WHAT’S THE WORD?

In 1985 an article was published in the Gospel Advocate, which was recently republished by Tom Wacaster in his new commentary on 2 Corinthians, titled, Contrasts in Christian Living (Montgomery, AL: Tom Wacaster, 2026). Be-low is a summary of the first paragraph; the second paragraph is a quotation.

You probably have never heard of Major General William F. Dean, who received the Congressional Medal of Honor. He died at age 82 and was buried in the national cemetery at the Presidio Army post in San Franciso. Why the Medal? And why was he termed “one of America’s greatest heroes”? Fighting in the Korean War, he was taken cap-tive. The North Koreans tried various forms of torture on him to extract military information. Many of his fellow soldiers cracked. They tried certain brainwashing techniques, but General Dean refused to cave. Even though it only took seconds to write those words as an assessment of the situation, the insidious techniques were used day after day after day. Major General Dean had no outside support or encouragement to make it through this ordeal. What enabled him to resist? He kept his sanity by playing mathematical mental games, reciting passages from the Bible, and praying. The rest of this story is recorded by Dan Harless.

One day the general was informed by his captors that he was to be taken out and shot. A firing squad was standing by in readiness. The condemned was granted a few moments in which to compose a let-ter to his wife. It was under these extreme circumstances that he hurriedly penned what he thought would be his last words. He was resigned to the thought that if and when the letter was delivered, [he] the writer would be dead. Minutes later the letter was finished. In addition to words of love and devotion addressed to his wife, Dean wrote a sentence for the guidance of his son. It was short and specific: “Tell Bill the word is integrity.”

What a great legacy to leave his son! Fortunately, they did not execute him, and he eventually returned home to his family. The Bible does record some instances of integrity in it. One comes from an unlikely source—Abimelech, the king of Gerar. Gerar was located in (what is today) the middle part of southern Israel, about 40 miles south of Heb-ron. Abraham had said Sarah was his sister, and Abimelech took her (with a view toward marrying her) (Gen. 20:2). As Abimelech was dreaming, God told him that he was a dead man because he had taken another man’s wife. He pro-tested that they both claimed to be brother and sister. He then added: “In the integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands I have done this” (v. 5). God agreed, adding that “therefore I did not let you touch her” (6). Abimelech re-stored Sarah to Abraham, thus maintaining his integrity. The Christian must always maintain his integrity. “The right-eous man walks in his integrity…” (Pr. 20:7).