Let’s start with two words. Salvation and reputation.

First, reputation. That’s what other people tend to think about your character, based on what you have said or done over time. You can develop a good reputation, or a bad one.

Second, salvation. When people use that word they often mean “being saved” (from God’s wrath) and going to heaven. That’s a big part of it. But there’s more. It’s a word which refers to the big picture renewal and renovation God is bringing to his whole creation through Jesus.

Let’s put these ideas together in a specific way: Salvation before reputation. Here’s what I’m getting at. Are there times when we say or do things to preserve our reputation with a certain group of people and thereby neglect something God might be calling us to do in a specific moment?

Or, put another way, are there times when we don’t say or do things to preserve our reputation with a certain group of people and also thereby miss an opportunity to respond to what God might be calling us to do in a specific moment?

Early in Mark’s Gospel Jesus was gathering crowds, assembling disciples and commissioning apostles, healing people, exorcising demons, preaching, and challenging religious authorities. When Jesus’ family learned about it “they went to take charge of him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind’” (Mark 3:21). 

But why would they do that? Wasn’t he doing good things? Yes he was. But Jesus was engaging in behaviour that wasn’t “normal” for someone of his social status. In fact, he was doing and saying things that could have brought shame or embarrassment to his family.

But Jesus had a greater sense about what needed to be done for the good of everyone. The crowds needed a leader, the nation needed hope, people needed healing or deliverance, the masses needed to know about God’s kingdom, and they needed to know how they had been led astray.

In short, salvation before reputation.

We can learn from this. It’s easy to lose focus when we get too consumed with what others think about us. But what others think about us is less important than what God calls us to say and do.

Salvation before reputation. 

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Notes and extra content:

–“Salvation before reputation.” Sermon or podcast. October 6, 2024. Click here.

–“Transgenderism and Sexuality – a Talk with The Union.” Click here.

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.