Character and Reputation

There is an excellent quote I heard Greg Laurie use this week in a sermon, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Has that ever happened to you? You hear something almost in passing, but it sticks with you and forms your meditation for the foreseeable future?

Then you look it up and find two other versions of it commonly quoted, but NOT the version you heard. (Okay, one source quoted it the way you heard it. Does that count as confirmation?)

But you like the one you heard best, so you’re gonna go with that one. Funny- the same thing happened to me this week too!

“If I take care of my character, God will take care of my reputation.” – DL Moody

It was such an interesting quote, and it struck me as so simply profound. It’s true. The only portion I have control over is my character. And I do use the word ‘control’ lightly. I absolutely need God’s help every day to do the right things. But what I mean is that I am responsible for my character. No one else makes choices for me. No one else behaves for me. No one else speaks for me. No one else chooses the things I spend my time focusing on. Or the way I talk to my family, or co-workers, or neighbors. The things that come out of my heart are my responsibility alone.

If you’ve ever done a Bible study with me, you know I’m a huge fan of defining words. How can I know what something really means without the definition? I prefer not to base my doctrine (or conviction either) on speculation and assumption. So what do character and reputation mean? 

According to the internet dictionary, character is “The mental and moral qualities distinctive to the individual.” So that includes your thoughts, words, actions, and meditations. Pretty much everything about yourself that isn’t an actual physical characteristic. (Such as brown, curly hair or blue eyes. Or a birthmark on your left cheek. Or a freckle in between your toes. You get the idea.)

What then is reputation? “Beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something.” This is completely out of your control. It really is. You can try to control the narrative about yourself, but people will often choose to believe what is most entertaining to them, or what is the most exciting to talk about and spread to others, and they aren’t really interested in the truth. Perhaps someone meets me for the first time when I’m having an ‘off’ day, and they form their opinion of me based on a bad or harried moment. That can be very hard to work out from under. Just because that is the basis for one person’s belief about me, that doesn’t make it the whole truth of who I am.

And I can’t let myself get caught up in that. 

I think this quote to the left is true. It was attributed to so many people that I won’t even put down any name. I cannot control what other people think of me, or what they believe about me. It’s a fact that some people are just determined to misunderstand you (and everyone else) every time, no matter what. 

If I become obsessed with controlling the way others think of me, then my concern is no longer about my actual character, but my perceived character. I begin to behave in ways that will shape others’ opinion of me toward the positive, but may not come from a genuine place. I become more interested in making sure they THINK I’m a good person than I am with actually BEING a good person. That isn’t walking in truth, which means, then, that my actual character really isn’t as good as I want people to think it is.

Does that make sense at all? It did in my head. 

In scripture we have the example of Jesus. He lived a completely holy life, His character was flawless, and He was not concerned about His reputation. Those who believed He was the son of the devil were as loved and served as those who knew He was the Son of God. There was a lot of speculation about Him. There were a lot of opinions tossed around about Him. There were a lot of lies spread about Him. There were accusations made right to His face. But He didn’t concern Himself with all of that. He spoke the truth, and just went about His Father’s business. 

Philippians 2:5-8 
(5) Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: (6) Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: (7) But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: (8) And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Jesus, who had every right to come in fanfare and costly array, and announce that He indeed was the Messiah they had all been longing and waiting for, chose not to. 

He made himself of no reputation. He humbled himself, served and healed and loved mankind, and died on a rugged cross so that the people who misjudged Him, and ridiculed Him, and called for his death could have eternal life. So that I could have eternal life.

And I get all bent out of shape if someone doesn’t like me, or thinks ill of me. 

Paul reminds us in Romans 7:14-20 (yes please look it up yourself) that no one has it all figured out. No one is perfect, and everyone struggles with their flesh. We want to do good and yet, there is nothing good in us apart from Christ. I think sometimes we forget that.

So when someone accuses me of doing something or being something that I find offensive, I don’t automatically remind myself that there is no good thing in me on my own. (Well, maybe you do, but I don’t.) I immediately forget that part, and go straight to the “But I’m a good person- don’t you know this, and this, and THIS about me?!?” I feel I need to prove that I have been misjudged, or maligned, or misunderstood.

What I need to do, is just live right. Take care of my character, and let God handle my reputation.

We see the example again with Jesus. Here it is in 1 Peter 2:21-24
(21) For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: (22) Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: (23) Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: (24) Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

Jesus left Himself to him that judges righteously. (That would be God the Father.) Jesus knew that God knew the whole truth about Him, and that was good enough. He wasn’t worried that the Pharisees didn’t like him, or that the Sadducees didn’t believe in a resurrection. He knew God was the righteous judge, and that was all that mattered.

I shouldn’t be as concerned about my reputation as I am my representation. Does my character accurately represent the Christ I claim to follow? Do my actions and words show my love for the Lord and desire to live for Him? I think that’s a much loftier goal than trying to protect my own reputation.

Lord, help me make my character clearly reflect You, and help me not worry about my reputation.