This is shown in the case of righteous Job. Satan boasted that he could turn all men away from God, even as he did Adam and Eve. Yes, he could turn away even the one of whom God would say: “There is no one like him in the earth,” namely, the patriarch Job.​—Job 1:8.

⁹ At a meeting of the angelic sons of God in heaven Jehovah asked Satan: “Have you set your heart upon my servant Job, that there is no one like him in the earth, a man blameless and upright, fearing God and turning aside from bad?” The fact that God called Job’s faithfulness to Satan’s attention indicates there was a contention as to whether human creatures would keep integrity to God. Satan’s reply proves that there was such an issue, for right away he made excuses for Job’s faithfulness. He asserted that Job served God because of the material blessings received and not because he loved Him. He suggested: “‘For a change, thrust out your hand, please, and touch everything he has and see whether he will not curse you to your very face.’ Accordingly Jehovah said to Satan: ‘Look! Everything that he has is in your hand. Only against him himself do not thrust out your hand!’”​—Job 1:7-12.

10. Job’s maintaining integrity proved what? And what questions arise?

¹⁰ Job maintained a righteous course despite everything the Devil could do; he proved that he served God because he loved him and wanted to be pleasing in his sight. Job believed in the integrity of his course, and so proclaimed to his accusers: “Until I expire I shall not take away my integrity from myself!” (Job 27:5) Integrity to the sovereignty of God and to his righteous principles as expressed in his inspired Word is what the present struggle against the servants of God is all about. That is why righteous men from Abel down to the present time have preferred to die rather than to break integrity to their God Jehovah. They believe in the righteousness of God and his Word and would prefer to die rather than to break that confidence.

EARLY CHRISTIANS WERE TRIED

11. (a) What proves that the issue of integrity was in force in Jesus’ day? (b) Jesus’ steadfastness proved what and provided what?

¹¹ When Jesus Christ was on earth, Satan desperately tried to get Jesus to do just one act of worship that would be a breach of integrity to God. (Matt. 4:8-11) Even when slapped around by Roman soldier guards and then nailed to the torture stake to die, Jesus held fast his integrity. The Devil tried his best, but he could not induce Jesus to become disloyal to God. (Phil. 2:8) By Jesus’ maintaining integrity as a perfect man, he established for all time that Satan’s boast that he could turn all men away from God is a lie. Jesus thus set a perfect example of integrity-keeping for his followers to imitate.​—1 Pet. 2:21.

12-14. (a) Were the followers of Christ excluded from trials? (b) What did Paul have to say about his maintaining integrity? (c) What did Dr. Mosheim have to say about Christians following Paul’s time?

¹² The followers of Christ were not spared from trials of integrity-keeping even while Jesus was alive. Peter was told by Christ: “Simon, Simon, look! Satan has demanded to have you men to sift you as wheat. But I have made supplication for you that your faith may not give out; and you, when once you have returned, strengthen your brothers.” Then confident Peter said to Jesus: “Lord, I am ready to go with you both into prison and into death.” But Jesus knew Peter better: “I tell you, Peter, A cock will not crow today until you have three times denied knowing me.” (Luke 22:31-34) The Master was right. Peter denied knowing Jesus three times. Peter wept bitterly for failing in integrity at such a crucial time. But he recovered his spirituality to become an encouragement and a tower of strength to his brothers. His two letters (First and Second Peter) testify to that fact.

¹³ Paul, too, was sifted by the Devil and his agents. He faced false apostles, deceitful workers who transformed themselves into apostles of Christ. Paul tells what he endured in the Christian ministry. He writes: “In labors [as a minister] more plentifully, in prisons more plentifully, in blows to an excess, in near-deaths often. By Jews I five times received forty strokes less one, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I experienced shipwreck, a night and a day I have spent in the deep; in journeys often, in dangers from rivers, in dangers from highwaymen, in dangers from my own race, in dangers from the nations, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers at sea, in dangers among false brothers, in labor and toil, in sleepless nights often, in hunger and thirst, in abstinence from food many times, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things of an external kind, there is what rushes in on me from day to day, the anxiety for all the congregations.” (2 Cor. 11:21-28) The way of Christian integrity was not an easy course for Paul, neither is it today. In fact, Paul warned Christians: “Let him that thinks he is standing beware that he does not fall.” (1 Cor. 10:12) Remember, Judas and Demas and others who once stood rather firmly but fell.​—2 Tim. 4:10.

¹⁴ After Paul’s time, persecution continued against the Christians, even though they were peace-loving people. Dr. John L. von Mosheim, writer of ecclesiastical history, refers to the first-century Christians as “a set of men of the most harmless inoffensive character, who never harboured in their minds a wish or thought inimical to the welfare of the state.” Yet these very Christians suffered indescribably at the hands of the pagan peoples and the Roman state because they insisted on maintaining integrity to God.