Glory to God's Name, 1 Timothy 6:1

"All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God's name and our teaching may not be slandered."

     Have you ever stopped and realized that what you do, how you behave, and what you say to people affects their opinion not only of all Christians and the church as a whole, but also of God?

     As Christians, we are not only saved from eternal destruction by the saving grace of God, but we are also left here on earth to be the Lord's witnesses, His representatives. And as such, people link our actions and words to our Christianity.
     This can be either a good thing or a bad thing. If we are walking strongly with the Lord, seeking Him in all we do presenting everything to Him in prayer, then people in the world will look at us and see the joy and peace that comes from walking with Jesus, and they will associate that peace and joy with walking with Jesus. This draws people to come and know the Lord.
     However, if we are professing to be Christians and yet really are not, or are living a life of hypocrisy, then all our witness is telling people is that there is nothing to be had in coming to Christ. People will see you, miserable, depressed, living the same sinful lives as they are, and they, not seeing any difference in your "Christian" life from theirs, will begin to form the attitude that their is nothing special about Christianity; it is just another religion. This can cause people not to come to Christ, but rather to hold an apathetic view of Him or yet worse, reject Him because of the hypocrisy they've seen in so-called Christians around them.

     This is why Paul exhorts Timothy that slaves ought to respect their masters. He is speaking of Christian slaves, and if they were to disrespect their masters they would bring ridicule to the name of Christ and also cause people to be hostile to the teachings of the gospel.
     In today's economy, there are no longer slaves, yet we can still apply this teaching to our lives. We do have to work, after all. We, as children of God, ought to hold our bosses and supervisors in the highest respect, whether we agree with them or not. King David exhibited this characteristic in his own life when he submitted to and respected the authority of King Saul, who was out to kill David. David did not agree with Saul's behavior, but he knew the God was the one who had annointed Saul as king and thus respected Saul's position as king, though maybe not his person.
     So too we need to respect those who hold authority over us because the Lord has raised them up to be leaders; we need to realize that it is by the will of the Lord that they are in that position and respect the Lord's decision to put them there. We don't need to agree with what they are doing, and we don't need to even respect their person, but we do need to submit to their authority respectfully. This will honor the Lord and cause those around us to see Jesus in us, and they will be drawn to Him.

     This principle can really be applied to any part of our lives. When we stop and take note that how we act affects the way people see God and the way people see Christianity and the church, we see that a lot of things we do don't really glorify the Lord.
     The Lord uses the analogy of driving in my own life very often. There are a lot of attitudes that dwell in our hearts that come out in driving. For example, cutting people off on the road shows disrespect and impatience, as well as lack of regard for other people. Driving incredibly fast and cutting in and out of lanes to pass people to get ahead shows anxiousness, impatience, and maybe even pridefulness.

     Say we are driving down the highway in our cars, which happen to be plastered with various Christian stickers, and we are speeding, cutting in and out of lanes without signaling to pass people. When traffic comes we are sitting in our car tapping our fingers on the steering wheel with a scowl on our faces. We don't let anyone change lanes into our lane because we were there first and we are anxious to get home. When it comes our time to get off the freeway, instead of going to the end of the line in the exit lane, we drive in the lane next to it until the last second and then slow down, stopping traffic behind us, to cut into the front of the line. We wait until the light turns green, but it turns yellow and then red just before your turn to go. You decide to run the red light anyway.
     How do you suppose people around you on the freeway are going to respond to this sort of behavior? They would find it irritating out of anybody, true, but when they see your car, plastered with all sorts of Christian stickers, do you think they are going to look at them and think, "Wow, I really need the Lord". Most likely they are going to link their anger with your foolish behavior with your claim to Christianity. It may be subtle, it may be very minute. It may not even really affect them negatively. But is it affecting them positively?

     I don't say this to be legalistic about driving, or to cause people to be self-conscious about their behavior to the point of paranoia. I say this only because too often I think we completely forget that our being linked to God affects how people see Him, and how people listen to His message of salvation. I personally do not want to be anyone who causes a non-believe to stumble and harden his heart against the Lord any more than they already have. I want to bring people to the Lord! We say we want to glorify the Lord in all we do-- This includes how we represent Christ to the world around us.