Pastor's Blog

Code of Honor

1 Sam. 2:30 - … them that honor me, I will honor. (KJV)

Had I known that the pathway to honor was so easy to navigate, I would have set out to pursue it long ago. Like many people, I allowed myself to be duped by the false notion that the road to honor held no interest for the Lord. Honor was something useful only to us earthy characters. Regardless of how honor was used, it always seemed to be a tool in the hand of one aspiring to get ahead. As a general rule, we carnal sort honor those whose position we covet or who wield the scepter of promotion over our heads. Thus, we conclude that honor as a virtue is to be employed only when its use will advance our cause.

For many, the game of life has become a quest to find that key person, that one who has the power to raise their station in life. One who has little time to waste in the pursuit of significance will be careful to bestow honor only on those who are capable of returning a benefit. What is the use of bestowing honor when it will not gain us a more favorable standing among our peers? But here we find that the Lord has rescued honor from the pit of carnal influence peddling. No longer is honor merely a device used to gain personal advantage. In fact, the Lord has raised the bar on the use of honor and on our benefit from it.

Let us consider that the Lord has released us from the pressure to seek honor among our peers. The simplicity of life increases dramatically when we embrace the invitation to honor the Lord. This truth releases us to be ourselves among our peers. The drudgery disappears from work. There is a new enjoyment in the company of people, because they no longer pose a threat to us. We discover that our significance does not come from what we do but from who we are. When it comes to honor, God has offered us a much better deal than man. Since honor is in better hands when it is in the care of the Lord, it loses its attachment to the cheapness of manipulation. Instead of being associated with one’s standing among one’s peers, honor is now linked to how one stands with the Lord. 

Then, let us consider that the Lord has released us from the pressure to seek benefit from honoring our peers. We are no longer in bondage to the pressure to relate to people in terms of what they can do for us. Herein lies a marvelous freedom. For people never can do for us what we imagine they are capable of doing, and God can always do more for us than we imagine He is capable of. There is a strange irony in the fact that we always seem to be overestimating people and underestimating God. The Lord has promised, “I will honor him.” If we embrace the mandate to honor Him, we automatically gain the right to embrace the promise that He will honor us.