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1 Thessalonians 2:1-6, 1 For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain, 2 but after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition. 3 For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit; 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts. 5 For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness— 6 nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority.
Paul wrote these lines to counter a nasty smear campaign in Thessalonica that was accusing him and his men of being liars, deceivers, immoral, greedy, and in it for their own glory. For the sake of the gospel, the testimony of Christ and the good of God’s people, Paul vindicates their ministry and appeals to the knowledge of these Thessalonians believers who knew the truth. Paul tells us they knew the truth in verse 1, “You yourselves know,” verse 2, “as you know,” and verse 5, “as you know.” He reminds them in verse one that his coming to them wasn’t in vain. As we saw in chapter one, God sent Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy with the gospel and God did a great work among them. But out of intense jealousy and hatred for the gospel, some of the Jews and Gentiles mounted up a vicious smear campaign to ruin their ministry. Not a lot different than the smear jobs and character assassinations of our own day, except today they go straight to X to spread their lies.
So Paul, led by the Spirit, sees the need to vindicate their gospel message and ministry for these newly saved Thessalonians under the onslaught of these slanderers. In doing so he lays out a tremendous set of marks of spiritual integrity. Spiritual integrity is the gold standard of godliness. It is in short supply in our corrupt age. It means whole, undivided, unhypocritical, everything integrated or functioning properly. It begins with a heart not tolerating hypocrisy. Spiritual integrity is doing the right thing regardless of opposition or cost with the goal of pleasing God.
Integrity is undergirded by a clear conscience and is of utmost importance for God’s people. Calvin wrote, “God everywhere commends integrity as the chief part of worshipping Him.” We should all shine with the integrity of godliness, thinking and doing the right thing regardless of the consequences even when it’s hard. Failure in spiritual integrity can give a church a black eye in the community. Tommy Nelson tells about a businessman who visited his church one morning, but as he came through the back doors he spied a member who had cheated him in a business deal. The visitor did a U-turn and never came back. We don’t want to see any U-turn visitors. We need to be a people of integrity. We expect integrity at the doctor’s office, at the bank, from a mechanic, the car salesman, at the grocery store, and how much more in the church of Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus was a man of absolute integrity. Let’s look at the nine marks of spiritual integrity characterized in Paul’s ministry and apply them to ourselves. May we be a church shining with spiritual integrity.
#1 Boldness (v. 2). Being mistreated didn’t cause Paul and his men to back off from preaching the Gospel with boldness and confidence. A clear conscience and a heart set on pleasing God gives confidence and boldness to speak truth without fear of the results. Those three Hebrew youths were young men of integrity. When everyone was bowing down to Nebuchadnezzar’s silly golden totem pole, these three bold young Hebrews declared, “We will not bow down, even if it means burning in your furnace.” If your life is committed to Christ, you know whom you believe and, like Paul, you won’t be ashamed to stand up for Christ and His truth. You’ll stand up lovingly, humbly, but boldly. No mealy-mouthed Christianity here. We need more of this.
Paul and Silas had already been shamefully mistreated back in Philippi, stripped, beaten, thrown in prison, and run out of town. Then they came into Thessalonica and the Jews ran them out of town again and they took a night flight to Berea (Acts 17:10). At Berea, the antagonistic Jews ran them out of town again! But Paul kept on preaching the gospel with boldness. Spiritual integrity means hard times won’t stop you. When you have a clear conscience knowing you are doing God’s will and not compromising in your life, you have boldness and confidence. That’s spiritual integrity.
#2 Truthfulness (vs. 3). Paul’s exhortation and preaching wasn’t just academic lectures but aimed at the heart and wasn’t tainted by error or compromise. He said in 2 Corinthians 2:17, “We’re not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.” That’s spiritual integrity in preaching. No softening the sharp edges of God’s Word. No compromising the message to make it more appealing to the people. Along with boldness is speaking the truth. God constantly calls His people to speak the truth in love. Spiritual integrity doesn’t fudge, change, or dilute the truth.
Peter Cartwright was a circuit riding preacher in the 1800s who preached the Word of God without fear or favor. One Sunday a pastor asked Peter to preach in his southern church. During the song just before the message the pastor whispered to him that Andrew Jackson had just entered the church and to be careful not to offend their famous guest. But Peter was not one to compromise the truth. Halfway through his message he said, “I understand Andrew Jackson is present in the congregation today. If he doesn’t repent of his sins and accept Jesus Christ as his personal Savior, he will be just as lost as anyone else who has never asked God for His forgiveness.” Instead of being offended, Mr. Jackson’s response was one of great appreciation for the boldness and truthfulness of the preacher, and supposedly Mr. Jackson got saved and the two became best of friends. Truth and boldness are part of spiritual integrity. Anyone who loves the Lord despises mealy mouthed Marvin Milquetoasts behind the pulpit who adjust so as not to offend feelings.
One time in another church, a member came up to me before the message and informed me a Roman Catholic friend was visiting and urged me not say anything about Roman Catholicism. Another time a person said I shouldn’t preach against the sins of the LGBTIQQ crowd because there was a lesbian in the family and how would we expect her to come to church? Of course we have to speak the truth in love, but when all else fails, we must speak the truth. Speaking the truth may offend them but at least they hear the truth. The reality is, they will someday stand before God and face the truth.
#3 Moral purity (vs.3). Paul insists he held no impure motives as he preached the gospel. This is a real problem today. How many preachers and conference speakers have compromised their moral purity. Spiritual integrity means you will establish clear moral boundaries and convictions about what you will think and do about sexual activity. Sadly, churches are stained with the ugly scars of pedophiles, adulterers, fornicators, and counselors who cross the line. Christian men get ensnared in the tentacles of pornography. Thank God for forgiveness when there is repentance, but leaders who cave in to adultery disqualify themselves from the ministry. A pastor in Nashville a few years ago met with a Major League baseball player and his wife for counsel regarding their marriage. The pastor didn’t set definite boundaries and eventually committed adultery with the baseball player’s estranged wife. What a blight to God’s name as the situation ended up in the headlines as one big marital and legal mess.
Spiritual integrity demands moral purity. Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:22 to flee youthful lust. And Jesus told us if you look at a woman with lust you’ve commit adultery with her in your heart. Spiritual integrity means guarding those eyes. I recall a young married wife and mother walking into a church with a really slinky outfit on. No guy could see this without at least the temptation to lust in his heart. We live in an incredibly sensual, immoral and profane age. To maintain spiritual integrity we need to put on the full armor of God, especially that sword of the Spirit to fight the lusts of the eyes, the flesh, and the world. We need to repeat Psalm 139:23-24 to ourselves: “Search me O God and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the everlasting way.” Follow that with Psalm 19:14, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.”
#4 Honesty (vs. 3). Paul insisted they used no deception, trickery, or any kind of deceit in their message and ministry. The word “deceit” is literally “bait.” Paul says we didn’t bait you or offer something that really wasn’t true just to get you to bite on our message. Paul used no manipulative, crafty techniques in his preaching to get converts. He was direct and honest. He boldly preached the truth of the gospel and trusted God to draw and call those He would save. He used no gimmicks, no playing on emotions.
Remember Johann Tetzel who was a 15th century Catholic Dominican monk known as an indulgence hawker near Luther’s village. He was infamous for playing on people’s emotions and baiting them to buy their way out of purgatory, even preying on their relatives. He promised, “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, another soul from purgatory springs.” The money rolled in and went over the Alps to the pope to help build St. Peter’s Cathedral. Tetzel used deceit, lies, and abused religion.
We may not coerce people to give money or use gimmicks to lure folks to listen to our message, but we must be careful to maintain spiritual integrity in our lives. Spiritual integrity means we must maintain honesty. Little lies tolerated can easily grow into big ones. Spiritual integrity also fights hypocrisy, which is basically living a lie. Saying one thing in front of others and doing another in privacy can slip into our lives. Hiding a sinful life behind a façade of external religion will eventually be exposed. Live an honest life before God and others. There is joy in doing that.
#5 Faithfulness (vs. 4). In verse 4 Paul says God approved them to be entrusted with the gospel. Spiritual integrity means being faithful to whatever God has called you to do. Paul saw himself as a steward, entrusted by God to preach the gospel faithfully. Every believer is a steward of God’s gifts and callings, and integrity means faithfully using God’s calling and gifts in serving in the body of Christ, not wasting them.
1 Peter 4:10-11, “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
God has entrusted to you a certain calling, a certain means of serving Him. Integrity means you’ll do it as Christ’s servant. You want to be that good steward who when is called to give account will hear, “Well done, you good and faithful servant.”
#6 Pleasing God (vs.4). “Not pleasing men but God.” This goes deep into our motives, our hearts. This could be considered the heart and core of spiritual integrity. We all struggle with pleasing people more than God. We want people to like us. Paul gives us a great example of pleasing God above people. In Galatians 1:10, right after Paul pronounced a curse on anyone who would preach a different gospel, he declared this:
Galatians 1:10, Am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.
Paul was willing to offend people if the offense came from the truth. Paul confronted Peter about erring from the truth, “I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong” (Galatians 2:11-13). Who are you most concerned about pleasing? If you are all about being a people pleaser, you won’t be a God pleaser. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:9, “We make it our aim, whether at home in our bodies or absent in heaven, to be pleasing to Him.”
Two heart-level convictions that will keep you centered on pleasing God are your love for God and your fear of God. If you know who Christ is, you’ll have a certain fear of offending Him. If you know who Christ is and all He has done for you, you’ll have a heart love for Him that refuses to kowtow to the favor of other people if it means disobeying Christ or denying His truth.
#7 No flattery (vs. 5). Paul says we never came with flattering speech, with words to make you feel good regardless of whether it is true or not. Proverbs 29:3, “A man who flatters his neighbor is spreading a net for his steps.” He’s only flattering you to get something out of you. Flattery is a main tool of false teachers. They lure people in by telling them what they want to hear. They are ear ticklers according to 2 Timothy 4:3-4.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires
and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.
Paul describes them in Romans 16:18b,
..by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.
I heard of a nun who is occasionally asked to preach at a large church in Franklin. I listened to a bit of her speech. Part of her message assured the crowd, “Each of us is a word of God.” That may have made everyone feel good, but it was false. Jesus never flattered anyone. In Luke 20:21 even His enemies said, “You are not partial to any but speak the way of God in truth.”
In 1 Kings 22 Ahab had that whole crew of 400 flattering fawning toadies who just rubber stamped whatever they knew Ahab wanted to hear. He asked, “Shall we go up to battle?” They replied, “Yes, go up. The Lord says you’ll surely win.” Jehoshaphat smelled a dead rat and asked. “Is there anyone with God’s message?” Ahab said, “Yes, Micaiah, but he never tells me what I want to hear.” Jehoshaphat demanded, “Go get him.” They go to get him and on the way back tell him, “All the prophets are in agreement. You need to agree too.” What does Micaiah say? “Whatever the Lord says I will say.” He wasn’t a flatterer, a fawning toady. When they get him in front of the king he says, “Go ahead Ahab. Go up.” Ahab knew that wasn’t God’s message, “Tell me the truth, Micaiah.” So he told him, “You’re going to die on that battlefield.” Ahab commands, “Put him in prison and feed him sparingly until I return.” Micaiah replies, “If you come back, the Lord hasn’t spoken through me.” That random arrow under God’s control found the chink in Ahab’s armor and killed him, proving Micaiah was speaking truth.
Spiritual integrity means refusing to flatter people just to make them feel good. It means telling the truth, even if people don’t want to hear it.
#8 No greed (v. 5). Paul wasn’t driven by greed, even though they charged him with this. “He’s just in it for the money.” Paul says he had not used his apostolic office to disguise or conceal greed or the love of money. Spiritual integrity means you never manipulate people to gain undeserved money. Greed leads people to lie and flatter and appeal to emotions.
Remember the Dauphin, the con man who joined Huck Finn and Jim on their raft claiming to be the rightful heir to the French throne? He came up with that teary tale about being a converted pirate who wanted to go back to the Indian Ocean to convert those other poor lost pirates. Of course he didn’t have a cent, and shortly people wilted under his sorry story and took an offering for him that amounted to about $85. After receiving the money he hightailed it out of there as quickly as he could, but not to the Indian Ocean. This is fiction, but often greed shows itself like this in real life too.
A number of years ago an acquaintance called me. His wife had left him and he asked if he could stop by to talk. “Sure.” However, once he sat down and began to talk I realized he wasn’t nearly as interested in talking about his marriage as in me supporting his new ministry. That was a combination of deceit and greed. No problem if he had told me he wanted to present a ministry and was needing support, but he didn’t.
#9 (vs. 6) Aiming for God’s glory. Paul says, “We didn’t seek glory from men.” They weren’t glory hounds. Spiritual integrity doesn’t look for praise from people, regardless of who it is. Paul didn’t go to Thessalonica to have his ego pumped up, to be praised and lauded as gods. How are God’s messengers sometimes praised? Have you ever heard big-name speakers introduced at conferences like celebrities? “Dr. So and So is one of the most popular speakers of our day, has a world-wide ministry, has written a kazillion books, and has the alphabet behind his name. Let’s give him a big hand as he comes to the pulpit.”
There’s nothing wrong with introducing him as a faithful brother in Christ here to bring us a message from God’s Word. First Thessalonians 5:13 says we are to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Paul was an apostle and could have pulled rank, but he carefully avoided that unless necessary. Paul is talking about an inordinate exaltation of man. Paul never sought man’s praise. Paul’s goal was to bring glory to God.
Spiritual integrity means being honest and consistently having strong moral principles given by God. Marks of spiritual integrity are boldness, truthfulness, moral purity, honesty, faithfulness, pleasing God, no flattery, no greed, and aiming for God’s glory. To live with vigorous integrity we need to saturate our hearts with God’s truth. Psalm 119:11, “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against God!” God cares about integrity. Tommy Nelson ended a chapter on integrity in his book Godly Success with this prayer: “We want to be ruthlessly committed to integrity for Your honor, to the praise of your grace.”
Don’t squander your integrity. Thank God, Jesus came to die for our sins and there is forgiveness from God, but much better is it not to sin than to live with a broken integrity record. Insist on integrity in those you follow. Insist on integrity in your church. Insist on integrity in your own heart and practice. Are you compromising in any way right now? Or is your heart’s highest, strongest motive to please God by being truthful, honest, and acting in accordance with His moral principles and doing the right thing regardless of opposition?