I am convinced it is because our elders have sought to uphold the standard of biblical integrity at every level of leadership.
Unfortunately, the evangelical movement today is drifting from these fundamental principles and has already begun to embrace postmodern ideas uncritically. Evangelicalism is losing its footing, people’s confidence in the Scriptures is eroding, and the church is losing its testimony. Fewer and fewer Christians are willing to stand against the trends of this generation—and the effects have been disastrous. Subjectivity, irrationality, worldliness, uncertainty, compromise, and hypocrisy have already become commonplace among churches and organizations that once constituted the evangelical mainstream.
The only cure, I am convinced, is a conscious, wholesale rejection of postmodern values and a return to the biblical worldview which exults the exclusivity of Christ. We must be faithful to guard the treasure of truth that has been entrusted to us (2 Timothy 1:14).
Returning to the One Way
We can end this series where we began: with the exclusivity of Christ. Christ is the only way to the Father (John 14:6). He is the door—the very entrance to salvation (John 10:7–10).
But He is also the exclusive authority over the church. This is why the Bible calls Jesus the head of the church (Ephesians 5:23). He is the supreme ruler, and the church must give its obedience to His word.
If we are to return to a biblical worldview, those are the truths we must embrace.
