Christlike Leaders for Every Church and SectorSample

Vice vs. Virtue: Greed and Integrity

The author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus understands our weaknesses because he faced the same temptations that we do, but did not give in.

In Matthew 4 we read about Jesus' encounter with Satan in the desert. Satan systematically attempted to entice Jesus to give up on his identity and give in to his flesh. The three temptations Jesus faced were to indulge himself in 1) greed, 2) power, and 3) glory. The same three vices still cause many Christian leaders to fall.

For every vice that Satan tempts us with, Jesus offers us a path of virtue. For each sinful behaviour, Jesus shows us the way of Christlike behaviour.

In Matthew 4:2-4 we read: ‘For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry’. Many of us struggle to fast one meal, let alone 40 days of them.

‘During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread”.’ Satan was tapping into the most carnal of temptations, the temptation to satisfy one’s flesh by giving into the vice of greed.

Two significant things played out here:

1. Satan sought to provoke Jesus into proving his identity as the Son loved by his Father.
2. Satan was attempting to manipulate Jesus to exchange the Spirit of God for the earthly fulfilment of his flesh.

As we have seen in previous devotions, Jesus' identity had been firmly established in the love of his Father and he was a man led by the Spirit. Both are core elements of Christlike leadership.

Master chess players think of multiple moves in advance. When they move a chess piece on a board, they are making that one move based on how it will affect their opponent many moves later. When we give into our vices and sin, we must not fall for the lie that Satan is interested in us making that one move. He is interested in the exchange that happens when we choose to make that move. In this case, we are referring to the vice of greed or self-gratification—satisfying our flesh instead of trusting God to meet the deepest needs of our souls.

‘But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, “People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”.”’

Instead of choosing the vice of greed, Jesus chose to live out the virtue of integrity. He refused to exchange his identity and his beliefs for the hollow pleasures of the flesh.

The invitation for all who seek to emulate Christlike virtues is to become a person of integrity, keeping our actions aligned with our God-given identity and our biblical beliefs.

Integrity is more of a direction we walk in than a destination we reach. It is a way of life, a choice we need to make every day. Integrity is like a muscle we develop over a long period.

When we fail to face what seems like the most simple of temptations (like eating some bread), we can never dream of overcoming the temptation to deny the cross (like Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane). Jesus demonstrated that it is possible to overcome the devil, and has shown us another way to live and lead in this world.

For every one publicised moral failure, there are a hundred unsung leaders faithfully serving God in the shadows. If we turn our attention away from the vices of those who fail and to the virtues of the faithful, we can become the Christlike leaders God is calling us to become.