In today’s devotional, we will be looking at redeeming the time in our reputations. This can be an easy topic to overlook, since we often seek to bring something different to each person, depending on their expectations of us and how we perceive them. However, those are not to be the determining factors for the Christian. It is not so much their expectations and desires that determine our reputations, but God’s expectations and desires. Here is an example of me in a previous job, which helps to lay out the proper thinking. At the time, I wrote,
When I go to work, why do I get crippled with fear so that I avoid the subject of God and Christ? Why am I silent when Jesus’ name is used as a cuss word? Why am I afraid of giving the gospel to my coworkers and to my boss, if God is really the biggest in my life? Take note: it is one thing to be afraid of acting, and it is wholly another thing to actually not act in what we know we should do. The Bible calls that inaction sin. James 4:17 says, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” This is such a forgotten sin. We so often just excuse or neglect our duties, being afraid of the backlash or of what others may think of us. When we live out of fear rather than out of obedience, then what we are really telling others is that there is nothing to being a Christian and that there is nothing to God. We show to others that our faith is void and empty. We likewise dishonour God by acting as though He is something to be ashamed of. Is that the message that we want to communicate to unbelievers? Christ said that if we are ashamed of Him, then He will be ashamed of us. Who, then, is our master and lord? Is it our comfort and reputation, or is it God?
My reputation with my co-workers was largely secular, playing into the milieu of the work culture around me. In order to ground my reputation in God, and not merely on what others think of me, I needed a transforming of my thinking. Thankfully, after this, I did start talking about God in this job and bringing Him into conversations. That started to be my reputation. It can be hard to be the only one who seems to do this in a given context, but this changes when we realize that God is the context. God is everywhere. He is always with us. And His reputation is to determine the character of our reputation: we are to seek to live in His Name, meaning that His reputation is to be valued above all. He is to be the One Whom we are to emulate in the greatest way, so that we shine His reputation accurately to others as His true representatives (2 Cor. 5:20). Given that He controls the universe, and that His reputation is primary (far above all others), it thus makes sense that we view the value of our own reputation in terms of furthering His.
In this regard, (1) we need to not be afraid of people thinking differently about us or disliking us. Redeeming the time in this evil age means going counter to the norms and mores of the world. We need to be willing to get into the line of fire from the world, shining as lights in this crooked and perverse generation. What God thinks of us is far more important than what others think. He is the One who is to set our norms and mores, building our reputation around what He thinks and desires. This is what He seeks, and He will bless our efforts whenever we choose to not act based on fear.
(2) We need to base our identities (who we are) publicly not in what we do (our jobs), or even in who we are related to, but in God. In other words, we need to see our reputation as an extension of God’s reputation in the world, and wear His Name with honour in all that we say, do and think. If we put our identity into anything other than this—as if that is who or what we are—then we are not living as the people of God. This is what it means for us to do all things in the Name of the Lord. We represent Him wherever we go, and in everything that we do, whether for good or for ill. We are Christ’s ambassadors, who are to parade the glory and love of Christ wherever we go. Notice that Jesus said, “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38). Carrying this shame that wants to keep Christ out of our relationships, and which acts as though Christ is something to hide or be ashamed of, is the exact opposite of what it means to be one who upholds the Name of Christ. What did Jesus say about believers and His Name? He said, “you will be hated by all for my Name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matt. 10:22), “in His Name the Gentiles will hope” (12:21), “everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my Name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life” (19:29), “they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my Name’s sake” (24:9), and “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (28:19).
Notice a few key elements in the above passages: (1) We are baptized into the Name of God in Christ. This means that God’s Name is now our identity, identifying us as His new creations. That is what we are. (2) We are guaranteed to be hated and persecuted by the world for Jesus’ Name’s sake. Jesus said,
18 If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: “A servant is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my Name, because they do not know him who sent me (John 15:18-21).
So, if we try to avoid persecution by acting ashamed of Christ’s Name or not being His representatives, then we are acting as if we are greater than our Master, Jesus. According to our Lord and Master, we will be persecuted for Jesus’ Name, in virtue of our allegiance with God and enmity with the world. If this is not so, then we ought to carefully reflect about whether or not we are ashamed of Christ, and we already saw what Jesus said about those who are ashamed of Him. Take heart! God has provided everything that we need for us, if we are to walk in it. We are not alone in this. Rather, we ought to trust in Christ and start living in His Name. He promises to be with us all the way. What greater help can we possibly have then the tender love and care of God, who desires nothing more from us than that we succeed in these things? (3) Those who continue in this Name are those who endure to the end, evidencing that they are Christ’s true disciples. We are to be those who seek the glory of God and not the glory of others. Speaking of those who regard their reputation and glory as of more importance than God’s, Jesus said, “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” (John 5:44). Continuing in Christ’s Name is to parade His glory. The opposite is to seek glory from others at the cost of God’s glory shining through us. We are to persevere in parading of God’s glory unto the end. We will falter at times and fail, but the point is that our lives are increasingly characterized by parading His glory in every relationship—having that set the standard, and not others’ expectations and mores. (4) Those who persevere in Christ’s Name are those who will be greatly rewarded. This reward far exceeds anything that the world can possibly seek to harm us with. They can hardly even be compared, since the difference is so immense, as 2 Corinthians 4:17 says, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” So, if we think that we are losing out by living in God’s Name, the opposite is actually true. We gain everything while we live in His Name, and lose only the vain glory of the world. (5) “In [Christ’s] Name the Gentiles will hope.” This means that our living in the Name of Christ parades the Name in which all who will be saved place their hope. In this way, we live as beacons of the hope found only in Christ for an otherwise hopeless and desperate world. So much of God’s plan—even the Great Commission—is based around our being salt and light in the world; that is, us living in His Name. Let the light of His Name shine in you, and thus be a beacon pointing to the hope of Christ. After all, how terrible would it be for such beacons to be dimly lit or hidden in those very places where it is so desperately needed? Listen to this poem, since it communicates the spirit of this teaching well (the author is unknown):
My Friend, I stand in Judgment now,
And feel that you're to blame somehow.
On earth, I walked with you day by day,
And never did you point the way.
You knew the Lord in truth and glory,
But never did you tell the story.
My knowledge then was very dim;
You could have led me safe to Him.
Though we lived together on the earth,
You never told me of the second birth,
And now I stand this day condemned,
Because you failed to mention Him.
You taught me many things, that's true,
I called you “friend” and trusted you,
But I learn now that it’s too late,
You could have kept me from this fate.
We walked by day and talked by night,
And yet you showed me not the Light.
You let me live, and love, and die,
You knew I'd never live on high.
Yes, I called you a “friend” in life,
And trusted you through joy and strife.
And yet on coming to the end,
I cannot, now, call you “My Friend.”
—A Letter from Hell
We are so often the closest thing to Christ that anyone will ever see, and so we must shine His light into the world. The world needs to hear and know about Christ, and they can through us if we are willing to be ambassadors of the Name.
As a result, we need to make the principal focus of our lives our sanctification and growth into Christlikeness—focusing on the condition of our hearts in every thought, deed, and action, continually subjecting it all to Christ. We then live this out consistently with others, with God’s reputation determining the nature of our relationships with others. From the focus on inward change in ourselves, we would then be better equipped and armed for acting for the Lord in the world—keeping our hearts in check and directed towards God in our outward conduct and works. This is the foundation from which we forge and develop our reputation—since as believers, our reputation is the reputation of Christ to the world. So, in this we redeem the time by having all of our relationships be that which is in Christ’s Name. His Name is the Name by which we, as His new creation, “live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28a). Our reputation has been bought for Him and His glory, just as our time has been bought, and is thus owned by God for His good purposes.
Next time we will be looking more closely at how living in Jesus’ Name can play out in our differing relationships.