Honor

It honors God if we act like He means what He says. We dishonor God when we knowingly disobey Him. What’s more, we put Him on the spot of looking foolish for not following up with our disobedience. The heathen watch God’s people . . . and sometimes we make God look bad. He looks foolish if He doesn’t punish the disobedient. And He looks mean if He does.

As a child with a father, so is the beginning of our relationship with God. We learn to obey. We learn what He says and then how to do it. Many children like to imitate their fathers. When God’s children imitate Him we learn more than how to do what He says; we learn His heart.

The next part of our relationship begins with learning God’s heart. This is depicted as a bride with her new husband. The bride learns how to please her husband, and in the same way we learn how to please the Lord. He has entrusted His heart to those who honor Him and He calls us His own.

So how does a bride honor her husband? She can do what he tells her, but this is a childish relationship and would build resentment in the heart of an adult. Though a wife would do what her husband tells her, she also would take care of all that is his, for he gives her authority to do so. She will honor him with her mouth, causing him to be respected and doing him “no harm” (see Proverbs 31). She will honor him by treating him well in his presence, and by representing him in a good light when out of his presence.

So with the Lord, we should not grumble and make Him seem like an unfair God when speaking of Him to others. He has given us much authority on this earth; let us use it to glorify Him and bring Him honor. And let us take good care of the things God cares about. This goes beyond the obedience we learned in the beginning of our relationship with God. Caring about what God cares about will cause us to intervene in people’s lives and intercede for those going astray. God would rather that we “helped” Him in this way than that He had to punish someone who wouldn’t listen (see Isaiah 59:16-20; 63:5). Seeing other people’s lives as important honors God.
We don’t want to be treated like children continually, being made to obey God’s word by various reminders and punishments. Let us grow up into Him who is our Head and our Husband. He will honor us as we honor Him.