Through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

~2 Corinthians 6: 8-10 ESV

Once, while home from missionary work, I met a neighbor on the street. He said, “Kenny, I thought you were a good boy?” He referred to how I had given up my teaching career and home to pursue my calling. He was okay with being a respectable Christian, but this thing of taking up one’s cross and following Christ was a bit much for him. What he failed to understand was the paradox of the Christian life.

Woe to you, when all people speak well of you.

~Luke 6:26 ESV

Loren Cunningham, co-founder of Youth with a Mission, often said that no one who has done anything significant for God has not first lost their reputation. It is one thing to lose our reputation for doing wrong things, but another to lose it for doing the right thing.

Think about Mary, the mother of Jesus. The larger Mary got in her pregnancy, the more people talked. If we care too much about what people believe about us, we will never be servants of Christ.

The apostles met with honor and dishonor, good reports and bad ones. They needed the grace of God to ward off the temptation that comes with a good report and a bad report.

When people say good things about us, pride can get us thinking more highly of ourselves than we should. But when people say unflattering things about us, we find it easy to move into self-pity or condemnation.

There is therefore no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

~Romans 8:1 ESV

Seeing ourselves as better or worse than we are is not how God sees us. Humility is knowing who we really are, not more or less.

Let God help you understand the paradox of the Christian life. See yourself as He sees you.

Father, help me to see myself as You see me: forgiven and cleansed from all sin–past, present, and future. In Jesus’s name, amen. 

 

Genre: Non-fiction

Copyright 2026: The Paradox of the Christian Life: Ken Barnes: All Rights Reserved.