"providing honorable things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men."
2 Corinthians 8:21 (NKJV)
Have you ever seen people going to some type of meeting or convention for people who take part in role playing games, or for fans of sci-fi fantasy movies or television shows? Often people will dress up as a favorite character to attend these meetings as that character. In those types of conventions, everyone dressed up as some character looks fine and fits in well, but what if someone dressed that way and went to their work as a doctor or a police officer? If they dressed the same way in both places, they would look out of place in one of those two locations.
It is one thing to live in a way where you are just trying to please people and fit in for the sake of fitting in, but it is something else to do things that do not create some kind of problem. While we should not live a two-faced type of existence where we behave one way with a certain group of people and then another way with a different group, there is a way to live where we can fit in to whatever situation that we might find ourselves in. If we fit in well in one situation, and we look completely out of place in another, we may need to check into what we are doing.
In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul said that the way he was doing things was "honorable," not just in the view of God and Christians, but even with others outside of the church. Integrity is an important quality that every believer, and especially leaders, needs to have. Do we have a good reputation with those outside the church, or just with the people in our church? If we only look good to other believers, and in our church group, but not to the rest of the world, we have lost at least some of our influence with those people. We need to do things that everyone will see as honorable and good, and not just by those closest to us.
2 Corinthians 8:21 (NKJV)
Have you ever seen people going to some type of meeting or convention for people who take part in role playing games, or for fans of sci-fi fantasy movies or television shows? Often people will dress up as a favorite character to attend these meetings as that character. In those types of conventions, everyone dressed up as some character looks fine and fits in well, but what if someone dressed that way and went to their work as a doctor or a police officer? If they dressed the same way in both places, they would look out of place in one of those two locations.
It is one thing to live in a way where you are just trying to please people and fit in for the sake of fitting in, but it is something else to do things that do not create some kind of problem. While we should not live a two-faced type of existence where we behave one way with a certain group of people and then another way with a different group, there is a way to live where we can fit in to whatever situation that we might find ourselves in. If we fit in well in one situation, and we look completely out of place in another, we may need to check into what we are doing.
In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul said that the way he was doing things was "honorable," not just in the view of God and Christians, but even with others outside of the church. Integrity is an important quality that every believer, and especially leaders, needs to have. Do we have a good reputation with those outside the church, or just with the people in our church? If we only look good to other believers, and in our church group, but not to the rest of the world, we have lost at least some of our influence with those people. We need to do things that everyone will see as honorable and good, and not just by those closest to us.
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