You know, growing up in the Middle East, we are taught that your reputation is your most treasured possession.

In fact, in days gone by, reputation was considered to be far more importance than wealth or money or prestige or power.

In fact, reputation was more important than life itself

because if your reputation has been sullied,

then might as well not be alive.

And I thought about this, and I realized, of course, that like everything else, if you get

obsessed with reputation, it can lead to hypocrisy. If we get obsessed with reputation, it can lead to

reputation, it can lead to unhealthy, concerned only with the externals.

If we are obsessed with reputation alone, then it can lead to dual personality,

the public person and the private person.

And we see that repeatedly in the pages of the gospel of how the Lord Jesus Christ rebuked the Pharisees

again and again and again because of their obsession only with the outward reputation, only with the external appearances, only with style rather than substance.

And we're seeing a lot of that in our culture today.

And Jesus rebuked that obsession for good reason.

For when one's reputation becomes an obsession, that person is going to do everything possible to hide the real person.

He's going to do everything possible to act an outward role.

He will do everything possible to pretend to be what he or she is not.

Someone said, if you spend too much time on polishing your reputation, your character will become tarnished.

In fact, some years ago, a story I read many years ago about the Harvard economist by the name of John Kenneth Galbraith, and he worked

for the Kennedy administration. And one day the New York Times printed a profile of Dr.

Galbraith. And it happened to be that very morning that he was having breakfast with John

Kennedy. And Kennedy asked him, he said, what do you think of the article?

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