Wed, Dec 17th - 11:30AM
Good Christians All
My dad was proud to have his own company. He was a manufacturer’s representative, A.K.A., traveling salesman. He had a five state territory that he serviced, and he was on the road a lot. It occurred to my dad that if he could hire someone to work the territory with him, he would do a lot better. Consequently, he was always hiring somebody to work with him. I am aware of several “good” men who worked for my dad over the years. The constant, repeating scenario would begin with my father introducing us to a man who would work as his partner in the territory. Glowing praise of this man would always precede the introduction. My father was an easy truster. Then within several years, my dad would inform us that the man had stolen his customers and had begun to work for himself. My mother always had valuable intuition about the men my dad hired, but my father never seemed to listen to her. He should have considered my mother to be God’s gift to him – and he should have listened to her. Years later, when my father and mother became professing Christians, my father periodically searched for services based on who was a “good Christian”. He was a real sucker for the fish emblem on a business card. Many times my dad would tell me he had a “good Christian lawyer, or dentist”…. At the time, his propensity to always trust people based on their professed credentials drove me crazy. I used to rail at him to just hire a good lawyer, but he never listened to me, either. The summary of my dad’s trust was always the same, Christian or not, and he refused to learn from it because I’m sure he chose to trust people. As an outside observer, however, I learned to take a man’s credentials with a grain of salt. I also had a trust problem – I trusted no one. The shame of it all is that my dad should have been right to trust, and I should have been wrong to be so skeptical. Currently I’m in business for myself. Sadly, I find the transactions involving professed Christians to be at least as difficult as those involving heathens. You have no idea how disappointing and upsetting this is! Today, I was reminded of the verses in the second chapter of Romans: Well then, if you teach others, why don't you teach yourself? You tell others not to steal, but do you steal? | You say it is wrong to commit adultery, but do you do it? You condemn idolatry, but do you steal from pagan temples? | You are so proud of knowing the law, but you dishonor God by breaking it. | No wonder the Scriptures say, "The world blasphemes the name of God because of you." [fn] (NLT) |
From my current perspective, I could put a lot of good Christian names to these verses. Many days, I could put my own name on the list. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if these verses described the infrequent situation? It would be a pleasure to tell the apostle he was wrong, but he wasn’t. I know some good Christians who dance and wave their hands to God in church. Would that I could be that open with Him! But they don’t think anything of telling me less than the truth within a business transaction. Not only that, they suspect me of “gaming” them to my own advantage. Good Christians, all. Sadly, today I understand the sting of what the apostle wrote to the Romans. I understand why the world at large mocks Christianity – like it or not, they hold Christians to a higher standard of conduct – like it or not, we continually let them down. Shame on us all! Deny it all we want, but we are known by our fruit. We aren’t required to agree with it, that’s just the way it works. Once we align ourselves with Christ, we represent Him in the eyes of all – like it or not. On my refrigerator is a magnet that reads, “A person’s true character is revealed by what he does when no one is watching!”. As professing children of the King, we should be aware that we are always watched. John
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Name: John Miltenberger
