Honor And Respect
Honor and respect are two qualities that are of utmost importance to anyone’s life.
Our lives should start by honoring and respecting God, and out of that relationship comes the ability to honor and respect those around us, starting with our family. Sometimes, the hardest place to honor someone or respect them is in the home, where you know them so well, with all their strengths and weaknesses. But it all starts with God. By the power of His Holy Spirit, He will teach us how to bring honor into all that we do and say.
Let’s look at the meaning of these two words. Honor means to revere, respect, treat with deference (submission to the opinion or judgment of another). Respect means to esteem as possessed of real worth
I have noticed that in our modern culture, these two attributes are no longer emphasized as important.
Of course, we all know that the first commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds, wills, strength. And out of that love comes honor and respect for God and others. Honor and majesty belong to the Lord and go before Him.
We are specifically commanded in the Word of God that one of the first people we should honor is our parents. The Bible has much to say about that. In Exodus 20:12, Deuteronomy 5:16, Matthew 15:4, and 19:19, Mark 7:10, and 10:19, Luke 18:20 and Ephesians 6:2 we are commanded to honor our parents. The summary of these scriptures is that when we honor our parents, all will be well with us and we will live a long life. That is a pretty definite commandment of the Lord, with very good consequences for honoring our parents and definitely very bad consequences when we do not honor our parents.
Honor comes from God. In 1 Chronicles 29:12 we read this: Both riches and honor come of You, and You reign over all; and in Your hand is power and might; and in Your hand it is to make great, and to give strength to all.
What we must do is yield to the Spirit of God to teach us how to honor and respect according to His Word. One thing I want to point out here is this. Sometimes people don’t deserve honor and respect, but we can still respect their position. It is never flesh and blood that is worthy of honor anyway. It is the position of the person. There have been people in my lifetime that I saw no reason to honor because of their wickedness. We are never to honor wickedness but we are to honor the position a person is in.
In Proverbs we see that the wisdom of God brings us to honor (Prov. 4:8) and that humility comes before honor (Prov. 15:33 and 18:12). As we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, He will lift us up and bring us to honor. It is God Who honors us and we, in turn, are to honor others.
The last point we will make concerning honor is found in 1 Peter 3:7. Husbands are to dwell with wives, giving honor to them as physically the weaker but realizing that they are joint heirs of the grace of God, in order that their prayers may not be hindered and cut off. This is a pretty heavy instruction. Men, if your prayers are being cut off and you are not getting results, check up on your home life. And likewise, wives are to reverence their husbands, honor them, esteem them and appreciate them (1 Peter 3:2 Amplified Bible).
Honor, respect, reverence flow from a decision to operate in the Love of God, Agape Love. Out that love come all the other Godly attributes and the nature of God in us overflows to the point that others want what we have.
Let the Love of God perfect you.
Our lives should start by honoring and respecting God, and out of that relationship comes the ability to honor and respect those around us, starting with our family. Sometimes, the hardest place to honor someone or respect them is in the home, where you know them so well, with all their strengths and weaknesses. But it all starts with God. By the power of His Holy Spirit, He will teach us how to bring honor into all that we do and say.
Let’s look at the meaning of these two words. Honor means to revere, respect, treat with deference (submission to the opinion or judgment of another). Respect means to esteem as possessed of real worth
I have noticed that in our modern culture, these two attributes are no longer emphasized as important.
Of course, we all know that the first commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds, wills, strength. And out of that love comes honor and respect for God and others. Honor and majesty belong to the Lord and go before Him.
We are specifically commanded in the Word of God that one of the first people we should honor is our parents. The Bible has much to say about that. In Exodus 20:12, Deuteronomy 5:16, Matthew 15:4, and 19:19, Mark 7:10, and 10:19, Luke 18:20 and Ephesians 6:2 we are commanded to honor our parents. The summary of these scriptures is that when we honor our parents, all will be well with us and we will live a long life. That is a pretty definite commandment of the Lord, with very good consequences for honoring our parents and definitely very bad consequences when we do not honor our parents.
Honor comes from God. In 1 Chronicles 29:12 we read this: Both riches and honor come of You, and You reign over all; and in Your hand is power and might; and in Your hand it is to make great, and to give strength to all.
What we must do is yield to the Spirit of God to teach us how to honor and respect according to His Word. One thing I want to point out here is this. Sometimes people don’t deserve honor and respect, but we can still respect their position. It is never flesh and blood that is worthy of honor anyway. It is the position of the person. There have been people in my lifetime that I saw no reason to honor because of their wickedness. We are never to honor wickedness but we are to honor the position a person is in.
In Proverbs we see that the wisdom of God brings us to honor (Prov. 4:8) and that humility comes before honor (Prov. 15:33 and 18:12). As we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, He will lift us up and bring us to honor. It is God Who honors us and we, in turn, are to honor others.
The last point we will make concerning honor is found in 1 Peter 3:7. Husbands are to dwell with wives, giving honor to them as physically the weaker but realizing that they are joint heirs of the grace of God, in order that their prayers may not be hindered and cut off. This is a pretty heavy instruction. Men, if your prayers are being cut off and you are not getting results, check up on your home life. And likewise, wives are to reverence their husbands, honor them, esteem them and appreciate them (1 Peter 3:2 Amplified Bible).
Honor, respect, reverence flow from a decision to operate in the Love of God, Agape Love. Out that love come all the other Godly attributes and the nature of God in us overflows to the point that others want what we have.
Let the Love of God perfect you.
posted by Rev. Kialeen Potterton @ 7:02 AM
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