Navigating the Gray Areas of Faith and Lifeনমুনা

Who Cares What Other People Think?

As believers, we’re called to seek God’s kingdom first and always put His will above our own, above the thoughts, dictates, pressure, or even bullying of others. However, the Bible teaches us that there are situations where we should be very concerned about how we are viewed by others; we are instructed that we must sometimes change our behavior based on their perception.

We’re now on the fourth question that we should ask the Holy Spirit: “By doing this, might I damage my reputation and witness to Jesus in the larger community outside of the church?”

At times, those in the world will hate us, but that doesn’t negate God’s command to properly engage culture and concern ourselves with our reputation among those who do not profess Christ.

In Jeremiah 29, God commands His people to settle into a foreign culture, accomplishing everything normally associated with human living, all the while seeking the prosperity and peace of the community in which they found themselves. We see in this something of Jesus’ later description of His disciples as those who are in, but not of, the world. Although the Jewish exiles are to go about their lives and seek the peace and prosperity of their adopted land, they are not to be swayed by the lies of those who suggest that God is acting to remove them from the inhospitable culture.

We have a clear mandate to engage culture. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes believers as both “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world.” Implicit in His command to “let your light shine before others” is the challenge to engage the darkness, wherever it may be found.

Believers are a crucial component in God’s plan of salvation. In word and deed, followers of Christ are to be both salt and light to a decaying world that exists in spiritual darkness.

Having observed believers living such good lives, those in the community at large will give glory to God on “the day he visits us” (1 Peter 2:12). Scholars are not certain whether this phrase refers to the final judgment, or possibly the salvation of those previously on the outside. Either way, the outcome is the same: believers living godly lives will bring the proper answer to false accusations and ultimately bring glory to the God of heaven.