Blessings in Christ,

I pray you are choosing life today.  Choosing life is making the choice to honour God and the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.  In continuing to consider the culture (see Nov. 2009) God is creating amongst us, I would like us to ponder on having a culture of honour.

Honour is easier to define than to explain.  Honour can point to a distinction, such as graduating with honours or Canada’s highest military honour, the Victoria Cross.  The custom for the “Medal of Honor” in the USA is that any military person will salute or stand to attention when someone wearing the medal approaches, even if it is a general saluting a private.  Honour can be a title given in relation to a position, such as calling a judge, “your honour.”  Honour can also be correlated to integrity.  The biblical words used for honour have a correlation to glory.  Therefore, to honour or be honoured has to do with acknowledging weightiness or importance.

When we are told to honour, it really has nothing to do with the person being honoured and more to do with being honourable.  We are instructed to honour our father and mother (Ex. 20:12; Deu. 5:16; Eph. 6:2) not because our parents are perfect but because they are worthy of honour.   While position can bring honour, there are people who not only have honour because of position but because of their work, integrity and person.  Wisdom can bring honour (Prov. 3:16) and marriage is to be considered honourable (Heb. 13:4).  Some people are even considered worthy of double-honour (1 Tim. 5:17).  Whether they are honoured, as they should be, is entirely up to those who should be doing the honouring.  It is up to us whether we will be vessels of honour (Rom. 9:21; 2 Cor. 4:7; 2 Tim 2:20).  They key is having a heart of honour that esteems others as better than ourselves (Phil 2:3).

How we express honour can be more difficult to distinguish at times.  However, honour always has an outward expression.  Men used to show women and elderly people honour by opening doors for them – something worth restoring.  We honour others by not speaking negatively about them behind their backs.  We honour by choosing to build someone up.  We can honour people by using proper titles (I tell my children to address an adult as Mr., Miss or Mrs.).  We can honour others in church by arriving on time for services and giving God and others our full attention for two hours of our week (1% of the week) on Sunday mornings.  While these are external indications of being an honourable person, it still is all about the heart.

I write this letter to you not simply with the intention of having you change some actions, but to call us all to having a heart that honours our Father, for there is a blessing that comes from it.  There is an inheritance in honouring God.  By developing a culture of honour in our midst, honour will flow more naturally and be greatly encouraged.  Also, the inheritance of grace that we seek for our church will continue to build and grow.

Love and blessings,

Pastor Merril