Today's question is from an international listener, dear pastor John, I'm Jera from the Philippines.

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

The more I think about it, the more confused I get.

On one hand, I want to be thought of well by outsiders, 1st Timothy 3-7.

At the same time, I do not want to be paralyzed if others think I am a fool for following Jesus Christ.

That's 1st Corinthians 1-3.

And even to the extent of being considered like Paul, the scum of the world, 1st Corinthians 4-13.

So how do we think about our self-image in the eyes of the world?

I think the answer is that we should not go out of our way to offend the world unnecessarily.

And we should not be afraid of offending the world when necessary.

And we should put the emphasis on proactive good deeds that in general the world will find it hard to disapprove of.

That's my general answer.

But far more important than my general answer are the specificities of the Bible.

So let me do a quick little Bible avalanche.

1st concerning the importance of not giving offense to the world,

but wanting rightly to be respected by the world,

and then texts concerning the importance of believing and saying and doing things

that do in fact offend the world.

And we know they will offend the world because the Bible says they will and not wanting their God less approval who needs the God less approval of the world.

So those two groups of texts are very much intentioned.

So here they are and we need to hear them both.

Proverbs 221.

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