Should I Care at All What People Think of Me?

00:00:00.000 | Today's question is from an international listener.

00:00:08.320 | Dear Pastor John, I am Jera from the Philippines.

00:00:11.880 | I always wonder if minding people's opinion about me is a good or bad thing.

00:00:16.880 | The more I think about it, the more confused I get.

00:00:20.200 | On one hand, I want to be thought of well by outsiders (1 Timothy 3.7).

00:00:25.600 | At the same time, I do not want to be paralyzed if others think I am a fool for following

00:00:30.200 | Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1-3).

00:00:35.100 | And even to the extent of being considered, like Paul, the scum of the world (1 Corinthians

00:00:41.600 | 4.13).

00:00:42.600 | So, how do we think about our self-image in the eyes of the world?

00:00:47.980 | I think the answer is that we should not go out of our way to offend the world unnecessarily,

00:00:56.780 | and we should not be afraid of offending the world when necessary, and we should put the

00:01:06.100 | emphasis on proactive good deeds that in general the world will find it hard to disapprove

00:01:14.660 | of.

00:01:15.900 | That's my general answer, but far more important than my general answer are the specificities

00:01:24.260 | of the Bible.

00:01:26.620 | So let me do a quick little Bible avalanche.

00:01:30.620 | First, concerning the importance of not giving offense to the world, but wanting rightly

00:01:37.520 | to be respected by the world, and then texts concerning the importance of believing and

00:01:45.740 | saying and doing things that do in fact offend the world, and we know they will offend the

00:01:51.100 | world because the Bible says they will, and not wanting their godless approval.

00:01:57.940 | Who needs the godless approval of the world?

00:02:01.820 | So those two groups of texts are very much in tension, so here they are, and we need

00:02:06.940 | to hear them both.

00:02:09.580 | Proverbs 22.1, "A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better

00:02:16.260 | than silver or gold."

00:02:18.180 | We should want a good name in the community.

00:02:20.860 | Matthew 5.16, "Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and

00:02:25.460 | give glory to your Father in heaven."

00:02:28.580 | First Corinthians 14.23, "If therefore the whole church comes together and all speak

00:02:33.200 | in tongues, and an outsider, an unbeliever, enters in, won't they say, 'You're out of

00:02:37.020 | your mind?'"

00:02:38.020 | The Bible is quite concerned that they not think you're out of your mind, so that relates.

00:02:44.020 | First Peter 2.12, "Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak

00:02:49.340 | against you as evil doers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation."

00:02:55.300 | First Peter 2.15, "For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to

00:03:00.500 | silence the ignorance of foolish people."

00:03:03.060 | First Corinthians 10.32, "Give no offense to Jews or Greeks or the church of God, just

00:03:09.340 | as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that

00:03:15.180 | of many that they may be saved."

00:03:17.300 | First Timothy 3.7, about the elders, "The candidate for elder must be well thought of

00:03:23.580 | by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace or into the snare of the devil."

00:03:28.540 | One more, "Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to what is honorable in the sight

00:03:36.260 | of all."

00:03:37.260 | So, I infer from that little avalanche of texts that those passages do not want us to

00:03:47.140 | relish giving offense to people outside.

00:03:50.260 | We should seek to avoid giving offense if we can.

00:03:56.180 | We're trying to win people, for goodness sakes, not drive them away.

00:03:59.980 | We want people to be saved, not just offended at how right we are.

00:04:06.020 | However, then we read these, another little avalanche here.

00:04:11.780 | This is Galatians 1.10, "For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God?

00:04:20.000 | Or am I trying to please men?

00:04:21.600 | If I were trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ."

00:04:28.240 | Never rank the approval of man above the truth and righteousness of the gospels.

00:04:33.680 | Acts 4, Acts 4.19, "But Peter and John answered them, 'Whether it is right in the sight of

00:04:40.520 | God to listen to you rather than to God, you judge, for we cannot but speak what we have

00:04:48.560 | seen and heard.'"

00:04:50.080 | In other words, what you will think of us for preaching and living the gospel does not

00:04:55.320 | guide our decisions.

00:04:57.200 | Matthew 10.25, "It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like

00:05:02.080 | his master.

00:05:03.080 | If they called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his

00:05:08.080 | household?"

00:05:09.080 | In other words, expect it.

00:05:10.300 | If you follow me, you're going to be maligned, not respected.

00:05:15.000 | Matthew 10.22, "You will be hated by all for my name's sake, but the one who endures

00:05:22.640 | to the end will be saved."

00:05:25.320 | Expect hatred, vast hatred, for your following me.

00:05:31.000 | First Peter 4.4, "With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in

00:05:36.320 | the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you."

00:05:39.520 | It's especially interesting because Peter is writing this book to try to help wives

00:05:44.960 | win husbands and people win neighbors.

00:05:47.760 | Here he says, "There are behaviors you're not going to do anymore.

00:05:52.880 | When you don't do them anymore, they're going to make big-time fun of you and malign you,

00:05:58.480 | and you don't do them anyway."

00:06:01.920 | He didn't compromise the holiness of life, even though holiness of life made unbelievers

00:06:10.320 | very offended and made them malign Christians.

00:06:14.400 | A lot of people don't get that today.

00:06:16.540 | They think if somebody is criticizing your lifestyle, then you better adjust your lifestyle

00:06:21.200 | so you don't create criticism.

00:06:23.040 | That's not going to fit First Peter 4.4.

00:06:26.000 | Or one more, 1 Corinthians 1.22, "Jews demand signs.

00:06:31.760 | Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, folly to Gentiles,

00:06:38.640 | but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom

00:06:42.400 | of God."

00:06:43.400 | In other words, we know that when we preach the gospel, Paul says Jews are going to stumble

00:06:49.360 | over it and Gentiles are going to think it's stupid, and so preach it.

00:06:53.040 | So preach it.

00:06:55.520 | Of course, when the Holy Spirit's at work and revival is happening, God overcomes those

00:06:59.640 | kind of reactions.

00:07:01.520 | So my conclusion is this.

00:07:03.840 | We do care about what outsiders think.

00:07:07.760 | We own up to that first little avalanche of text.

00:07:10.720 | We would like to find favor when we speak with them.

00:07:15.680 | We have words of life, words of joy, words of everlasting satisfaction.

00:07:21.360 | We would like for them to believe and be with us in the age to come, no matter how bad they've

00:07:26.480 | ever been or what they've ever done to us.

00:07:28.800 | Christians want people to be saved, to become brothers and sisters.

00:07:32.680 | But clearly, from the Scriptures, we do not compromise the truth of Scripture in order

00:07:39.840 | to curry the favor of the world, nor do we compromise the holiness of life that we're

00:07:45.280 | called upon to live in order to get the favor of the world.

00:07:49.680 | Rather, we put all of the emphasis—and I think this is the note that probably needs

00:07:54.640 | to be struck today, when people wonder, "Well, what are you supposed to do then?"

00:07:59.240 | Put all the emphasis on aggressively positive doing of good deeds that, in general, the

00:08:08.800 | world has a hard time disapproving of.

00:08:13.040 | And if the Holy Spirit is pleased to move them, they will see our good deeds and give

00:08:19.280 | glory to our Father in heaven.

00:08:22.080 | Amen.

00:08:23.080 | Amen.

00:08:24.080 | That is wise and balanced counsel, Pastor John.

00:08:26.200 | Thank you.

00:08:27.200 | And thank you for the perceptive question, Jarrah.

00:08:29.200 | Appreciate it.

00:08:30.200 | Well, the refugee crisis is in the news right now, and a listener wants to know, "How should

00:08:34.840 | we map this crisis onto what we read in the Bible?"

00:08:39.040 | John Piper will be back to explain on Monday.

00:08:42.000 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:08:43.000 | For more on this podcast, visit us at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

00:08:49.640 | Have a wonderful, restful, and worship-filled weekend.

00:08:53.560 | See you on Monday.

00:08:54.080 | Amen.

00:08:54.580 | Amen.

00:08:55.580 | Amen.

00:08:56.080 | Amen.

00:08:57.080 | Amen.

00:08:58.080 | Amen.

00:08:58.580 | Amen.

00:08:59.580 | Amen.

00:09:00.080 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Should I Care at All What People Think of Me?

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