The Wisdom in Honoring others

     Honoring others means showing a basic respect for their human dignity. It also means showing respect for the position they might hold in relation to you. That position might be one of pastor, supervisor, governor, teacher, employer, parent, elder, sibling, etc.



     If we have a tendency to dishonor others, the difficulty in honoring others as we should, then the consequences can prove to be very costly. The article expands on this at the following site:

preachitteachit.org/articles/detail/the-curse-of-dishonor-the-power-of-honor/.



     It provides the example of Ham who dishonored Noah his father by not covering over his nakedness but making a mockery of his humiliating condition. It tells us that our children will imitate our dishonoring example and that such a imitation can cause the to have difficulties in life. Perhaps the effects can be seen in what occurred to the Canaanites Ham’s descendants who were noted for their disobedience to God. Ham’s tendency towards disrespect could have been observed and imitated until it resulted in disrespect for their heavenly father himself to the degree that they displayed. That seems to be the case since incest in Canaan was rampant.



     So in that sense, the flaw of the parent is passed to the children via imitation. Jobs can be lost due to this tendency to dishonor those who supervise us. Marriages can be dissolved via divorce due to the inability to honor our marriage partner via being faithful. Family unity can be lost due to disobedience to parents or sheer indifference to their human needs or disrespect towards their advice.

     So it isn’t just a matter of preferences, it is a matter of consequences that will inevitable accrue due to this ungodly attitude. The Bible is very clear on this , especially in concerning child/parent relationship.  The promise that it will go well for us if we honor a parent isn’t just an idle promise it is matter of cause and effect.

As the scripture tells us.


     Of course, reading these warnings does not necessarily force us to accept them.  If we are very stubborn, accepting them might take a long series of serious misadventures we and our kids might experience. Even then we might stubbornly refuse to see the connection between the dishonoring and the disasters that are arising in our lives , but as we hunkers down stubbornly refusing to see the connection, God also hunkers down to force us to see the connection via inflicting some more severe consequence. So it is better to humbly acknowledge the connection from the outset, than to set ourselves stubbornly against the Lord God because we refuse to abide by his commandments.



     Doing so can prove catastrophic since we  definitely cannot win against the almighty regardless how furiously we might try to rationalize away our problems by saying that they had nothing to do with our rebellious attitude. We have to keep in mind that it is God whom we are challenging to prove us wrong in such a case, and it is a challenge we should wisely avoid, since it is one that we definitely cannot win.