When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family of the house of Judah. 11 But Jehosheba,[e] the daughter of King Jehoram, took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the royal princes who were about to be murdered and put him and his nurse in a bedroom.
2 Chronicles 10-11 (a) NIV
Today I would like to share with you about the mark of Christ of integrity—the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. People of integrity do what is right even when no one is watching. They do what is right just because it is the correct thing to do.
I believe that an excellent example of a woman of integrity or an upright person of the Bible was Jehosheba. She was a princess of Judah who chose to leave the palace to marry Jehoida, a priest. Sometime after her wedding, Athalilah, her stepmother, usurped Judah's throne by killing almost all her grandsons.
When Jeshosheba saw that her stepmother intended to kill every family member that could sit on the throne, she risked her life to rescue her youngest nephew Joash who was barely one year old and hid the young boy for six years. She had nothing to gain by risking her life saving this young's boys life, except that it was the right thing to do.
My friend, as faithful followers of Christ, we need to be people of integrity. We need to do what is right even when no one is watching. We may not have to save the life of a king, but God for sure will use us as an example of integrity in front of the people around us. How can we testify about Christ at work if we behave like nonbelievers?
A person of integrity is a hard worker who arrives on time and does his job excellently. A person of integrity does not give false testimony and is not part of the office gossip. Jeshosheba risked her life to do the right thing. It may be that the right thing for you is to preach Christ with your life.
That is not easy, but it is better than the alternative. To be a Christian, no one can recognize as one is terrible. To call yourself a Christian and live in the consequences of sin is the saddest thing on Earth. It is time for the church to show the world that true Christians carry the Mark of Christ of Integrity on them.
To study more on integrity, listen to our Cornerstone podcast by going to globalgraceministries.com or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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