On having a good name

Proverbs 22:1 says "A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold."

Whether or not we have a good name is not, finally, under our complete control. And if we are faithful, we are very likely to be despised by those who despise God. We follow the one who was crucified, and his apostles were seen by their enemies as "the filth of the world, the off-scouring of all things until now" (1 Corinthians 4:13). So, the Bible is not telling us to make the pursuit of our reputation a priority above all others. Sometimes we must say or do things that will make some people think badly of us, in order to be faithful to our Lord.

Nevertheless, the Bible commands us to behave with integrity - wholeness, one-ness, being a single person who does not have different "sides" to him, in different situations. We must live as those who obviously think that integrity is a better thing to possess than great riches. The elder of a church must "have a good testimony among those who are outside" as taught in 1 Timothy 3:7; and examination of that passage will show that ultimately the elder is simply required to actually, clearly, manifest the behaviour that is demanded of all Christians. Elders should demonstrate general Christian maturity consistently, in practice.

What does it take to gain such a reputation? Life-long consistency; and if there are falls, then, as Spurgeon said, one's repentance should be as notorious as one's sin was.

Ecclesiastes 10:1 says "Dead flies putrefy the perfumer’s ointment, and cause it to give off a foul odour; so does a little folly to one respected for wisdom and honour". Ruining your reputation is easy, and will take a long time to undo. It's no good saying "don't look at the 2% of folly; look at the other 98%!" That's not how human beings work. Try that argument in a court of law and see how far it gets you! If someone "only" commits adultery once a year, and the rest of the time is a model of faithfulness and loving self-giving, then what do we call that someone? We'd call them an unrepentant, serial adulterer. This sort of illustration/example could be extended to just about anything. Once the dead fly is in the perfume, it's not just a tiny bit of ruin that can be bracketed off; it's just ruined, generally, and everyone will notice.

Christian, do you want to be someone who causes your brothers and sisters in the faith to inwardly mourn at your foolishness, at how your testimony dishonours as much as it lifts up the name of Christ, and to be making it a matter of prayer that you'd instead care about having a good name that honours Christ before the world, rather than putting people off him? Does it bother you if, when people say "following Christ doesn't really make a difference", part of what they're thinking is "after all, look at you - you lack self-restraint just as much as us, we don't think you take it all that seriously in the end yourself; you say that Christ is Lord, but is that what you really believe" ?

Brothers and sisters, let "every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God" (James 1:19-20).  This goes not only for wrath, but for all sorts of foolish behaviours.

God says, "Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace; when he shuts his lips, he is considered perceptive" (Proverbs 17:28). We live in the age of quick fixes and life-hacks. Well, I don't know if I've come across many better ones than that one.