Honor

Honor.  This weekend American citizens will collectively honor the fallen military personnel who have died in service to our country. It is a solemn occasion, important and culturally practiced long before it was made into a federal holiday in 1968. It has become the predominate practice on modern Memorial Day, more than adorning gravestones with flags, to offer discounts at car dealerships, open neighborhood swimming pools, and compact a year’s worth of John Philip Sousa into one three-day weekend. But what is honor biblically?

Biblically speaking, honor is a major theme, appearing in various forms almost 200 times across the Old and New Testaments. Honor first occurs as a command in Exodus 20:12, “Honor your father and mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” This is significant in many ways: it is the Fifth Commandment, it equates the worth of both mothers and fathers in the family without confusing their roles in the family, it is worded positively (i.e., all the other Ten Commandments, except the Fourth Commandment about keeping the Sabbath, are worded negatively, “You shall not…”), it is the only commandment that loosely connects to a principle for a direct result (e.g., extended life in the Promised Land), and it is bound to the Lord’s gift to his creation, the institution of the family.

Thus, honor is technically ascribed to the Lord via the parents. In fact, the word honor in this instance is the same word, glorify (Hebrew, cabod: to be heavy, weighty, important). Theologically, God shares his essential glory with no one and nothing else (Isa. 42:8; 48:11), but God receives residual glory when children honor their parents because he invented the family structure. In this way, children can honor their parents even if their parents are terrible parents. Honor looks past the person in the role to the God who designed the whole system.

The same principle continues wherever honor occurs in the Bible—we ascribe importance ultimately to God for the institutions that he has designed and implemented. The list of people who deserve honor in the Bible, therefore, are honorable only by derivation because God stamped his honor upon the structure in which they serve: parents, government and military leaders, organizational authorities, employers, church leaders, senior citizens, widows, etc. Honor is not swearing blind allegiance to power but giving due respect to God for ordering the universe. Paul summed up well the entire sentiment of honor, “Outdo one another in showing honor” (Rom. 12:10). Honor is ultimately about God.

Second only to the Lord Jesus who gave the ultimate mic-drop instruction on honor, “Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him,” the Apostle Peter gave honor its most comprehensive verse. “Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor” (1 Pet. 2:17). Everyone! Even the emperor? Peter’s reference is insane Nero who would very soon take Paul’s head and crucify Peter upside-down. Yes, even Nero! Not because Nero was powerful, or good, or effective, or even civilized, but because he was God’s servant within the government system which God designed for his own glory.