Walking In Integrity (Part 2)
- kingdomcitizensinc
- 1 day ago
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Living the Lifestyle that is Pleasing in God's Sight
Welcome to the kingdom citizens blog!
Jesus, the Paragon of Integrity, is calling us to follow His example.
Being reconciled to Christ gives us access to His Holy presence. In His presence, with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we can learn how to worship Him in spirit and truth. By the power of the Holy Spirit, our eyes are opened to His wisdom and understanding. Washed clean in the blood of Jesus, we can now stand before God the Father spotless and without blemish or shame. Though this is our stance in the spirit, we still have a natural life to live for Him. This means walking before Him daily, according to the blueprint He has designed for us to study and implement.
Psalm 15
Of course, Jesus Christ is the perfect representation of what we should aspire to produce in our lives. He is the sterling example of how humans should love the Lord with all our being, love one another as ourselves, and enact God’s will on earth. Still, I am grateful that the Bible further spells it out for us – those attributes that result from walking closely with Christ. Psalms 15 provides insight on the blueprint He uses to describe the godly.
Psalms 15 (BSB)
Who May Dwell on Your Holy Mountain?
1 A Psalm of David.
O Lord, who may abide in Your tent?
Who may dwell on Your holy mountain?
2 He who walks with integrity
and practices righteousness,
who speaks the truth from his heart,
3 who has no slander on his tongue,
who does no harm to his neighbor,
who casts no scorn on his friend,
4 who despises the vile
but honors those who fear the Lord,
who does not revise a costly oath,
5 who lends his money without interest
and refuses a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things
will never be shaken.
Jesus Christ is our example. As the Paragon of Perfection, He is the model of excellence we must follow. The Lord knows we cannot be without flaw while still in these bodies of flesh. However, He is calling us to full maturity in His Word, will, and way. 1 Peter 2:21, John 13:14–15, 1 John 2:6, Philippians 2:5, and 1 Corinthians 11:1, collectively underscore that living as a Christian means shaping one’s life after the pattern of Jesus Christ 1.
Psalm 15 elaborates on the fruit that develops from a close relationship with Christ. Not only does this Psalm define who has intimate access to the most sacred place in God, but instructs us on how to practically walk out integrity in our day to day lives. Obviously, Jesus is the fulfillment of Psalm 15 but because we have become the righteousness of Christ, we too are given the permission and power to take up residence on God’s Holy Mountain.
Yes, Salvation grants us access into the Kingdom of God. However, the fruit we bear while in this Kingdom determines how intimately we can relate to its King. When King David asks the question, “Who may dwell on Your Holy Mountain?”, he may have had geographic location in mind but this question conveys so much more. This question isn’t a matter of location but of relationship. This is about who the Lord welcomes into His divine presence.
Because the Holy Spirit dwells within each believer now, we no longer need a physical tabernacle on a high hill or mountain. We are living temples of God. The Lord dwells in us but the question to ask now is whether we truly dwell in Him? Psalm 15 challenges the integrity of our conduct and speech (v. 2-3). Ask yourself if your life lines up with the heart of God? Are your actions measured by consistency and your words calculated in honesty?
Halaking In Tamim
Those who dwell in the presence of the Almighty have these things in common: that they walk with integrity and practice righteousness. “Walks” (halak)2 refers to a daily lifestyle, not just a single act, that we live out before the Lord. This is consistent integrity, not periodic goodness. “Integrity” (tamim)3 means to be blameless or whole. This is a ceremonial and ritualistic term that refers to the innocence of an unblemished lamb – the image of Christ in the way that He sacrificially made us whole. This is a picture of how we should behave as recipients of reconciliation in Jesus.
While walking with integrity we must also “practice righteousness”. “Righteousness” (tsedeq)4 is the natural, moral, and legal right to equity and prosperity in the Kingdom of God, because we’ve been justified by the blood of Jesus. To practice righteousness is to commit ourselves, systematically and habitually, to perfecting the skillful labor and worship we produce within the Kingdom, motivated by our gratitude towards Christ.
To walk denotes movement. Integrity seasons that movement with a flavor appeasing to God’s appetite. Practicing righteousness in addition to walking in integrity enhances our life with the permission and confidence to live in a radically transformed and ambitious way. When you know you belong, nothing should be able to move you! This is the motion of how our lives should function, but where does God’s blueprint place that motion?
This way of life (walking in integrity) is where we dwell. We should not wander off but be deeply rooted into the system of the Kingdom’s ambassadorial template. No matter what storms rage, as long as we are rooted in Jesus – pruning will come, but we will never be cut off completely. John 15:2 tells us that a branch that bears no fruit will be cut off but a branch that bears fruit will be pruned so they can produce more fruit. So dwell in the Soil that is rich in love, power, peace, and prosperity.
“Dwell” v.1 (shakan)5 means to permanently settle down. This is an invitation by the Lover of your soul to get nice and cozy with Him. He’s welcoming you to settle in close, long-term. This is no quick visit where we petition God for our needs then disappear until another storm arrives. This is the desire to draw near to the Almighty King of all creation, actively remaining in His will.
This brings living for the Lord as a lifestyle full circle, aligning it with loving Him full‑time—with all your trust, devotion, and affection. The one who walks with integrity and practices righteousness is a person who sustains a daily lifestyle of remembrance and devotion, fully engaged in their just calling to exist and function within the government of God.
Practicing Integrity in the Wilderness
Psalm 15 continues on:
who speaks the truth from his heart,
3 who has no slander on his tongue,
who does no harm to his neighbor,
who casts no scorn on his friend,
4 who despises the vile
but honors those who fear the Lord,
who does not revise a costly oath,
5 who lends his money without interest
and refuses a bribe against the innocent.
These are descriptors of a person who triumphs in the face of real world issues by faithfully walking in integrity. This is not easy to do. We all have triggers we work diligently to keep the safety on. Everyday is a drill, an opportunity to practice what we preach (as followers of the Way). Practice makes perfect and we may not get it right today but each new day we are blessed to see is another day we are graced to fix what we didn’t get right the day before.
It’s true that living in the “real world” is the challenge. We can leave our prayer closet, Bible study, worship session, or fellowship time on cloud nine in Christ—but here comes the nonsense, fully prepped to troll us into trading integrity for a piece of our mind. But this world and all its nonsense is our domain to conquer and subdue.
In light of overcoming our momentary urges to tap out, wild out, or win out – I’d like to reference Psalm 15:1 again, “O Lord, who may abide in Your tent?” When King David wrote this psalm, “Your tent” would’ve evoked a callback to the portable Tabernacle God dwelled in at the time. This was a reminder that though they were wandering through the wilderness, the Lord’s presence wandered with them. He was right there in the midst of them and their wilderness.
God is with you in your wilderness. The Lord is the all-powerful Defender of your camp. When you feel weak, like your integrity is at risk of being compromised, call on the Lord. Psalm 15 is a mirror, one that frames the entrance into the sacred place of God. We must give the Holy Spirit permission to realign our perspective and priorities. Anything out of place that is preventing us from drawing nearer to God must be removed.
Verse 5 guarantees that, “He who does these things will never be shaken.” This is the Lord’s promise of stability so that no matter what storms come, He will work with us to maintain the structural integrity He designed us to sustain. We won’t have to worry about accepting a bribe, giving a false report, or any kind of exploitation. We can speak the truth in love when our reverence of God trumps our fear of man. When we are familiar with the intimacy of God’s love, we won’t harm ourselves , or others, looking for value in all the wrong places.
It’s when we try to live in our own natural strength and lean on our own limited understanding that things go south for us. We must resist the urge to reclaim our lives from God merely because our own chaos feels more manageable than trusting the unseen solution He is orchestrating. Willful ignorance, poor judgment, pride, discounting consequences, and trying to redeem what God has already declared worthless will only lead us into failure.
In Closing: The Wisdom in Integrity
King Solomon personifies Wisdom in a brilliant way in Proverbs 1:22-26:
Proverbs 1:20-26 (NIV)
20Wisdom cries aloud in the street,
in the markets she raises her voice;
21 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
22 “How long will you who are simple love your simple ways?
How long will mockers delight in mockery
and fools hate knowledge?
23 Repent at my rebuke!
Then I will pour out my thoughts to you,
I will make known to you my teachings.
24 But since you refuse to listen when I call
and no one pays attention when I stretch out my hand,
25 since you disregard all my advice
and do not accept my rebuke,
26 I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you;
I will mock when calamity overtakes you—
We must listen when God’s wisdom calls out to us. Psalm 15 reveals the wisdom of walking in integrity so that we may dwell in the presence of God. A part of becoming whole in Christ and living with integrity is by maturing in His Word so that we don’t remain deaf, blind, and dumb. Don’t be simple with simple ways. In this context, to be simple is to be foolish, easily led astray, seducible. A simple person is in desperate need of God-given instruction and guidance.
The person who rejects the Lord’s instruction does not have integrity. When disaster strikes this man or woman, wisdom will laugh at them and mock the calamity that overtakes them. This may sound harsh but the reality is that instead of heeding to life-saving advice, they charged straight past every warning directly into harm's way. When Wisdom laughs at scoffers who rejected her, it’s because her truth is vindicated when consequences fall on the scoffer. I’m sure we’ve all laughed at someone who did something we told them not to do because it was foolish. We feel vindicated in our advice and their moral barometer is proven wrong.
So how do we avoid playing the fool? How do we practically live by God’s wisdom? Obedience to Christ’s teachings set us up for victory. Proverbs 1:23 tells us what to do in order to receive words of wisdom: “Repent at my rebuke! Then I will pour out my thoughts to you, I will make known to you my teachings.” Once we repent of our simple ways, God’s wisdom will flow on us, so that we can walk out our lives in integrity. If you’re out here in these streets, wisdom is out here calling to you (v.20).
Biblical values that shape life-habits form the fruit God desires for us to yield. Walking in integrity and dwelling in the Lord is cyclical. This is a pattern that we must take seriously and practice daily. God’s Word enlightens and enriches. If we build our lives according to God’s divine blueprint, our lives will be dynamically transformed. And don’t forget God’s guarantee that living a life of integrity leads to being unshakable. When harsh winds blow, we can laugh at the storm, knowing that we are secure in Christ.
Take this Christological fulfillment as food for thought. Jesus is portrayed as the fulfillment of divine Wisdom: the very voice (Wisdom) calling out in Proverbs becomes embodied in Him. His words illuminate those lacking understanding, and His sacrificial death provides atonement for sins committed in our ignorance. By following the risen Christ, the once‑naïve are reshaped into Spirit‑guided disciples who grow in discernment and truth. Jesus, the Paragon of Integrity, is calling us to follow His example, shaping us into people whose character reflects His own.
SELAH…
Stay Tuned in...
Thank you for tuning in. I hope that this series was a help to you. There is more to come soon so in the meantime, be blessed, and check out this series 7 Day Devotional by clicking the links below. Thank you again and Godspeed!
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Scripture of Emphasis:
Psalm 25:21 (NASB)
“Let integrity and uprightness protect me, For I wait for You.”
Citations:
1 Follow Jesus’ Example
1 Peter 2:21 (BSB)
"For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His footsteps."
John 13:14-15 (BSB)
"So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example so that you should do as I have done for you."
1 John 2:6 (BSB)
"Whoever claims to abide in Him must walk as Jesus walked"
Philippians 2:5 (BSB)
"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”
1 Corinthians 11:1 (BSB)
"You are to imitate me, just as I imitate Christ."
2 BibleHub, “Hebrew: 1980. הלך (halak),” accessed May 29, 2026, https://biblehub.com/hebrew/1980.htm.
3 BibleHub, “Hebrew: 8549. תָּמִים (tamim),” accessed May 29, 2026, https://biblehub.com/hebrew/8549.htm.
4 BibleHub, “Hebrew: 6664. צֶדֶק (tsedeq),” accessed May 29, 2026, https://biblehub.com/hebrew/6664.htm.
5 Strong’s Hebrew: 7931. שָׁכַן (shakan).” BibleHub. Accessed May 29, 2026. https://biblehub.com/hebrew/7931.htm.
Thank You and God Bless!
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