Honor: Give It, Get It

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to speak about Honor.  Honestly, there was a lot of prep for me because I really never heard much about the study of the word.  Studying honor from a biblical sense brought much light to it that I think a lot of our culture including church-goers miss.

Often we love to think that honor is a deserved right.  Someone that is worthy of respect, responsibility and a reputation because of their integrity.  Honor then must be something that one earns.  Certainly, there are people and God who do amazing things that “deserve” the notice, but this isn’t what I believe honor is about.

Honor is letting someone see how valuable they are and doing so by giving something of your life away or by changing something about your life to reflect more of the honorable person.

In the Hebrew Old Testament, one of the words is Kebed which is also translated as famine, thunder, a loud cry, someone who is dull in eye sight, someone who refuses to respond to a message and the liver.  The liver gets rid of bad stuff from the body, helps build protein that provides functionality to the cells, and produces the necessary chemicals to break down food to create energy to keep the cells going strong.

Sounds to me like honor is the catalyst to help people gain respect, responsibility and a reputation. Sounds to me like honor is more about empowering the receiver to have functionality and purpose.  Supporting the weak and encouraging the young is something to me that is honorable for someone to do.  Making the elderly people feel energized by taking notice and listening to them to me is something that is honorable for someone to do.

And it seems to me that the way to get honor is to give it. Don’t give honor and you’re just…well, you fill in the blank.