words

I'm trying to understand words. Although I use a lot of words, I don't feel like I really know what many of the words mean. Because of this, I use Strong's Exhaustive Concordance when I read the Bible. Strong's goes through every single word alphabetically with the scriptural reference and a number that refers to the Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) word, giving me their meanings and roots and English words (English uses a lot more words than the Greek or Hebrew languages do) for each word in the Bible. This is very helpful and has given me many insights.

This week I have been preparing a lesson for the young women at church about honesty and Integrity and learned some things that were really interesting to me.

The word honest/honestly/honesty isn't used in the Old Testament, so there are no Hebrew words, but there are 11 references in the New Testament translated from three different Greek words, which are: "valuable, virtuous, beautiful, fair, worthy, honorable, grave (I had to look this word up in a regular dictionary - it means to have a serious and dignified quality or demeanor), venerable (looked this up too - it means to be accorded a great deal of respect, esp. because of age, wisdom, or character)."

In Philippians 4:8 and 1 Timothy 2:2 honest and honesty mean "to revere, adore, be devout, religious, worship."

Honesty also cross referenced to the root Thummim, which was listed as "one of the epithets of the objects in the high-priest's breastplate as an emblem of complete truth." (This may trigger for you "Urim and Thummim" - or in other words, "light and truth.")

I decided to look at Integrity and try to understand the difference between honesty and integrity.

The word Integrity is used in the Old Testament and has two closely related Hebrew words which mean: "perfection (Hebrew for complete and whole), innocence (Hebrew for cleanness), full, simplicity (Hebrew for sincerity), and upright."

In the young women personal progress under Integrity value #1 it says that "Integrity is the willingness and desire to live by our beliefs and standards." It then references Moroni 10:32 and 33.

"Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness and love God with all your might, mind, and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot."

I now have a much greater understanding of what it means to be honest and have integrity.