Hey gang,

Regardless of how we live our lives we always receive reputations. Reputations can be both good and bad. For example, do you know those students in your school who have the reputation of being the uber athlete or the smart pocket protector wearing nerd? On a spiritual level, do you know the students who are completely against everything Jesus is about? On the contrary, do you also know those students who have the reputation of being a "Jesus Freak" to use the term coined by DC Talk in their hit song in the 90’s? My question is what is your reputation?

In Acts chapter 17 we see what it looks like when Paul and Silas receive a reputation. Holding true to the previous ways in which Paul is usually run out of a town, an angry jealous mob gets together and decides to go to Jason's house where Paul and Silas are staying. The Mobs intention was not to sit down and have dinner with them but to run Paul and his whole group out of town by whatever means necessary. When the mob did not find them at Jason's house they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials shouting: "these men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here and Jason has welcomed them into his house." This reputation followed Paul wherever he went.

The religious leaders of the time continued to turn others against Paul because he was openly preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and was living his life in such a way that caused many people to believe and follow Christ. This reputation from a worldly view has a negative feel to it. Nobody wants to be the guy who is deemed the trouble maker. Paul and Silas were viewed this way because they refused to conform to the image of the world and decided to follow Jesus completely, regardless of the circumstance. This life was not easy for Paul and the other Disciples of Christ. With their decisions to follow Christ and radically challenge the religious leaders of the time came great hardships and persecutions.

Paul was constantly being run out if every town in which he was trying to proclaim the name of Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 11:24-28 Paul tells of his many sufferings because of his choice to live his life for the purpose of Christ. "Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches."

Paul and Silas had gained a reputation as troublemakers, "Jesus Freaks" who were not afraid to go against the culture in which they lived. As followers of Christ Jesus, Paul and Silas were swimming upstream so to speak in the opposite direction of everyone else who were not believers in Christ. As we know for every action there is a reaction. Paul and Silas definitely found this to be true in their lives as they reacted to the message of following Jesus Wholeheartedly.

So the question still remains the same. What will your reputation be? Will your reputation be like that of Paul and Silas? Will you be known as the type of person who turns the world upside down because of their daily life decision to follow Christ or will you conform to the world in which you live?