Now, does this mean that if I happen to be with some unsaved friends, that I should act like them and try to please them just so I can keep my good image in front of them? No! Proverbs is talking about having a good reputation in front of other Christians and in front of God. In turn, though, this will affect your witness in front of unbelievers. If you keep yourself pure and clean in front of God, you will be a bigger testimony than you ever thought possible. If you acted like the world so they could accept you, so that you could possibly, someday, tell them about the gospel, they're not going to ever listen to you. They won't see anything different in you, and therefore won't have any desire to have what you have.
Protecting your reputation isn't always that easy, though. Many people take the simple route, saying, "I'm gonna do this cause I wanna do this! I don't care what that person thinks of me! Who are they to judge, anyway?" This may seem very arrogant, but we've probably all said it at one point or another in our lives. One way of saving our testimony in order to have a bigger impact on others is by keeping ourselves from being a stumbling block to others. I remember when I was in my old church. There were a few families in our church who didn't agree with the girls wearing pants. I, on the other hand, didn't have an issue with it, and neither did my family. Yet, my parents told me that whenever we were with those families I should wear a skirt. I was upset at first. How could they impose their beliefs on me?! Why did I have to wear a skirt just because they did? But I was missing the whole point. Like, I was way off, guys. I wasn't wearing a skirt because they wanted me to, or because they were forcing me to have the same convictions as them. I was supposed to be doing it out of love for them, and out of respect for what they believed. I needed to put aside my pride and my own comforts for my fellow Christian's sake. Unfortunately, it took me a while to get to the point where I was doing it out of love. But eventually, when I finally understood the right purpose and motivation behind what I was doing, it was much easier to do. And, I wasn't judging them anymore. Sometimes people's little quirks or convictions can look unnecessary to us, but remember our greatest example, Jesus Christ. He came to earth, and fulfilled the law. Can you believe it? Jesus Christ, who was sent down to earth to die for all our sins so that we may be saved through grace, and not have to stick by the law and all it's rules, FULFILLED THE LAW. Because if he wouldn't have, the Jews would of thought He was a sinner and unclean. See what a testimony you can be when you're trying to encourage people in their closeness with God, instead of being an obstacle sitting in their way?
Another aspect to keeping your testimony, is not only respecting other Christians' convictions, but also setting your own. Before you even have a chance to step in that puddle, make sure you know how far you're gonna let yourself go. Last year at the Wild's camp in North Carolina, I learned about how when Daniel was in captivity and was surrounded by pagans, he set boundaries for himself before he was even ever confronted with a situation. He told himself what he was going to allow himself to do, and what he wasn't. And he stuck by those decisions, through thick and thin. That is so much easier said than done, though. We can set boundaries for ourselves according to the Scriptures, and everything's fine and dandy....until we actually have to put those convictions into practice. Until you have to sacrifice being the "cool" guy, just because you don't agree with what you're friends are doing and won't participate. That's why it takes a lot of prayer and effort to stay true to what we believe is right. I've set boundaries for myself on all sorts of things that aren't stated in the Bible as black and white. I've done it with the help of the Scriptures and my parents. But you know, it's really easy to slip into complacency and start loosening my grip on the rope that I had decided to hold on so tightly. I realized I need to come before God daily, asking Him to search my heart for anything that I may be allowing to creep into my life or heart. But I'll warn you, if you ask, you WILL get answers. You'll be shown some things that you probably didn't even notice, or didn't want to notice, and aren't exactly very excited about changing. But this is God we're talking about. The King of the universe. The God who created you and loves you enough that He saved you. Christ came down on this filthy earth and died a criminal's death. If we ever even wanted to repay Him, which we can't, we should start by trying to be more like Him and getting rid of EVERY little thing in our life that is keeping us from knowing Him more. I guarantee you, the little things add up. And before you know it, there's a boat load of little sins dragging you down and away from Christ. I sometimes have those days where I just don't feel very close to God. And the first thing I do, is get on my knees, pray, and ask the Lord if there's anything in my life that's creating this wall between me and Him. What if you have a really good friend, and one of you did something as simple as not responding to a text? There would probably be a little bit of, "what's going on? doesn't she want to talk?" going on, right? Now imagine texting a friend like five days in a row and getting no responses in return. I would be kinda worried. I'd feel like all communication is down, like I practically lost my best friend! Yet, we sometimes go days without digging into the Scripture and talking to our Savior, yet we expect a great relationship with Him. Not to mention we expect Him to tell us what His will for our life is.
But, I'm kinda digressing. I hope I've given sufficient reason, along with what the Bible has to say, on why it's important to protect our reputation and remain a good witness. If we want to be used by God, we need to let Him sharpen us continually, so that we will be useful tools in His hand. So, next time you have to ask yourself, "is this really that bad?" Maybe you should ask, "will this in any way, shape, or form, affect my testimony for Christ?" If the answer is yes, DON'T DO IT!!! A good rule of thumb is, if there's a shadow of doubt in your mind about doing something, there's a very big possibility that it's wrong.
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