Proverbs 22: 1: Greater good is the name than the many riches,
And the good reputation more than silver and gold.
To introduce the theme of this reflection I want to take as an example the testimony of a young preacher who was invited to preach a seremón in a church in his city and took as one of the ten commandments that the Lord ordered to keep, the theme was " you shall not steal "
The next morning, he got on a bus and gave the driver a dollar bill. The driver gave him the change and he went to the back of the vehicle. Taking a look at the change before putting it in his pocket, the man noticed that the driver had given him ten cents more. His first thought was: The bus company will never notice the loss of ten cents.
However, he changed his mind quickly, feeling in his conscience that the ten cents did not belong to him and that he should return them to the driver. He returned to the front and told the driver: "you gave me more change". And he returned the ten cents.
To his surprise, the driver replied, "Yes, I know, I did it on purpose." I listened to his sermon yesterday and was watching him in the mirror as he counted his turn. the word written in 2 Corinthians 3: 4 is certainly fulfilled
"Our letters are you, written in our hearts, known and read by all men (2 Corinthians 3: 4)
being manifest that you are a letter of Christ issued by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tablets of stone, but on tables of flesh of the heart.
And we have such confidence through Christ to God. "
It is notorious that the young preacher had at that time testified that Christ lived in his heart, in addition to having passed the test that this man had put to verify what was true in the words that the previous day had preached. To this the book of Hebrews 12: 1 clarifies: "Therefore, since we have around us so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also take off all the weight and the sin that so easily envelops us, and let us run with patience the race we have for in front of".
As Christians we have influence in the world, therefore our actions must agree with our words.
The good name is worth more than the many riches!