Do you know the difference between honour and respect?
Most of us don’t. And the rest of us need to reminded because we forget. Often.
Are you ready? Here it is - respect is earned, honour is given.
The Bible uses 2 words for honour - the Hebrew word “kabad” and the Greek word “doxa”. Those words mean “to give something value by the way you treat it” or “weighty/significant”.
It’s always our decision when we will choose to give honour to someone and, in doing so, reveal what we believe about their value.
As believers, our starting point with everyone else is the belief that they were created in the image of God, by God, for God. They have incalculable value based solely on those facts!
The Bible has a lot to say about the subject of honour. For this week’s post, I thought it might be good for us to simply pause for a moment and remember what some of those things are.
If your like me, you’ll find that familiarity is the enemy of honour. We struggle to rightly honour the things which are most familiar to us (our spouses, our bosses, etc.).
As you read through these verse, remember that honour is a choice and Jesus wants us to honour one another…
Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. - Deuteronomy 5:16
If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. - John 12:26
Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another… - Romans 12:10
…those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it… - 1 Corinthians 12:22-24
Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. - 1 Timothy 5:17
Let as many bondservants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and His doctrine may not be blasphemed. - 1 Timothy 6:1
Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife… - 1 Peter 3:7
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice:
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!”
And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying:
“Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!”
- Revelation 5:11-13
