Honor

The word honor jumped out at me today. Paul says we are not only to love fellow believers but to honor them as well, and not only that, but we are to delight in honoring them. According to the Oxford dictionary, to honor is to “regard with great respect.” However, Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary walks it out for us: “While honor is an internal attitude of respect, courtesy, and reverence, it should be accompanied by appropriate attention or even obedience. Honor without such action is incomplete; it is lip service.” This is very convicting as our world, even within our community of Believers, can be very “me” focused. We need to celebrate each other and even defer to each other rather than constantly jockeying for position. If I could get at its essence, to me, honor seems to be a lot like love that is saturated in humility, and that seems to be exactly like Jesus.