Beware of Double-Mindedness

James 1:8 – he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

How’s Your Integrity?

Let me ask you a few questions that relate to this issue of being double-minded.

• Are you the same person at home with your family as you are at church?
• Are you the same person at church as you are work?
• Are you the same person when you’re out with your friends that you are in your small group or Bible study?
• Are you the same person with your family as you are sitting alone in front of the computer or television screen?
• Are you the same person away on a business trip as you are at home?
• How radically different is your thought-life from your public persona?

Those are some pretty tough questions. And while none of us probably moves from sphere to sphere – from group to group – with perfect consistency, we still need to ask the question: How wide are the gaps?

Whole, Entire, Undiminished

Part, maybe even most, of that consistency will come from how “integrated” our lives are regarding our relationship with God.  The words “integrated” and “integrity” come from the same root word. One of the dictionary’s definitions for integrity is,

“the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished.”

The double-minded person, however, is not known for their integrity, but their duplicity. Duplicity means,

“deceitfulness in speech or conduct; speaking or acting in two different ways concerning the same matter with intent to deceive.”

Duplicitous people do not have integrity. They are not whole, entire, or undiminished. They have no unifying factor that keeps them whole.

The Unifying Factor

But the Christian, the man or woman of God, does have such a unifying factor. The question is: Do they make use of it? Are they related or connected to it? This unifying factor isn’t an “it” at all. It’s God. We’re called to be God-centered men and women who are living God-centered lives. Such a person will not speak, think, and act differently and deceptively with different people and in different settings.

Why? Because the person of God will be vitally connected to the same God in every sphere of their life. God doesn’t change. Because the godly person’s life will have God as their unifying center, neither will they change, from place to place, from circumstance to circumstance. God-centeredness makes and keeps us whole instead of fragmented and compartmentalized.

Loving and Glorifying God

Think for a minute about what the Great Commandment says. Jesus says in Mark 12:30, we are commanded to,

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

That’s all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. In other words, with all that we are. Our whole being. Every aspect of our lives.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:31,

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

You’re not glorifying God in the big or small details of your life if you’re double-minded.

By the way, a good way to check yourself out on this is by asking:

• Am I glorifying God right now?
• Does this thought, word, or deed bring God glory?

God’s Expectation

A couple of Old Testament texts that really hit home are,

• 1 Chronicles 29:17a – I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. (idea of being whole-hearted)
• Proverbs 10:9 – The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.
• Proverbs 11:3 – The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.

God expects us to walk with integrity before him and others.

How Are You Doing?

How are you doing in the various spheres of your life? I don’t know about you but I want to be the same person in every sphere of my life: In private, at home with my family, work, church, or with my friends. I want to be the same person regardless of who I’m with or where I am. How about you?

Let’s pray God will form and shape us into the God-centered men and women of integrity he’s called us to be.

Walking Points

Take a look at the list below and ask yourself how you’re doing in those areas. Are you living a consistently God-centered life in each? If not, why not? What can you do today to become more consistent in the following areas? 

• Spiritual Integrity
• Mental Integrity
• Sexual Integrity
• Behavioral Integrity
• Verbal Integrity
• Moral Integrity
• Relational Integrity

Grace and Truth,
Dale​