It’s hard to know exactly what was going on in the church at Sardis and why they had earned the reputation of being ‘alive’. But reputation is all there was to it. The reality was that they were a spiritually dead church. It may well be that the growth of their reputation actually aided the decay in their faith. Reputation is a great decoy from reality. A reputation may be warranted at first. We may be used by God to achieve something significant and as a result attain a reputation. What often happens though is that we begin to live to fulfil our reputation when initially our reputation came about simply by us fulfilling our purpose. In this way a reputation becomes an idol just as the gold of Egypt was used by the Israelites to make the golden calf at the foot of Mount Sinai. When we begin to live in a reputation we cease to live authentically, and life becomes a perpetual effort to maintain an identity that has become an idol for us. So it is that a reputation gained by doing some good leads to its opposite effect. Have you attained a reputation for something good you have done? If so, then you stand on the precipice of a cliff that many have fallen over. This doesn’t make a good reputation bad. It simply puts you in a place where you face a temptation that often gets the better of even the strongest of Christians. It might be time then for some soul searching. How important is your reputation to you?
Reflect on these things before God.
Read Revelation 3:1-6
