April 21, 2023

Ecclesiastes 7: 1 A good name is better than fine perfume. (NIV)

It would be enough if God just cleansed your name, but he does more. He gives you his name.*

For a time, when I was in high school, we heated our house with a fireplace. Coal was our usual fuel (I grew up in Kentucky, after all), but occasionally we used wood. One morning in homeroom, the boy who sat next to me started sniffing the air. “I smell wood smoke,” he said. I was a little embarrassed as I confessed, “It’s me.” Being an outdoorsman, he exclaimed, “That smells better than perfume!” 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and a fragrant odor is in the nostrils of the . . . sniffer? 

In Solomon’s day, fine perfume was rare, costly, and lasting.* With his comparison, Solomon applies the same qualities to a good reputation. A good name is an “honorable attainment,”* providing benefits to ourselves and to others as it opens doors and leaves a legacy. A person of good repute may be well-spoken of in the business world, in politics, among friends, and even among his enemies. As Christians, our good name is intertwined with the name of Jesus. In his name we speak with authority. By his name we are saved. If we bear his name, we should display Christlike qualities: compassion, integrity, discernment. 

But beware. People’s tastes change. The ones about whom it was said, “All spoke well of him,” (Luke 4: 22) were among the ones who later shouted, “Crucify him!” (Mark 15: 13) Jesus predicted that we would be abused because of his name (John 15: 21), but he never released us from our responsibility to be a sweet fragrance in a stinky world.

Jesus didn’t instruct us to go into the world and create a positive image.*