A culture of honor

As we follow Jesus, we take on his character and his light is formed inside of us, we then become the light of the world. If this is so, we must ask ourselves, does my life and speech reach the spirit and heart of a person and do they honor people?

When it comes to honor, I saw it very much modeled in my father. My father served in the Army and did one tour in Vietnam, and his time in the military and serving alongside of his military brothers taught him the value of honor. As believers, we must not only have the ability to honor God but also the ability to honor all people. 1 Peter 2:17 states, “Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.”

Honor can be defined as “to highly esteem, respect, place high value in something or someone.” Honor is built around the question, “what can I give?” and the understanding that inside of people is God’s image; therefore, I’m not better than you because we are both formed in God’s image.

Honor has to be seen with the family of God and especially with those outside the family of God. The Apostle Peter places great emphasis in honor because he saw it firsthand in Jesus — a man of honor, this is what he leaned from Jesus. I truly believe that giving honor releases the life of God into a person and into a situation.

Think about it, when Jesus didn’t stone the woman in adultery, he honored her, gave her dignity and worth and released life into her. When he stopped to heal blind Bartimaeus, while everyone was ignoring him, he honored him and released life and healing into his eyes.

Please understand that honor is a spiritual concept. In the flesh we’ll never get this right because honor looks beyond how I’m being treated and looks beyond the desire to get even. Honor is recognizing who somebody is without stumbling over who they are not.

My challenge to you today is, “Who do you need to honor?” Honor draws out the greatness in others and in turn opens the door to the Kingdom of God. I think that honor needs to be seen more in our churches and as the church deals with secular society. Let’s honor all people instead of complaining and shutting ourselves away from this hurting world. As we honor all people, God pours out his love on them.

This article was written on behalf of the Moses Lake Christian Ministerial Association.