FAITHFULNESS IS THE INTEGRITY OF OUR WORD

Some time ago, an article in National Racquetball Magazine told the story of Reuben Gonzales. He was in the final match of a professional racquetball tournament. It was Gonzales' first shot at a victory on the pro circuit. He was playing the perennial champion. In the fourth and final game, at match point, Gonzales made a super kill shot into the front wall to win it all. The referee called it good. One of the two linesmen affirmed the shot was in. But Gonzales, after a moment's hesitation, turned around, shook his opponent's hand, and declared his shot had skipped into the wall, hitting the court floor first. As a result, he lost the match. He walked off the court. Everyone was stunned.

The next issue of National Racquetball Magazine displayed Reuben Gonzales on its front cover. The editorial searched for an explanation of this first-ever occurrence on the professional racquetball circuit. Who could ever imagine it in any sport? A player, with everything officially in his favor, with victory in his hand, disqualified himself at match point and lost! When asked why he did it, Reuben Gonzales said, "It was the only thing I could do to maintain my integrity."

The world is surprised when they see the Fruit of the Spirit being displayed in a person's life.
- When they see love acting on behalf of God, without any regard to self, they wonder, “Why would you do that?”
- When they see joy being lived in who we are to the Spirit; operating as the Spirit actually knows we are, they say, “How can he do that?”
- When they see peace overcoming evil and hatred and revenge and hurt with good, they scratch their heads in confusion.
- When they see patience suspending criticism and withholding that perfect biting remark, they say, “What?”
- When they see kindness aggressively giving of self, they say, “Hey, what’s the catch?  Everyone has an angle.”
- When they see goodness living according to the standard of who Jesus is, they say, “Wow, I wish I could do that.”
- When they see Reuben Gonzales more concerned with his integrity than a victory, they say, “Pooh, I can’t even imagine that.”

When the world sees the fruit of the Spirit growing in our lives, the world notices.  They may not understand why, but occasionally, perhaps, we may be able to show them the Spirit. 

All this works because the Fruit of the Spirit is amazingly external.  It is tempting to look at love, joy, peace, patience, kindness goodness and think all of these are inwardly self-focused kind of things; they are deep spiritual feelings; they are states of mind.  But, the more we study each of the nine, the more we have discovered how real and actual and interactive they really are!
 
When the world sees the fruit of the Spirit growing in our lives, the world notices.  They may not understand why, but occasionally, perhaps, we may be able to show them the Spirit. 

If we keep them in the context of Galatians, a church struggling with each other and attempting to learn how to do church, we find that the fruit are actions dealing with each other. They are extremely practical measures which help our interactions with each other.  How do we need to do church?  We need the Fruit alive in our interactions!

Like fruit on a physical tree, they need to be seen and touched and tasted. The fruit of the Spirit grows on the outside of the soul.  Granted in comes from the inside, who we are to the Spirit, but the Fruit of the Spirit is visible.  Here is a profound reverse metaphor.  We are not tubers of the Spirit.  We are not potatoes of the Spirit or carrots of the Spirit.  We do not grow hidden underground.  We are talking about apples, oranges and lemons. We are fruit which can be seen, because they are actively being produced in our lives. 

When the world sees the fruit of the Spirit growing in our lives, the world notices.  They may not understand why, but occasionally, perhaps, we may be able to show them the Spirit. 

As Jesus said,

NRSV Matthew 7:17-20 In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their… fruits.

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I bring all that up this morning because I want to look on the external nature of the seventh fruit; faithfulness.  The word in the Greek that is translated faithfulness is the word pistis; which is simply the word faith.  While some of the words we have been studying have only been used a few times in the NT, pistis in the noun, adjective and verb forms, is used over 500 times in the NT.  And the meaning of the word revolves around the concept of faith.  Many times, it is our faith in God or Jesus or in the Spirit or in his Word.  Many times it is translated belief or believing or even trust. 

We talked about Christ/faith early in our Galatian's study.  It is Jesus’ faithfulness in going to the cross.  It is not simply his belief or trust, or his knowledge that God was really in heaven.  The faithfulness of Christ was his action.  It was his sacrifice of himself on the cross! His faithfulness is what makes all the difference to me. So, once again I believe what Paul is talking about with the word pistis, in the list of nine, is not talking about our inner faith in God, but rather faithfulness; or trustworthiness; our honesty.  Perhaps, the word that really fits here the best, in Galatians 5:22, is integrity.  Let me share my working definition.  Faithfulness is the integrity of our word.  It is our word, spoken in integrity, which is faithfulness. 

So this morning, we are going to give our attention to the concept of integrity in what we say, as a visible demonstration of our faithfulness.  Let's begin in Matthew 5:33. Listen to how Jesus puts this principle:

Matthew 5:33-37 "Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, `Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' But I tell you, do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your `Yes' be `Yes,' and your `No,' `No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

The people of Jesus' time played a game of oaths.  If they swore by something, less than holy things, then they didn’t have to keep their oath.  Only when they swore by something really sacred were they obligated to do what they had promised. It is kind of like fine print.  But Jesus says anything but the simply yes and no is from the devil!  Does that sound serious to you?  If we are being slippery, or manipulative or sneaky, or deceptive, or hyperbolizing, or downplaying or spinning the truth, rewriting history or anything less than completely, simply honest; it is from Satan.  We must, according to Jesus, have integrity in all our words!

James cranks up this concept even more.

James 5:12 Above all, my brothers, do not swear -- not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned.

That statement, "Above all" bothers me.  James says “Above all...” make sure our words have integrity or else you will be condemned.  I would have said, “Above all have faith in God.” Or “Above all love the Lord.”  Or “Above all love one another.” Or “Above all believe in the Scriptures.”  But James, the practical, says above all our words must have integrity.  Why is the integrity of our word so important?  Why is your saying what you mean and meaning what you say and keeping your word above all?  That is the question I want to explore this morning as we contemplate... faithfulness

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I want to start answering this question by looking at how the words of our promises create who we are.  Here is the thought: Promise creates identity.  "What?"

- 42 years ago I made a promise in baptism.  I spoke the words “I believe Jesus is the Son of God.” And the preacher spoke the words, “I now baptize you in the name of Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins.” Those words, with the action of baptism, clothed me with Christ and created an identity; I am a Christian.  I have been what was created by words and action all those years ever since.  Promises create identity.  

- 35 years ago I spoke the simple words, “I do” and became Tanya’s husband.  The marriage vows created my identity as husband and then father and then father-in-law and then grandfather.  Those few short words of covenant created a lot of who I am. 

-22 years ago I answered the words, "We would like to offer you a job here in Los Alamos" with, "I accept." I kind of wish we had had a more formal set of words.  But as Jesus said, Yes and No are all you need.  Anyway, words spoken created my identity as your preacher.

We are our words.  Who we are, is directly connected to the integrity of our words; our faithfulness.   It is the power of promise-making that creates a lasting and genuine identify for us. We are our promises, and we lose ourselves when we don't do all that it takes to keep them.  That is why James said, "Above all, Let your  'Yes' be yes, and your 'No,'"

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But that is not all. Another marvelous thing happens when words are spoken with integrity! When a person with the fruit of faithfulness makes a promise, that person reaches out into an unpredictable future and makes at least one thing predictable.  The person of integrity who makes a promise stretches out into circumstances which no one can control and says, "I will be there no matter what."  When we speak words of integrity we create islands of certainty in a sea of uncertainty.  Promise creates certainty!

When you tell a kid, "We will go get an ice cream cone later" the kid knows that later he is going to get an ice cream, you have created a reality in the future.  Can you see how important you word is?  If you don't go get the ice cream you have destroyed the future and that kid's hope. 

Kids when you tell your parents, "As soon as this show is over I will go do my homework" you create a reality.  But if you don't you destroy that reality and your identity.  I have to go with James, "Above all let your yes be yes and your no, no!

When we make promises to the ones we love and they know we are going to do what we said we would do, we create a wonderful reality in an uncertain world.  If we say... “Well, I changed my mind.” Or “Something came up.” Or “I just couldn’t get to that.” Or “I was just too busy or too tired or too overloaded or anything.” We destroy that wonderful reality!   Promise creates certainty!  It relates to last week’s goodness; living the standard.  In a world of moral relativism where people are living in the fog, our words create certainty. 

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I want to share one more reason why James said, “Above all…”  It is the reason why, I think, Paul listed faithfulness in the letter to the Galatians; Words form communities. What is our congregation, if not a common group of people who have made promises to each other?
 
Ephesians 4:22-25  You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

We are one body. Our words form the body and our words can destroy our body.  We must speak truthfully to each other.  I am not really talking about bald face lies, I don’t believe we do that, I am talking about speaking from the new creation that each of us are.  I am talking about being clear and honest and real and authentic with each other.  I am talking about keeping our promises to each other.  I am talking about being transparent with each other.  The integrity of our words, spoken to each other, is the formation of our church; Promise forms communities.

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We can see why James said...

James 5:12 Above all, my brothers, do not swear -- not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned.

Our faithfulness; our integrity; our trustworthiness in making and keeping our word is essential.  Faithfulness is the very fabric of our existence.  When we lie; when we are dishonest; when we compromise our integrity; when we cheat; when we break a promise;
Whether it is a promise to a child that we will go and get them an ice cream cone...
Whether it is a signature on a contract to buy a new home...
Whether it is, "I will do my homework..."
Whether it is saying, "I do" on your wedding day...
Or whether it is confessing Jesus as the Son of God, as you are baptized...
When you break a promise, you tear the reality of who you are, you tear the fabric of the future; and you tear the essence of your community. 

But on the other side of this, when we speak with integrity, when we honor our words and each other, when everyone knows, “He said it. He will do it.”  A wonderful reality is created.  When the world sees the fruit of the Spirit growing in our lives, the world notices.  They may not understand why, but occasionally, perhaps, we may be able to show them the Spirit.  When the world asked why Reuben Gonzales gave up the victory for his integrity, they didn't understand. But we understand; integrity is the faithfulness which the Spirit produces in us!

Los Alamos Church of Christ
November 1, 2009