Honor God
What does it mean to “honor” someone? It’s an important question to ask because the main spiritual problem Paul addresses in this Sunday’s text is the act of dishonoring others. One of the most important commands in the scriptures is to “Honor your father and mother” and in this context, to honor means to “to show high regard for” our parents, most especially in our attitudes and actions towards them. In the CSB translation of Matthew 6:9, Jesus prays “Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy.” In other words, we honor God by highly regarding Him as holy, and in any setting where showing honor is called for, failing to do so is regarded as disgraceful or shameful. For the believer, being dishonoring means failing to show honor where and when showing honor is expected, whether by the dictates of God’s word or, at times, by the expectations of tradition, custom, or practice. For example, it was once a widespread custom in western culture for a man to hold the door for a woman as an act of showing high regard for women. This was, and to some extent remains, an act of honoring women for their particular role in society as a great benefit to all. In a church Lucia and I attended in the late 90s, this church had a custom of the church’s pastors sitting on the platform during the service and when a woman would come up onto the platform during the service, the men would stand to show honor to her. These are customs and practices of showing honor both in the world and in the church, yet sometimes showing honor isn’t well received. In such cases, I’m sure more than a few folks may consider it shameful to refuse or despise honor when it’s given. Likewise, I have no doubt others may, perhaps from experience, understand why someone may be none too pleased with the honor being shown to them. But whether by command from His word or by accepted custom, God’s word commands that we “Pay to all what is owed to them” to include “respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed” (Romans 13:7). And when we show honor to others in the way God commands us, we honor God.
We invite you to come join us this Sunday morning for our in-person worship service at Leptondale Bible Church in Newburgh, starting at 10:55 AM. For those unable to attend, our service can be viewed live on the church’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/leptondalebiblechurch. This Sunday, we’ll continue a sermon series from 1st Corinthians titled “Written for Our Instruction” with a message from 1st Corinthians 11:2-16 titled “Honor God.”
God bless!
Pastor Mike