Long ago I came to understand whenever God commands us to behave in a particular way, He is actually asking us to live in accordance with His nature. God is love (1 John 4:8), so He wants us to love others. God keeps His promises, so He commands us to keep ours (Matt. 5:37), and so on.
With this in mind, God tells us to honor others. He tells us to honor our parents, for instance (Ex. 20:12). This commandment is mentioned no fewer than seven times in the Bible, five times in the New Testament. He also tells us to honor widows (1 Tim. 5:3) and others.
My conclusion here is if God tells us to be honorable, He must be honorable as well. This seems obvious to us as Christians since we depend on it so, but maybe we don’t realize the extent of the honor God gives.
He is honorable in that He is not a hypocrite: He doesn’t tell us to do something He will not do Himself: He was tempted but without sinning (Heb. 4:15). He also tells us to be more like Him knowing we cannot do this on our own (Gal. 5:22-23), so He helps us by filling us with His Spirit (Acts 13:52).
In the Old Testament, there is only one Hebrew word translated as “honor:” kabbeb. This is the word for honor in the fifth commandment. Kabbeb means to “weigh heavily.” So, honoring our parents is extremely serious, it should weigh heavily on us.
The New Testament writers quote this same commandment no fewer than five times (Matt 15:4, 19:19; Mark 10:19; Luke 18:20; and Eph. 6:2), so for us to honor our parents is extremely important to God. This word for honor translated from Greek to English is timea. This Greek word doesn’t just mean to honor but also to hold in high esteem and reverence.
Peter has something important to say about how this word is to be used:
1 Peter 2:17 (ESV) Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
So, God asks us to follow His lead and honor everyone even the emperor. Imagine their difficulty in doing this in the first century. When this was written the emperor, Nero, was killing the very people Peter was talking to, the Christians. How could he ask this? Verse 15 tells us:
1 Peter 2:15 (ESV) For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.
We really have no choice as Christians since, as Peter says, “this is the will of God.” God is the standard of all truth, all moral judgment, and all action for us.
God is telling us to honor, esteem, and even reverence all others. After all, we are all people Jesus died for. Should we treat others with any less honor than God does? There is a reward that comes with this by the way:
John 12:26 (ESV) If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
“Honor” here is the same Greek word, timoa, as we have been looking at. If we serve and follow Jesus, the Father will hold us in reverence and esteem. Imagine being held in such high regard by the Creator of the universe.
Why is this important?
There’s a greater honor given by God to mankind we could never hope to repay. He didn’t wave His hand and unjustly allow sin to grow in our lives, He didn’t by fiat forgive us at no cost. That, too, would have been unjust – dishonorable. God didn’t create another being to die in our place. That would be the coward’s way out. Instead He came Himself. Paul made this very clear when he spoke with the Ephesian elders.
Acts 20:28 (ESV) Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
Our God is an honorable God Who holds the people of this world in such high esteem He came to earth, took on the form of man, and gave His own blood that we might have the opportunity to spend eternity with Him. He honored us by giving the greatest price He could pay, He Himself died in our place. That which would cost Him the most gives us the greatest gift. This shows us our value to Him and that He would honor us enough to give His all for us.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 