When King Josiah’s eyes were opened to the truth of God’s commands, he didn’t respond with mild reform or token gestures. He responded with wholehearted action. He turned to the Lord with all his heart, all his soul, and all his might. Josiah wasn’t trying to manage optics or please the people—he was seeking full alignment with God’s ways. We are told in 2 Kings 23:25:

Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him.

We believe that same posture is needed today by faithful leaders whose eyes have been opened to the truth of God’s purpose for work and business. If you have begun to see that business as usual is broken, don’t be satisfied with simply knowing. Don’t even be satisfied with managing optics, pleasing people, being ethical, or “doing good” through “faith as usual” gestures.

Turn with all your might to transform the heart of the organization you lead through the pursuit of faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing..

Josiah Didn’t Settle

The Kings of Israel and Judah after Solomon did not have a great track record.  Of the 19 Kings of Israel, not a single one was pronounced as “doing right” in the eyes of God.  The Kings of Judah did a bit better, but it still wasn’t impressive. Some started out well but didn’t finish well (e.g., Joash and Uzziah). We’re told Amaziah “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not with a whole heart.” (2 Chronicles 25:2)

Josiah was not half-hearted.  He was singular in his wholehearted conviction–“Before him there was no king like him . . . nor did any like him arise after him.”

Here is a refresher on the story from 2 Kings 22-23:

• Josiah sends Shaphan his secretary to the house of the Lord to visit Hilkiah the high priest to make sure that donations are being used properly.

• Hilkiah mentions to Shaphan that he has found the Book of the Law (makes you wonder why the high priest was just finding it!).

• Shaphan reports to Josiah that Hilkiah gave him “a book“, and he reads it to the King.  When Josiah heard it “he tore his clothes“.

• Josiah sends Hilkiah, Shaphan and a few others to visit Huldah the prophetess for guidance on what to do.  Through Huldah, God recognizes that Josiah’s heart was “penitent” and he “humbled” himself before God.

• Josiah then gathers “all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the prophets, all the people, both small and great” and reads to them the Book of the Covenant.

• Josiah made a covenant “to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in the book.”  and we are told “all the people joined in the covenant.”

• Then Josiah begins to RE-ALIGN Judah with all his might, destroying vessels to false gids, deposing priests, burning the Asherah, breaking down the houses of cult prostitutes, defiling the place where child sacrifices were offered, removing horses and burning chariots dedicated to the sun, pulling down and burning altars, taking bones out of tombs and burning them, putting away mediums and necromancers and household gods and idols.  You get the idea–Josiah was cleaning house.

• Josiah restored the Passover, which had not been kept “since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during the days of the kings of Israel or the kings of Judah.”

When Josiah was awakened to the truth of God’s word, he realized that the business as usual of all the past kings of Israel and Judah was no longer an option.  Josiah could have simply changed his own behavior or made symbolic changes—erected a few statues, issued a royal proclamation, or changed some public ceremonies.

Instead, he humbled himself, tore down idols, abolished false worship, restored the reading of God’s Law, reinstated the Passover, led by example, and got covenant buy-in from all the people. His reforms were not cosmetic—they were comprehensive and systemic.

If Your Eyes Are Opened, Turn

Once Josiah read the Book of the Law, he could not unsee the truth—and neither can we. If you have been reading our posts and your eyes are opened to God’s purpose for work, business, and leadership, you are now responsible for what you know.

We’ve shown you the cracks in the foundation of business as usual–business in the way of the kingdom of the world:

• Profit as Purpose that objectifies people, turning them into tools of production.

• A scarcity mindset that fosters fear, hoarding, and control.

• A self-interest assumption that corrodes trust and community.

• A “Can We” culture that erodes ethics over time.

And perhaps more subtly, you’ve seen the limitations of faith as usual—well-meaning but incomplete versions of faith/work integration that can detour faithful leaders onto the Side Roads of Agonizing, Individualizing, Monetizing, Cosmeticizing, Monastecizing, Prosperitizing, or Interimizing. They are not bad, but we believe they miss the best God has–the best to which God calls faithful leaders.  Remember the wisdom of Rick Warren and Ed Silvoso:

Life often means choosing either “Am I going to do something good?” or “Am I going to do what’s best?” (Rick Warren)

The enemy of the “best” is not so much the “worst”, which is usually very evident to us.  Rather, the enemy is the “good”, because by being so satisfying, it deprives  us of the hunger for the  “much more” that in this case God has in store. (Ed Silvoso)

When your eyes are opened, the only faithful response is to follow the example of King Josiah and turn with all your might—aligning your faith and the heart of the organization you lead by pursuing faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing. We believe that is an ancient path referenced in Jeremiah 6:16.

Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. (Jeremiah 6:16)

Turning with All Your Might

At the heart of Integriosity^® is the idea of alignment–bringing the purpose, values of culture of an organization in alignment with the Biblical faith of its leader.  It is the pursuit of faithful integrity through alignment with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities toward Biblical flourishing. The path of Integriosity has four steps:

RENEW – Renew your mind and re-examine your assumptions about work, business and faith/work integration in the light of Scripture.

RE-IMAGINE – With your eyes opened, re-imagine leadership and the purpose, values and culture of the organization grounded in God’s design and aligned with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities.

RE-ALIGN – With a Re-Imagined Purpose, Re-Imagined Values and a Re-Imagined Culture, begin the intentional, often slow process of shifting your organization’s policies, practices and heart.

RESTORE – This is the fruit of the first three steps, seeing people Humanized, the World Beautified and God Glorified.

The pursuit of faithful integrity is not an intellectual or religious exercise—it is a “turning”. Turning “with all your might” requires heart change–wholehearted alignment that pursues a bigger WHY. That heart change must begin with the faithful leader and move to the pursuit of a changed heart in the organization.

We can see how Josiah’s transformation of Judah reflected the first three active steps of Integriosity.

RENEW: When Shaphan read the Book of the Law to Josiah, his mind was RENEWED. Josiah was awakened to the truth of God’s design for his leadership as well as for Judah. He tore his clothes when his eyes were opened to how far from God’s design his nation had strayed.  He recognized the brokenness and toxicity of the business as usual leadership and practices of his predecessors.

RE-IMAGINE: Josia understood that Judah needed to be aligned with God’s commands and that alignment would take his commitment and “buy-in” from the nation. Josiah humbled himself and sought counsel on how to proceed.  He sent a group to seek God’s wisdom from the prophetess.  Then Josiah gathered “all the people, both small and great” and shared the vision for Judah by reading to them the Book of the Covenant.

In doing so, he was making a Re-Imagined Purpose, Re-Imagined Values and Re-Imagined Culture clear to all stakeholders. Finally, Josiah led from the top by publicly making a covenant “to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in the book.”  And all the people followed in that commitment.

RE-ALIGN: With the Re-Imagined Purpose, Re-Imagined Values and Re-Imagined Culture of God’s commandments made clear to all stakeholders, Josiah began the wholehearted turning of the practices and heart of a nation. He rid it of all the broken elements of business as usual and instituted business a better way such as restoring the Passover.

“All Your Might” Requires Surrender

There are many reasons why well-intentioned faithful leaders never turn “with all their might” like Josiah. As described above, some get detoured onto faith as usual Side Roads, becoming satisfied with “good”.  Some are satisfied with the worldly standard of being ethical.  As Dr. Skip Moen points out, that is not enough:

The world might be full of ethically motivated moral people, but that isn’t the same as dwelling with God.  To dwell in the presence of the God of Israel requires more than a mostly moral life.

Faithful integrity is much more than being ethical and “doing good”.

As we recently detailed in post #283 (Surrender the Pigs), some get stuck behind one of the four gaps: Sunday/Monday, Sacred/Secular, Knowing/Doing and Safety/Surrender. Turning “with all your might” like Josiah requires crossing all four, including the Safety/Surrender heart gap.

As you hopefully recall, crossing that gap demands surrendering leadership of the organization to God, recognizing God as the owner with the leader as merely a faithful steward. Faithful stewardship involves a leader giving up leading in line with their will and leading the organization in line with God’s will. Faithful stewardship requires radical surrender, which requires radical dependence, which requires radical trust, which is the manifestation of radical faith.

We believe it was the radical “turning” of Josiah and his radical turning of Judah that led to him being remembered for turning “with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might.”  That is surrender.

If your eyes are opened, the only faithful response is to surrender and turn with “all your might”.  Josiah’s wholehearted reform led to the renewal of a kingdom. When faithful leaders turn with all their might, the result is the Humanization of people, the Beautification of the world, and the Glorification of God.

PERSONAL NOTE (from PM):  I’ve read the Bible many times, and I missed Josiah until recently.  I had many passages highlighted from past readings, but I never appreciated the significance of his story until my most recent reading.

My eyes have been opened to what I believe is God’s call to faithful business leaders.  It would be much easier to tell faithful leaders that one of the faith as usual Side Roads is good enough (e.g., start a Bible study, hire a chaplain, put Bible verses on your packaging, be generous with your profits).  It would be even easier to tell them it is good enough to “be ethical”.

But once my eyes have been opened to the need for organizational heart change, I can’t unsee it.  Once I saw the need for profit to take its rightful place as a means rather than an end, I can’t unsee it.  Now that I see the importance of surrender, I can’t unsee it.  I am responsible for what I have seen.  How about you?

ESSENCE: When King Josiah’s eyes were opened to the truth of God’s commands, he didn’t respond with mild reform or token gestures. He responded with wholehearted action. He “turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might“.  That same posture is needed today by faithful leaders whose eyes have been opened to the truth of God’s purpose for work and business. If you have begun to see that business as usual is broken, don’t be satisfied with simply knowing. Don’t even be satisfied with managing optics, pleasing people, being ethical, or “doing good” through faith as usual gestures. Turn with all your might to transform the heart of the organization you lead through the pursuit of faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing.  Turning with all your might means pursuing alignment of your organization’s purpose, values, and culture with Biblical beliefs, principles, and priorities. It means rejecting kingdom of the world paradigms like Profit as Purpose and Scarcity that break work and workers. It means going beyond “good” Side Road detours like Cosmeticizing or Monetizing and embracing a path to faithful integrity.  It requires crossing all four Gaps, including the Safety/Surrender heart Gap. Josiah’s wholehearted reform led to the renewal of a kingdom. When faithful leaders turn with all their might, the result is the Humanization of people, the Beautification of the world, and the Glorification of God.

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Image Credit: Original image by Jim Wilson on Unsplash
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