The Incalculable Price of a Reputation

Think of this verse for a bit. 

Proverbs 22:1 (ESV) A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.

If you're not careful you'll fly right past it without noticing how counterintuitive it is to our culture. To have a good reputation - a "good name" - is better for you than great riches. Ask the average mom or dad in our culture what they most want for their children. I bet more would say a good paying job or to be happy than to have a good reputation. 

Think of your own life for a moment. What do you spend more time cultivating? Your reputation as honest, good, and trustworthy or a higher salary, more influence or followers, likes, and such? 

There's no substitute for a good name. And a good name is fragile. One big mistake can take decades of reputation and toss it in the garbage. Money can be made in an instant through luck and happenstance, but a good name takes years no matter who you are. 

This betrays another counterintuitive value in the Bible: Anything worth having takes patience, endurance and longevity. A good name is just that. 

The rest of Proverbs 22 offers wise advice to secure a good name:

Remember your maker:

Proverbs 22:2 (ESV) The rich and the poor meet together; the LORD is the Maker of them all.

Mind your walk:

Proverbs 22:3 (ESV) The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.

Fear God and don't think too much of yourself:

Proverbs 22:4 (ESV) The reward for humility and fear of the LORD is riches and honor and life.

Start your children on the right path when they are young:

Proverbs 22:6 (ESV) Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:15 (ESV) Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

Avoid excessive debt:

Proverbs 22:7 (ESV) The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.

Be generous:

Proverbs 22:9 (ESV) Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.

Seek purity:

Proverbs 22:11 (ESV) He who loves purity of heart, and whose speech is gracious, will have the king as his friend.

There are more in the list but these are some of the ways we build a reputation over a lifetime of good practice in wise living. And in the end, the blessing of the Lord outshines all other opportunities for good and reward from this world.