Unpacking Honour

As I was teaching in a Highest Honour Discipleship Training workshop the past two weeks, I thought I would share more widely some of the material that was taught. It is my prayer and hope that it might enable others to also more fully grasp, in greater measure, the greatness and implications of understanding 'honour'.

In addition to training trainers in the workshop, how to teach through the Highest Honour book, and introducing to them as children's ministry leaders from across Southern Africa) the draft sampler of the 'Highest Honour for Kids' edition, we also further explored some of the dynamics of honour and shame…going beyond what we had covered in the first introductory stage in our 'Unlocking' brochure, to then going into the 'Unpacking' stage.

There are various ways of looking at the expansive concept of honour which can help us grow in our knowledge of the glory of the Lord (Habakkuk 2:14)

Here is some of what we talked about in the 'Unpacking' stage, to help begin - in a very brief way - to widen and deepen the understanding of how honour and shame function in Scripture, in our world and in our hearts. We covered 10 points as two sets of 5 - like 5 fingers each on our two hands……and had a volunteer draw their hands on the paper at the front for visual connection….(as in the photo above)….

Hand 1

There are 5 basic underlying factors we have to recognise about honour and shame that may seem obvious but overlooking them can hinder our understanding of how honour functions….. 

1.     Honour originates with God. It is not a human construct, but is firstly inherent internally within God Himself and then externalised by God.

2.     Honour is two sided in two ways

a.     The other side of honour is lack of or loss of honour which = shame

-        We crave honour and fear shame

b.     There is received honour and given honour

3.     Honour is an umbrella word – and various words in the 'honour family' of words can carry varying weight, impact, nuance or perspectives

4.     Honour is 'graded glory'

a.     Glory of general creation, glory of mankind in God's image, and the glory of God himself are each different.

b.     1 Peter 2:17 'honour everyone, love the brethren, fear God, honour the king'. The way we appropriately honour the position of a king may be different from the right and appropriate honour we should give so as to reflect the value of every human being without partiality. 

c.      2 Cor 3:18 'And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. Our growth in grace will result in the degree to which there is growth in exhibited glory shining out through our life.

5.     Honour is an 'everywhere-everybody core issue' in sinful 'mis-placed' ways (by definition and degree), and needing to be 'replaced' in biblical ways. It is the core motivation of all we think and do.

 

Hand 2

Here are 5 ways (although there might be more), we can view and unpack the dimensions, scope and elements of honour in order to begin to better appreciate and appropriate them in our theology and practical living...

1.      IAAA Honour View

a.     Inherent – e.g. 'I am the Lord' Lev 25:38

b.     Ascribed – when inherent positional glory is recognised and conferred –  e.g.'Ascribe greatness to our God' Deut 32:3

c.      Achieved – e.g. 'I am the Lord... who brought you out of the Land of Egypt'

d.     Associated – e.g. 'If my people who are called by my name…' 2 Chron 7:14

-        Who you are, what you do, who you are with.

2. Creation-Cross-Crown Honour View

a.     Creation – inherent honour, ascribed honour, value, as human beings created by God in His image.

b.     Cross – redemption honour restoring lost spiritual-life-glory  – as saints we have ascribed glory - in Christ, by association with the One (the Lord Jesus Christ) who first has it ascribed and has also achieved it.

c.      Crown – achieved and bringing future, reward yet to be received beyond the grave. Full and forever glory yet to be realised and experienced physically as well as spiritually/positionally.

3.     Sessions View (Sessions, W.L., 2007) - I call this the Sessions View because it was formulated by Mr W L Sessions.

a.     Conferred – 'regard, esteem or respect given…[& the] token of this regard – gifts, rewards, attention and the like'

b.     Recognition – 'publicly noticing and awarding due esteem for excellencies that merit or deserve such esteem' …recognise excellence and worth

c.      Positional – 'doing something that positions someone "above" others in the social group; it is relative to the others' accomplishments or status'

d.     Commitment – not person to person honour, but person to 'principles and propositions lodged in such speech-acts as promises, agreements or contracts.'

e.     Personal – honour as an achieved 'sense of honour' virtue of adhering loyally to a group's honour code – commitment to a code and a community…where an honour code is 'socially shared and publicly supported'.

4.     Love and Life View

a.     Love – honour and shame involve heart not just head, emotion/affection not just knowledge, in fact it is usually felt before it is cognitively understood.

b.     Life – it impacts all of life, and God wants our 'whole life' worship, love and honour. This is not just a 'section' of life, but impacts/directs all of life.

5.     Hierarchy of Honour (and opposite/contrast)...

1)     Acknowledgement        (to ignore, not look at or see)

2)     Consideration               (disinterest, disregard, forget someone)

3)     Appreciation                 (belittle, contempt, embarrass, disappoint)

4)     Invitation                      (banish, pass-over, disgrace, exclude)

5)     Acceptance                   (reject, separate, failure)

6)     Submission                   (rebellion, pride, self-promotion, stubbornness, resist)

7)     Obedience                    (disobedience)

8)     Approval                       (disapprove, disagree, criticise)

9)     Adoration                     (despise, abhor)

10)  Trust                            (betray, disloyal)

11)  Emulation                     (rebuke, attack, oppose)

12)  Allegiance                    (deny, destroy, forsake)

[As I have pondered honour and shame over the years, I realised that we can't take every form of honour on the same level as every other form of honour. Without realising it we function in life in accord with a kind of honour-hierarchy. So in the above 12 points/levels, 1) is the 'lowest' level and 12) is the 'highest' level. In other words, in the simplest form, acknowledgement is honour, but acknowledgement does not include allegiance, yet allegiance includes all points 1-11 before it. So to honour someone by inviting them to your birthday party, for example, you have already acknowledged them and considered them and appreciated them to some degree. But even just to appreciate someone for doing something for you doesn't necessarily or automatically mean they qualify to be invited to the birthday party. 

Hopefully this makes some sense as you observe the world of personal interactions around you.]

...And Spectrum of Shame View  (and opposite dynamic)

1)     Disappointment              (to be pleased)

2)     Embarrassment             (to be praised)

3)     Disapproval                   (to be welcomed)

4)     Humiliation                   (to be highly exalted)

5)     Rejection                        (to be chosen)

   6)     Death – Shame    (Life – glory/honour)

[Another way of looking at this variety of expression of shame and honour, is to look first at how shame is also more than one concept, but a range of emotion from 'lower' levels of disappointment to 'higher' levels of rejection and ultimate shame. We may not readily realise that 'disappointment' is on the shame-spectrum. But when we begin to realise these are part of the honour-shame dynamic we can begin to apply biblical truth related to honour-shame principles to these issues. Without this understanding, we miss the connection and stay blind to the truth of Scripture that God wants to use to transform our thinking and bring truth that sets us free from how Satan wants to use these things to keep us in bondage.]

 

Some of us primarily focus on avoiding shame that would undermine glory they already perceive they have, others seek glory to escape shame in which they see themselves, but we all do both in some way, and both are ultimately showing our hunger for honour and avoidance for what threatens honour.

Though this has been just a brief outline of each point, I pray you might find it helpful and encouraging in understanding yourself, your world and the wonderful truths in the pages of Scripture.