Kingdom Honor

3 reflections on honor for you to consider!

Photo by Jose Llamas on Unsplash

Recently I’ve been reflecting on the idea of honor and what it means to demonstrate honor as a Christain leader. The basic dictionary definition of honor (as a verb) means to demonstrate esteem and respect for someone or to fulfill an obligation. You don’t have to be a social scientist to see that there doesn’t seem to be a broad sense of cultural obligation towards “being honorable.” An article from 2018 in Psychology Today mused that the cultural value of honor seemed to be declining, replaced by individually determined ethics. This has inevitably given rise to many personal codes of honor. Honor is an abstract concept, but the manner and degree to which we demonstrate it is inevitably the fruit of what we believe about ourselves, others, and ultimately God. For Christians, our primary example of what it means to live honorably, and to honor others, is Jesus Christ. Like everything he did, the manner in which Christ loved and honored human beings offended, and ran afoul of every worldly concept of power, prestige, and societal norm. As leaders in his Kingdom, we are called to honor as Christ honors. Below are 3 passages I’ve been reflecting on as well as a briefly stated principle of Kingdom-honor.