The church needs to be squeaky clean!
GOD deals with His own before He deals with the world.
Do you remember decades ago when Catholic and Anglican priests were caught up in historic and rampant paedophelia? Or when tele evangelists were hauled to court over misappropriation of funds? The world looked on and shook their heads.
Then the world exploded as regards child abuse in the sport and entertainment industries.
And of course fraud has always been in the world.
What is Integrity?
According to Google Chrome, it is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.
Integrity is having no urge to cheat, no swerve, not even a glance to the right or left, away from what is the right course to take. Integrity is taking a stand and sticking to it, aware that the right thing to do sometimes costs but still you do not back down from it. Integrity is a valuable and honourable character quality: to know how to live and to live nobly, consistently, reliably and with honour.
People notice, trust and respect a person of integrity, whether they practise this lifestyle or have this quality themselves or not.
The church needs Integrity
To be taken seriously, to be respected and to be valued, the church needs its moral compass in tact.
It needs to practise what Jesus preached: It needs not to judge others but to love others, and its fellow congregants
It needs to maintain its moral principles of sexual purity until marriage.
It needs to rise above worldly desires such as fame, wealth and worldly admiration.
It needs to love GOD, love one another, just as it loves itself.
The church is not a building, not a denomination. The church is the living breathing entity of its leader and master, its shepherd Jesus, and it needs to practise what He preached if we — as a church body — are going to regain our self-respect and our standing as the moral compass in the Western world and a foundational basis for civilisation around the world.