Honesty and Integrity
As members of local communities of faith,
we are to demonstrate Christ's righteousness
by the way we treat
both fellow believers and unbelievers.
Here's Gene:
Now, one of the interesting things
in this vision is that God is saying,
I think literally, that the temple will be rebuilt--
this millennial temple.
And then after revealing to Ezekiel
what this temple looks like,
He also reiterates instructions
in terms of how the leaders
and the people of Israel
are to behave themselves.
For example, He talks about honesty
[and] integrity in a very specific way.
If you look at chapter 45, beginning with verse 9:
"This is what the Lord God says:
You have gone too far, princes of Israel! ...
And there again, He's speaking to the kings.
He's talking to the priests.
He's talking to the leaders of Israel.
And so He's reflecting--
God is reflecting on their very evil behavior
before He has brought them back--
or when He brought them back,
He's reflecting on their evil.
And so He says:
Now that I've brought you back,
I've put a new spirit within you, a new heart.
...Put away violence and oppression
and do what is just and right.
Put an end to your evictions of My people."
This is the declaration of the Lord God.
"You must have honest scales,
an honest dry measure,
and an honest liquid measure."
In other words, He goes through and He illustrates
how they are to be honest in all of their relationships.
Which is in total contrast to what Israel was like,
almost from the time He brought them out of Egypt.
They did not reflect honesty and integrity.
They did not reflect morality.
They did not reflect the holiness of God.
Now, why this reiteration?
And why did God choose them in the first place?
Well if you go back to Mount Sinai,
if you go back to Exodus,
I think we have an answer
to that question in verses 5 and 6:
...Now if you will listen to Me
and carefully keep My covenant...
Now remember, He's talking
to the children of Israel there at Mount Sinai.
This is going all the way back--
when He revealed the law--
when He revealed the Ten Commandments:
...Now if you will listen to Me
and carefully keep My covenant,
you will be My own possession
out of all the peoples,
although all the earth is Mine,
and you will be My kingdom of priests
and My holy nation.
These are the words
that you are to say to the Israelites.
And of course, these are the words
that Moses recorded.
What God is saying to these people at Mount Sinai:
All the nations of the world
do not believe in Me.
They're pagan--they have idols.
You had idols.
You were in the land of Egypt.
You were doing the very thing
that the Egyptians were doing.
But I've chosen you out.
I've given you a new law.
And I want you to be My holy people
so that all the nations around you
will see how you reflect Me and My righteousness.
Did that happen?
Really, never.
They did not fulfill what God had in mind
in being a witness to the world.
And I believe that what's happening
here in the millennium now:
God is giving Israel another chance
to be the witness that He originally had in mind:
In giving them a new heart, a new spirit,
and a new temple to worship in.
Not just to have rituals
but to demonstrate to all the nations
of the world at this moment.
Who miraculously are able to visualize this--
perhaps through modern technology--
I don't understand it all.
But to once again be this holy nation
as a witness to the world.
Regardless of our interpretation,
whether literal or figurative,
there's one thing we all agree on
in our lives today.
And that is that we are to be a holy people
as God's church.
Peter refers to this when he says:
But you are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation...
And there Peter's picking up
on the terminology of the Old Testament.
And by the way, some people say:
See, all the promises of Israel
are fulfilled in the church.
Because here Peter is calling us a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation.
Basically, I believe he's using metaphors here.
He's using Israel as a metaphor.
We are not a race.
We are not a priesthood,
except we are individually priests.
We are not a nation.
We're the body of Christ.
But just as God chose Israel to be a holy people,
we are to be, as He says:
...a people for His possession,
so that you may proclaim the praises
of the One who called you
out of darkness into His marvelous light.
In other words, one of the reasons
God has chosen us is to be a witness
to the world through the way in which we live--
just as He chose Israel.
So here we have, I think,
a very interesting correlation and application.
And specifically in terms of honesty and integrity,
let me just ask this question:
...In what ways can the church today
carry out its missionary mandate,
not only in sharing the gospel,
but in the way we treat all people?
And I think this passage,
this statement by Paul in Galatians,
says a lot in relationship to
what God was saying to Israel
in these prophetic statements.
We're to be a witness in the world. How?
Therefore, as we have opportunity,...
Now who's he talking to here?
Believers--both Jew and Gentile who are believers.
We're part of the church.
We're part of the body of Christ.
...Therefore, as we have opportunity,
we must work for the good of all,
especially for those
who belong to the household of faith.
We are to be a witness in this world.
And more specifically, Paul in Ephesians said this.
He wrote to them and told them how to live.
And there's a whole section
in Ephesians chapter 4.
But in verse 28, here's a statement
that correlates with this
honesty and integrity aspect
of what God was saying to Israel:
The thief must no longer steal.
This was written to people
who were saved out of the Roman Empire.
A lot of them Gentiles. And Jews.
The thief must no longer steal.
Instead, he must do honest work
with his own hands
so that he has something to share
with anyone in need.
And there you see a very specific correlation
in relationship to how we,
as members of the body of Christ,
are to behave in order to be a witness in the world.
So here's the Principle to Live By:
As members of local communities of faith,
we are to demonstrate Christ's righteousness
by the way we treat
both fellow believers and unbelievers.