Honor: You are worthy and valuable and precious to me.

Church Family: Honor is thought to be a lost experience. Do you ever think about showing honor to others? Do you know what biblical honor is? Honor is when you value someone as worthy and precious with your deeds and words. Biblical honoring can only be done with selfless motives informed by humility and admiration of the one being honored. When we honor someone we are “considering them more significant than ourselves” (Phil. 2:3).

As Christians we are commanded to “outdo one another in showing honor” (Rom. 12:10). Why is this so important to God that we should be a people of outdoing each other in honor? Because God valued us as worthy and precious with His deeds and words through Jesus Christ while we were infinitely dishonorable. God gave us His Son while we were still sinners (Rom. 5:6), while we were still living a life of dishonor. Because of God honoring us with the work of Jesus Christ, the natural fruit of our lives must be honoring others rather than us desiring to receive honor. When we honor others as valuable and worthy more than ourselves, we show the world the story of God honoring us in Jesus Christ. The Church is to be a place of constant thinking and seeking of how we can show honor to our brothers and sisters in Christ with actions, service, sacrifice, devotion and praise. If there was ever to be a competitive spirit in the local church, it is to be a competition of showing greater honor to others more than ourselves. When we live this way the glory of Christ is increased and He draws people to Himself.

What would the world be like if the local church led the way outdoing them is showing what honor by valuing them as worthy and precious with our deeds and words? What would your neighbor do if you treated them with dignity, value, worth and preciousness? Would the fracturing of this USA slow down? Would we be able to sit down with the opposite political party and have a honorable discussion without a greater fracturing? God calls us as His church to lead the way in showing honor to this world (1 Peter 2:17) as He has showed honor to us. Let's outdo each other in the church and in the world in showing honor and see what happens.

See you Sunday, thinking of how I can honor you: Steve