“...This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me" Matt. 15:8
While speaking on the 5th Commandment last Sunday, which specifies honour being given to parents, we must not limit honour being given to them alone.
As a matter of fact honour given to parents is just the start point. It is in our parental honour that we learn about honouring other. If we do not honour our parents even if they have failed in many areas of parental care, we will have a distorted understanding of honour that is due to others in our lives.
The bible has a lot to say about those ‘others’ to whom honour is due. Here is a list for your contemplation. Firstly we know that children are to honour their parents (Mt 15:4), we are to honour our government (Rom. 13:7), we are to honour our church leaders (1Tim 5:17) and here is where it may start to hurt - we are to honour our employers (1Tim. 6:1). But that’s not all. Here is where it really gets close to the bone!
Husbands are to honour their wives (1Pet 3:7) churches are to honour widows (1Tim. 5:3). And we re also to honour our own bodies in purity (1Thes. 4:4) and marriage is to held in honour (Heb. 13:4). Now just in case we think that might be it - here is a comprehensive commandment about honour given to one another. Rom. 12:10 says, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honour.”
Because honour means to place a great weight of value upon, let us not be like the Pharisees and make a show of honouring with their speech only. Let us from the heart, give honour appropriately to whom it is due.