A Word in Season: The Reputation of Your Deeds (Proverbs 20:11)

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Pause for a moment and think of a child that you know. Perhaps it's a particularly pleasant child or maybe a particularly unpleasant child.

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Perhaps the boy or girl is kind and generous and loving and attentive, or perhaps they're stubborn and difficult and awkward and rebellious.

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But how do you know? On what basis are you making those assessments and assertions about the child's character?

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And I'd imagine that the only real answer you could give is, well, it's the way that that child behaves.

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I think about what they're like at home or at school or in the church or whatever it may be, and I look at the way that they're acting, and I draw certain conclusions about what they're really like.

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That's what Proverbs 20 and verse 11 has in mind when we read that even a child is known by his deeds whether what he does is pure and right.

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Even in the youngest of children, there's something about their behaviour that is revealing and predicting something about their character.

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It's showing us what's really in their heart, what kind of individual they are, their personality traits and inclinations.

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And what we see in a young child is probably pointing forward to what that child will in due course become.

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Now, we certainly want to take account of the grace and goodness of God. We invest in our children, we do what we can to form their character, to train them in the way that they should go, prayerfully asking that the

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Lord would smile upon our efforts, save our children from their sins and lead them in the way everlasting.

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But what they are is going to blossom and develop over time, and it's possible early on to see their particular strengths or weaknesses, where they're likely to really flourish and develop, or where they might find difficulties and struggles.

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But Proverbs 20 verse 11 wants us to go perhaps a step further. Even a child is known by his deeds whether what he does is pure and right.

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If you've got a child whose actions are clean, pure, righteous, then you can tell something about that child's inner being.

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And if that's true of a child, says the teacher, the governor, the parent of Proverbs 20, how much more with an adult?

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And so we need to ask, well what do my deeds reveal about me?

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What is my reputation? Not an obsession with how people perceive me, but the declaration of my own soul, the nature of my own heart.

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What am I saying about my direction of travel in this world, and the character that I am displaying?

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Think about it at home, think about it at work, think about it in the church of Jesus Christ.

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When people think of you, are they thinking of somebody who is fundamentally generous, engaging, kind, patient, tender, whether your deeds are pure and right or not?

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Are you awkward, difficult, rude, selfish? What you do is a reflection of who you are.

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Just as out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, so too out of the heart the life proceeds.

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The way that we behave is revealing something about us and predicting something about us.

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Fearfully, ultimately, if what we do is neither pure nor right, then it is predicting for us a path that will end in the fearful punishments of hell.

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But if our character is one that has been transformed by the grace of God, then we are anticipating that over time

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God will continue to work in us, that he will bring us eventually to be with Christ, to put us where he is.

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It is showing us where we are going to be most useful, teaching us where we can do most good.

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So if even a child is known by his deeds, whether what he does is pure and right, let us consider for ourselves if we are adults, what does my life say about me?

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What will people trace back from my deeds, their purity and righteousness or otherwise, about the state of my heart and my service and my usefulness to God and to men at home, in the world and in the church of Jesus Christ.