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What does it mean for a believer to walk with integrity in all avenues of life? While the Lord calls us to be above reproach in our work and public life, He also commands holy behavior in private. Are you the same person in public and in private, when no one is watching?
Scripture reveals that the living God is all-knowing and always present. He knows our ways, from our rising up to our lying down, when we walk by the way and when we sit in our house. He sees the secrets of our hearts: “For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his paths” (Prov. 5:21). We kid ourselves if we think that no one is watching when we are behind closed doors.
While God sees, hears, and watches us intently, He does so with the heart of a compassionate father. He knows how we feel and what we think, even before we utter a word. Once, after my wife called an attitude-foul on our teenage daughter, they continued working side by side silently. After a few minutes, mother turned to daughter and said, “Don’t even think that!”
God’s attentiveness is aimed not at catching us in sin but on training us in righteousness. As with our own children, the Lord’s standard of obedience is immediate, complete, and happy compliance with His commands. If any of those elements is missing, then even our outward conformity is not really obedience. Duty demands obedience from the heart, with contentment, trusting that He does all things for our good and for His glory.
Consider King Saul of Israel, who went to war against the Amalekites, commanded by the Lord to devote everyone and everything to destruction (1 Sam. 15). But Saul only partially obeyed. He indeed went to war, but he kept the best of their sheep and oxen, rationalizing that some should be sacrificed to God, and he did not kill Agag, their king. The prophet Samuel confronted Saul: “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice” (v. 22). Saul’s false piety and partial obedience was willful and complete disobedience.
Or consider the elder brother in Christ’s parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11–32). The younger son had demanded his inheritance from their father and went into the far country, where he squandered it all in reckless living. When the young man came to his senses, he returned home to the father whom he had rejected, confessing his sins. He said: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son” (vv. 18–19). The father showed great compassion to him and lavishly celebrated his son’s return. But the older son was angry, both at his brother for wasting his inheritance and at their father for forgiving him: “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends” (v. 29). The father gently rebuked this son’s harsh attitude. “It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found” (v. 32). The older son’s begrudging, legalistic service to the father was really disobedience in disguise.
How do we put off the old ways of the flesh and put on the new things of the Spirit? Another practical help is to often recite to ourselves that Christ has redeemed us. Martin Luther’s frequent utterance, “Baptizatus sum” (“I am a baptized man!”), helped him guard his own thoughts, words, and actions. Knowing that the blood of Christ, symbolized in the washing of baptism, has sprinkled us clean from the crimson stain of our iniquities, we live as “marked” individuals who bear the invisible but indelible sign of the covenant on our heads. If the Old Testament saints were sanctified by faith in Yahweh’s provision of a Passover lamb as a substitute for their sins, “how much more will the blood of Christ . . . purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Heb. 9:14)?
Another essential practice to free us from the guilt and condemnation of sin is confession with restitution. Saying that we were wrong, asking for forgiveness, and making things right is a strong corrective. The example of Zacchaeus is illustrative. He said to Christ: “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold” (Luke 19:8). He far exceeded the requirements of the Mosaic law, making excessive restitution with a joyful sense of freedom and forgiveness.
Christ also taught His followers in the Sermon on the Mount that living in the kingdom of God requires reconciliation with others: “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matt. 5:23–24).
Finally, the more we abide in God’s Word, the more readily the Holy Spirit will bring to our remembrance all the things that Christ taught us. We hide His Word in our hearts, that we might not sin against Him. We meditate on His Word, asking the Spirit to search us and reveal if there is any grievous way in us .
What if this is not where you are today, and you feel the miserable weight of public or private sin? Run to your Father and confess. Remember that you were baptized into Christ. Restore what is broken. Reconcile with others. And ruminate on God’s Word. His rich grace is greater than all our sin.