An old “Peanuts” cartoon showed Linus asking his sister Lucy to check out the shine job he had done on his shoes. She says his shoes look great, but as he turns around to leave Lucy informs Linus that he forgot to do the backs of his shoes. They still are all scuffed.

“Oh I didn’t forget,” Linus explains. “I just care what people think about me as I come into the room. I don’t care what they think of me when I leave.”

That is the kind of attitude Paul is forcefully arguing against in today’s epistle text. For the sake of the gospel that he is preaching, in order to be true to the mission to which he has been appointed, Paul deems it imperative that the communities of new Christians see the character of Christ in all he and his colleagues have done in their midst. Paul does not enter into re…