Faithful in the Community
Paul encourages early Christians to manage their own households well, and then he expands it even further, and says we should be faithful in the wider community too. We read: "He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil's trap." (1 Timothy 3:7)
Why Your Reputation Outside the Church Matters
A good reputation with the people outside the church - how about that!?
How do the people at your workplace see you? How do the people in your neighbourhood see you?
Of course, this is tricky. You can't please everybody, as you know, and there are some people who should dislike what you're doing. If your Christian values don't upset some people, perhaps you aren't standing strongly enough for them.
But I think Paul is saying here that you should do what you have to do with excellence and a good attitude, and people will see that you're somebody who means what they say.
Living Quietly and Working with Excellence
In fact another time, Paul wrote this: "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody." (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12)
A Christian who is meddling in other people's affairs, or a Christian who is too lazy to work for themselves but is always looking for handouts, a Christian whose daily life does not match the thing they profess to believe - these Christians give the church a bad name, Paul says.
People don't respect these types of Christians. He says: be faithful, outside the church. Let the outsiders, the non-Christians, see that you are a respectable and fair person.
Winning Respect Through Everyday Faithfulness
When Shereen was pregnant with our twins, her doctor was an amazing lady. She's a Muslim, but let me tell you, we respect her so much. She does her work with such excellence and such compassion that she won our respect and our love instantly, and we always knew we could trust her to absolutely give her best.
I think this is what Paul is saying here. He is saying that we Christians should be like that - that we should be the most reliable and trustworthy of all people in the community!!
In fact listen to the words of a priest from centuries past, named John Tauler: "If I were not a priest, but were living as a layman, I should take it as a great favor that I knew how to make shoes, and I should try to make them better than anyone else. There is no work so small, no art so mean, but it all comes from God and is a special gift of His."
Whatever you do - do it well, with respect and excellence, so that even the non-Christians look at you and say: there's a person I can respect for the way they live their life!
Your reputation outside the church says as much about your faith as anything you do inside it.