The Critical Purpose of Honour

It is wonderful that the issues of honour and shame are being more discussed and taught in missions. Yet, there is still a long way to go on that, both in general and in relation to honour and shame in Africa. It is also wonderful that in areas of counseling the issues of honour and shame are being acknowledged and addressed more than they once were, although that area also needs more to be done. It is even more encouraging when we see issues of honour and shame being looked for in Scripture, and emerge in sermons, and addressed in Christian books. And once again, much more needs to happen in those areas too.

However, I think we have an longer long way to go for the church (not least in the West) to recognise just how pivotal and intrinsic the issue of honour (and thus shame) is to the whole of Scripture, the essence of the gospel, the very core of life individually, socially and spiritually, and the nature and function of God himself.

It is not a side issue, or just 'an issue' to be added to a multitude of topics in a Systematic Theology textbook or in a Bible Dictionary. It has been described as a 'core' issue, and with that I would agree.

There has been a lack or 'gap' in particular deeper study of the issues of honour and shame over the past century in particular (when printed matter and other media has been so prolific on guilt-innocence perspectives). This has contributed to us missing out on so much understanding and application of these dynamics in our lives toward God and toward each other.

In relation to this….. in a recent Bible conference session we presented, after we introduced the divine context of the reality of honour (it is not a human or social construct), we ever so briefly nudged the edge of a question about what the purpose of the honour issue actually is. 

It is the same question we all must think about if we are to be who we were created to be. It is also critical to providing answers for the yearning we all have for honour.

We made the challenge that we need to understand how and why we must fit into God's plan for honour.

So why is honour so important…???

A quote by a Pastor William Chang (NewLifePres) in preaching a series on the book of Esther explained why the issue of honour is so important:

 'because it will make or break your life – we were built for honour, our cultures operate on honour. 

How you understand honour, how you apply it, how you define it, will make or break your life'.

è Honour is not just one of many various issues in our lives, it is THE ISSUE that lies at the very core of our lives, underneath all other issues. If we miss understanding this, we will miss the answers to the significance, abundance, identity, respect etc we seek. 

Here are 5 reasons we need to understand honour, and honour as God intended:

1.  Honour provides the foundational dignity and thus innate identity of humans as male and female, unique amongst creation, image-bearers of God. Without it we will feel empty and meaningless and seek to find dignity and identity in all the wrong places.

2.   We were created to love honour, to crave honour, to hunger for honour. We are meant to want it and want it more than anything else. We are meant to seek it and gain it from God, on God's terms and conditions, defined by God, and delivered to us by God. (if you want to read more on this take a look at the book by JR Vasser, 'Glory Hunger')

3. We were created to 'image' or reflect God's honour and glory, and to express God's honour and glory by living in the way God created us to live. We will forever feel unfulfilled when we don't 'action' or 'work out' what we were created to be and purposed to do.

4. We find fulfillment by living in, and living out, the honour we were created to have…as we do that, we thus glorify God because we are living as He purposed for us to live, being the expression of His glory, for His glory.

5. The ultimate purpose of honour is that God is glorified and honoured. 

If an inventor makes a machine, he gets honour and glory as that machine/invention works as it was purposed to. If the machine does not function as it was designed to, he does not lose his own dignity but he does receive reduced ascribed honour that he should have received….that is similar to God, who made us.

For the purpose of honour to be fulfilled, God not only must be honoured supremely, but we have to understand how God wants to be honoured.

If we don't understand honour properly and it's purpose, we won't know fulfillment in life, we won't function properly in the world as God designed, and thus God won't be honoured, as He says He should, or in the way He should.