9 JUN 23 Friday: A Closer Walk Devotional
“We are traveling together to guard against any criticism for the way are handling this generous gift. We are careful to be honorable before the Lord, but we also want everyone else to see that we are honorable.” 2 Cor. 8:20-21
Integrity is a trait that is needed by every believer and leader within the church. We see in our society, business leaders, politicians, the military, and everyone else, struggle with living and working in a manner that is honorable. Pride, greed, and power are temptations that become sins and damage our trust horizontally with other people, but also vertically with the Lord.
Paul makes the point and puts in the effort and protective factors in place to protect himself and their ministry. Once trust is lost, it is very difficult to build that back. In this case, Paul is traveling back to Jerusalem to take the money collected from the regional churches for the needy believers. Whenever you are dealing with money, people are naturally suspicious.
Paul doesn’t want to give the appearance of wrongdoing nor put himself in a position to do wrong with what was entrusted to him. Even in his day, there were spiritual charlatans that took advantage of people for financial gain which does long-term damage. He wanted to bring honor to the Lord and to the churches so that the focus is on the mission and not on them. These protective factors are necessary so that we are built up as a whole and positive accountability is established so that integrity becomes the standard.
Are you establishing accountability for personal integrity?
No comments:
Post a Comment