The news has been rife with stories of the lack of integrity in our culture. First it was the Enron scandal and the accounting firm of Arthur Anderson. Then it was WorldCom. Even Martha Stewart, the apron-clad icon of hominess, has been brought into disrepute through what appears to be unscrupulous business methods and practices. Something as American as baseball now has multimillion dollar players striking for more money. The Roman Catholic Church is embroiled in one of the worst scandals which anyone in several generations has seen. Our political leaders have had more than their share of scandals and corruption.
The Columbus Dispatch had two editorial cartoons this week which addressed the crisis we face as a culture. The first one had large office buildings on Wall Street with a single small building being crunched between them. The little building had one word written over it. . . “Ethics.” The message was clear that ethics has been squeezed out of the business world. The second cartoon had Moses on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments. Moses says to God: “Thou shalt keep thy dirty hands off of children? Well, duh. . . Do you really thing that needs to be spelled out?” Evidently it does, because the cartoonist adds the quip, “The editorial sin of assuming too much.”
The very politicians supposed to be protecting society are abusing the nation with their power. The very priests supposed to be protecting children are abusing them. The very companies who are supposed to make the free market economy work are damaging the economy through their shady business deals. Where are those people now, who said that character did not matter, and shouted to us the mantra: “It’s the economy stupid”? Now it is impossible not to see and understand that character affects the economy. A moral and spiritual collapse in the business world leads to an economic collapse, and eventually a cultural collapse if it is not dealt with. A moral meltdown in the church leads to a collapse of the church. A moral breakdown among political leaders leads to a collapse of the government. It ought to be abundantly clear by now that character does count and that you reap what you sow.
There are three areas that historically have been spiritual snares for people. These three are money, sex and power. People living without the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives are easy prey, but people claiming to be followers of Christ have also found themselves entangled in moral compromise in these areas. Even people in the church think they can get by with something, and realize too late that they have been living with the philosophy of the world that says, “It’s only wrong if you get caught.” It is very easy to be a Christian in every area of your life except one. You say to yourself that you will follow God except for one area that you will keep to yourself. When that happens, you will be destroyed by the one area that you are keeping from God. Not because God will punish you, but because that is the nature of sin. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10). He also comes to enslave.
I want to look at these areas and talk about their implications for our life in God. Let’s look first at the area of finances. It is interesting that the areas of our greatest compromise are also the areas where there is the greatest secrecy. Money is certainly one of those areas. I am reminded of the story of a man in the Bible named Achan. The scene is the battle of Jericho where “the walls came tumblin’ down.” The Lord had directed the people not to take anything from Jericho, but Achan saw a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred pieces of silver and a gold wedge. He decided that in spite of what the Lord had clearly said, this was too good not to take. He took those things and dug a hole under his tent where he hid them. But his refusal to listen to God led to moral compromise, the compromise led to collapse, and Achan’s sin not only affected him, but the whole nation. They no longer had the moral strength to face their enemies, and they were defeated by them. His greed left him in ruins. The Bible says, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5).
What would God say if he took a look at your credit card account? What would he think if he saw your checkbook or your tax return? This is not something separate from your spiritual life, this is your spiritual life. If you do not have financial integrity, you do not have integrity. If you are unethical in your financial dealings, you are unethical. If you have financial problems because of your financial misdealing, you have a spiritual problem. You cannot compartmentalize your life. You cannot put God in a corner and expect your life to go well. You cannot divide your life into spiritual things and secular things. When you are a Christian everything in your life is spiritual. Whatever you do in any area of life affects your spiritual life. The Bible says, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). God is not reserved for church and special occasions; he is a part of your financial dealings, your relationships, your thought life, your motives and desires. It all belongs to him. You can’t keep anything for yourself. The problem is that it is all so easy in our culture. Just open up another credit card account. Just trade things from one account to another. Just go to one of the quick cash places that have proliferated around town. Just go online and get a loan.
But if it is easy in this culture to be financially irresponsible, it is even more so when it comes to the second point I want to speak about: sexual integrity. With the publishing of the first Playboy magazine, sex was sold as a recreational activity, rather than a part of a committed, exclusive and sacred relationship. That idea has crept into our culture like a spreading cancer. The movies and television constantly show people having casual sex without any consequences. They never talk about getting a sexually transmitted disease, and infidelity is treated as something which should be expected — a normal, and even healthy, part of life.
In the film, Bridges of Madison County, Francesca Johnson, played by Meryl Streep, has a four day affair with Robert Kinkaid, a photographer played by Clint Eastwood. Her husband and children are away at the Iowa State Fair at the time, and they learn of the affair after her death when they read a three volume diary where she details the adulterous affair. There was nothing particularly wrong with her marriage and family, but she obviously considered the affair the most important event in her life. The dairy said little about her marriage or her children. It was excitement without the necessary commitment. No relationship had to be developed. She did not have to put up with his faults. Its brevity put it in the category of fantasy rather than reality, and it is always easier to live in the world of fantasy than it is to live in reality. Unfortunately, there are many people leading this kind of shallow life.
We are experts in the area of fantasy. We now have a whole area of psychology dealing with what is now being called sexual addiction. The reality is that sexual addiction is the result of deliberately cultivating sexual lust. The truth is that we are not victims of an addiction, we are cooperative partners in making ourselves slaves to sin. Jesus said, “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). If that does not apply to pornography I do not know what does.
Annie Dillard, in her book The Writing Life, tells of an experiment that was done with butterflies. The experiment involved placing a male butterfly with a female butterfly of his own species. Then they placed a painted cardboard butterfly alongside them. The cardboard butterfly was bigger than the female — bigger than any female could ever be. The male ignored the living female butterfly next to him and went to the painted cardboard butterfly over and over again. Dillard adds, “Nearby, the real, living female opens and closes her wings in vain.” It is a picture of the world in which countless males are trapped today. Staring at painted cardboard butterflies they are squandering their own resources and defrauding the real, living, breathing females in their homes. But then you don’t have to establish a relationship with cardboard butterflies. You don’t have to put up with their failures — nor do they have to live with you and discover yours. There are no expectations from you. You don’t have to communicate with them. An inviting smile is painted on their faces and they don’t even know you. Perhaps it is better that way.
The Bible tells you to throw away the cardboard butterflies and enjoy the real, living person in our home. “Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful deer — may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love. Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another man’s wife? For a man’s ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all his paths” (Proverbs 5:15-21). And remember that Jesus’ definition of adultery includes the deliberate, lustful stare.
I have known numbers of people who have kept this part of their lives separate from their relationship with God. They have given God every area except this one. They have been good people who loved God, but they would not surrender this part of their lives. I could tell you endless stories of how it has shamed and destroyed them. I have friends whose marriages, families and careers are in ruins. It is with good reason, and love for us, that the Bible says, “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral” (Hebrews 13:4). We need to see people of the opposite sex as persons, not as sexual objects. We need to see each other here as brothers and sisters, father and mothers, rather than potential partners. God has given us the possibility of wonderful, close relationships with people, but if we sexualize these relationships we never experience the real closeness that God wants us to enjoy.
Creating us as sexual beings was God’s idea. The Bible says, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). Sex is a good and wonderful gift meant to bless our lives. But the greater the gift the greater potential for abuse. The greater the blessing, the greater potential for destruction if it is misused. If you want to protect yourself from the loss of integrity in this area work on your relationship with the real, living partner in your home. Work on communication. Work on developing and cultivating your relationship. Learn through experience what forgiveness means. Stop being selfish. Learn to compliment and enjoy each other. Look for the good. Date and romance your wife. Work on loving your husband. Women should not lose themselves in romance novels and soap operas any more than men should lose themselves in pornography. Both lead to living in fantasy rather than the reality to which God has called us.
The third area of potential compromise in our lives is in the area of power. People in power somehow think that they are the exception to the rule and are above having to be accountable to anyone. We see this problem all the way from those who have power in government and business to those who try to exert power in the home and in the church. The old saying goes, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” We are to take the example of Jesus who said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). Paul admonished: “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2). The driving force behind power is pride, and the gospel’s answer to pride is humility. It is our arrogance that makes us impatient with the people in our homes. It is arrogance that makes us impatient with other drivers on the road. It is arrogance that makes us think we should always get our way. It is arrogance that makes us want to be in control. It is humility that pleases the heart of God. Humility is recognizing who we are under God. It is the understanding that we are on level ground with the rest of the human race. It is humility that keeps us from giving in to the temptation to abuse power and use it over other people.
Not long ago, the newspapers carried the story of Emmanuel Ninger who was arrested for passing counterfeit $20 bills. The police obtained a warrant to search his home, and during the search, they found a $20 bill in the process of being made. They also found three paintings which he had completed. It turns out that Ninger was an artist, and a very good one. In fact, he was so good that he was able to paint those $20 bills. Meticulously, stroke by stroke, he painted the bills with exceeding skill so that he was able to fool everyone. That is, he fooled everyone until a grocery clerk with wet hands discovered the counterfeit bills. After he was imprisoned, the three paintings taken from his home were sold at public auction for $16,000. They brought over $5,000 each. The irony and tragedy is that it probably took Emmanuel Ninger less time to paint a $5,000 portrait than it took him to paint a $20 bill. Not only could he have made a lot of money if he had used his talent properly and legitimately, but he could have contributed something to the world. But that is always the way it is, isn’t it? It would actually take less time, and be more profitable, using our energies for legitimate and good purposes than squandering our integrity on illegitimate purposes. And we wouldn’t end up in chains; we would be enjoying the wonderful freedom God intended us to have.
Rodney J. Buchanan
July 14, 2002
Mulberry St. UMC
Mt. Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
