The strange story of the seven sons of the Jewish priest Sceva, told in Acts 19, is always good for a chuckle. It seems a number of “professional” exorcists had observed God’s power on the Apostle Paul and figured out that this new magic word “Jesus” must be pretty good. Several began to experiment casting out demons in the name of Jesus. This “band of brothers,” the sons of Sceva, also decided to get in on the act by determining to cast the demon out of a man.

The chuckle comes from what happened next. The demon had absolutely no respect for these petty little exorcists nor their new magic word. Instead, he pounced on them like a mad Bengal tiger, beat them to a bloody pulp and stripped them naked, leaving them beat, bruised, bloody and embarrassed in the street. (Don’t try this at home!)

Listen to what the demon said to them.

Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? Acts 19:13-15

After the chuckle comes a deep, heartfelt “wow.” The demon knew Jesus and he knew Paul. Paul had the testimony of being known by the demons of Hell. Wow again.

To form our own Christian culture is natural I suppose, but I think we had better be careful not to get too caught up in it. It is very easy to get comfortable living in our cozy little “church world” and totally lose contact with the “real world.” I fear that sometimes our motivation might be to be known among those in our church for how spiritual or how involved in doing things for God we are. I don’t think the Devil cares a whit about how busy we stay doing things in church if we have no real impact in the world around us.

For example, I recently was trying to explain to my Swiss/Argentinian friend Thomas about Christian television in the United States. He was amazed at the abundance of Christian programing in comparison to Argentina or Germany. While it may look impressive to someone coming in from the outside, we spend millions of dollars to build our Christian broadcasting empires that, for the most part, are only seen by other Christians and laughed at by those whom we are supposed to reach.

What is our reputation among those outside the community of faith? Could we dare to say that the demons of Hell know us and fear us? How about scaling down that question – Are we even known and respected  by our human adversaries? That boss or co-worker who gives you fits, does he or she even know anything about you? Do they regard you simply as a mousy,little Christian geek who whines, complains and has a judgmental attitude toward others? Or, are you seen as one who has deep character, compassion and integrity, even though your thoughts and perspectives are decidedly different from the mainstream?

The bottomline question is not what people at church think of you. What do your enemies think of you?