A Man of Integrity
Are you living as one man, or two? Integrity means being the same man everywhere, because who you are when nobody’s watching is who you really are.
Pastor Steve Alessi opens this week’s study of Proverbs 11 with a question that hits close to home: why do we shift so easily from kid with the buddies, to closed-off at home, to foul-mouthed at work, to Bible-quoting with the church guys? In Proverbs 11:3, Solomon draws a hard line between the man guided by integrity and the man undone by duplicity. The first has one life to keep track of. The second is always one slip from being exposed.
Integrity is simply being the same man everywhere. The man you are at church is the man you are at home, and the man you are when the boss is watching is the man you are when no one is. Steve shares the story of a man who drove back to a store to return extra change, not because anyone was watching, but because he was watching himself. That’s integrity as a compass: you decide who you are before you walk into the expense report, the tax return, the phone in your hand, or the conversation with a woman who isn’t your wife. Duplicity does the opposite. Maintaining two versions of yourself means remembering, hiding, covering, and defending until one version exposes the other. Integrity is freedom, because there’s only one you. And trust takes years to build but only moments to destroy.
Verse of the Day: Proverbs 11:3
Your Daily Man-Up Challenge:
Ask yourself one question: is there any area of my life where I’m being two different men? If so, identify one place where your integrity needs to tighten up, and deal with it today.
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The Men's Morning Devotional is a podcast to help you man up in every way - in your faith, your family and your work - by spending a few minutes getting into the Word before you face the world.
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Good morning, gentlemen. It's Steve Alessi, and it's Monday morning,
time for another Man Up Moment. Here's my question:why is it so easy for us to be so chameleon-like as men when we're just hanging out? With the buds, we act like a kid. When at home, we're serious and needing our space. When at work, dropping F-bombs. But when we're with our church guys, We're preaching the Bible. We're making our way through the book of wisdom in Proverbs, and today
we're reading Proverbs 11:3, which says, the integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity. Now guys, if we're talking about integrity, it simply
means this:being the same man everywhere. The man you are at church is the man you are at home. The man you are when the boss is watching is the man you are when nobody is watching. The man you portray yourself to be publicly is the same man you are privately, because ultimately integrity is who you are when nobody is looking. There's an old story about a man who walked into a store. He made a purchase, And then left. Later, when he counted his change, he realized the cashier had accidentally given him too much money back. Nobody knew. The cashier surely didn't know. There were no cameras following him. And he could have easily put the money in his pocket and said, well, that was their mistake. Instead, he turned around, drove back to the store, walked inside, and returned the money. The cashier, of course, was surprised and said, you're such an honest man. And he was. But here's the point. He didn't return the money because the cashier was watching. He returned it because he was watching himself. His integrity guided him. And that's exactly what Proverbs is talking about. Every day you and I are making decisions. Some of them are big and But most of them are small. And there won't always be somebody standing beside you telling you what to do. That's when integrity becomes your compass. Integrity says, I already know what kind of man I'm going to be today. So, when you're filling out the expense report, you don't have to wonder. When you're paying your taxes, you don't have to wonder. When you're alone with your phone, you don't have to second-guess or question. When you're talking to another woman and your wife isn't around, you don't have to wonder. See, in all of these environments, your integrity guides you. You already decided who you are way before you stepped into it. But notice now the
second half of the verse:the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity. Now, duplicity means you're living 2 different lives. So, you have one version of you over here, But then there's another version of you over there. And men, trying to maintain 2 versions of yourself will eventually wear you out. And eventually one of them will expose the other because you have to remember what you told the person, or you have to hide something from that person, or you have to delete this, cover that, explain this, defend that. That's not freedom. Integrity, it gives you freedom. Because you don't have to remember which version of yourself you're supposed to be. There's only one you. And here is why this matters so much to us as men. Trust will take years to build, but only moments to destroy. So gentlemen, here's your man-up challenge today. Ask yourself one question. Is there any area of my life where I'm being 2 different men? Then, if you are, identify one area where your integrity needs to tighten up and then deal with it today. Gentlemen, man up and be the same man everywhere. Let's pray. Father, help us to be men of integrity. Give us the courage to do what is right, even when nobody is watching, and even when doing right costs us something. Guard us from living two lives. Let our private character match our public reputation. Help us to be men whose wives can trust us, whose children can follow us, whose friends can depend on us, and whose word means something. Lord, let our integrity guide us today and make us men you can trust. In Jesus' name, amen.