JOSEPH #65 | JOSEPH IN EGYPT #47 | LAST WORDS OF JOSEPH #36

Pastor Christopher Choo

Lesson 3661

JOSEPH #65

JOSEPH IN EGYPT #47
LAST WORDS OF JOSEPH #36

11. JOSEPH #12

PRINCIPLES OF GODLY LEADERSHIP FROM THE LIFE OF JOSEPH #6

6. INTEGRITY

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word translated “integrity” means “the condition of being without blemish, completeness, perfection, sincerity, soundness, uprightness, wholeness.”

Integrity in the New Testament means “honesty and adherence to a pattern of good works.”

Jesus is the perfect example of a man of integrity. 

After He was baptized, He went into the wilderness to fast for forty days and nights, during which time Satan came to Him at His weakest to try to break His integrity and corrupt Him. Jesus was wholly man and wholly God at the same time, and He was tempted in every way we are, yet He never sinned (Hebrews 4:15); that is the definition of integrity. 

Jesus is the only one who was ever without blemish, perfect, completely truthful and always showing a pattern of good works.

Joseph comes close to Christ-likeness in his integrity.

Joseph was sold to a man in Egypt named Potiphar. He chose to work hard and honestly for Potiphar who observed that the Lord was with Joseph. He saw Joseph’s hard work and honest ways, and so, he put Joseph in charge of everything he owned!

But, Potiphar had a wife who lusted after Joseph. He knew this was wrong because she was married. Joseph refused her offers of sexual immorality. But she kept at him until one day, she asked him again, and he ran away from her. This made her very mad and demeaned as he was but a slave in the household. So she chose to tell a lie about Joseph. She told her husband Potiphar the lie, and he believed her.

Potiphar sent Joseph to prison because of the lie.

Joseph, despite his integrity, was now in prison for something he didn’t do!

Yet Joseph still trusted God and chose to maintain his integrity. In prison, he worked hard and helped the other prisoners. The other prisoners all liked Joseph. So did the keeper of the prison. He could see that God was with Joseph and that Joseph could be trusted. So, the prison keeper put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners. Again, God blessed Joseph for choosing to do right and choosing to be honest in all that he did.

And we know how he was vindicated by God in His perfect timing - which took a long17 years in our own reckoning!

What is our lesson on Integrity?

Integrity means choosing to do right and choosing to be honest in all that you do. 

Joseph added to his integrity the spirit of excellence in putting his heart and soul into what task, menial or otherwise, that he was given to do as a slave and a future leader in the making!

Joseph maintained his good testimony and built up his integrity before  God and man.

And he was finally vindicated by God Himself. Joseph became the vizier of Egypt just as Christ became the King of kings.

But both had the servant spirit - one of excellence in whatever they were tasked to do. They both gave their utmost for God's highest.

But it was integrity in maintaining their good testimony that counted in the end.

For a leader without integrity will become a minor footnote in God's History!