BY PASTOR T. O. BANSO
“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am the Father, where is My honor? And if I am a Master, where is My reverence? Says the Lord of hosts to you priests who despise My name. Yet you say, ‘In what way have we despised Your name?” (Malachi 1:6 NKJV).
God desires honour from His creation, including man and animals. Although the latter do so differently, passively and instinctively, by fulfilling their God-designed functions, humans can intentionally and consciously honour Him. Isaiah 43:20 says, “The beast of the field will honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen” (NKJV). Psalm 148:10 commands the wild animals, cattle, small creatures, and flying birds to praise God. The apostle John records this about universal worship in Revelation 5:13: “Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!’” (NIV).
This message focuses on how human beings can honour God. Honouring God means “giving the reverence and respect to God which is his due” (Dictionary of Bible Themes). God says in Malachi 1:6, “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am the Father, where is My honor? And if I am a Master, where is My reverence? Says the Lord of hosts to you priests who despise My name. Yet you say, ‘In what way have we despised Your name?” (NKJV).
God does not joke with honour because He deserves it. Psalm 96:6 says, “Honor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary” (NKJV). In Psalm 104:1, the psalmist says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, You are very great: You are clothed with honor and majesty” (NKJV). God is clothed with honour and majesty, and human beings must honour Him. Revelation 19:1 says honour and power belong to Him: “After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, ‘Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God!’” (NKJV). Earlier in Revelation 7:12, the Bible says: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen” (NKJV).
We must not deny God the honour due to Him. Jesus, the Son of God, honoured His Father when He was on earth. John 8:49 says, “Jesus answered, ‘I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me’” (NKJV). We should honour the Father and the Son, as Jesus said they are one (John 10:30).
Whoever despises God instead of honouring Him will reap what he sows. 1 Samuel 2:30 states: “Therefore the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever.’ But now the Lord says: ‘Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed” (NKJV).
In John 8:49, Jesus says that He honours His Father. Reciprocally, the Father also honours the Son, as seen in John 8:54: “Jesus answered, ‘If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me, of whom you say that He is your God’” (NKJV).
5 Ways to Honour God
1. Love God and hold Him in the highest esteem in your heart, rather than merely saying that you honour Him. God looks at the heart while men look at the outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7). He searches the heart and examines the mind to reward everyone according to his conduct (Jeremiah 17:10).
Isaiah 29:13 says, “Therefore the Lord said: ‘Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men’” (NKJV). Jesus also refers to this in Matthew 15:8, “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (NKJV). Honouring God must start in your heart. It must exist internally before the outward expression.
God is Almighty God, as He introduced Himself to Abraham (Genesis 17:1). He is the consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24; 9:3; Hebrews 12:29). He alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see (1 Timothy 6:16).
He is a loving Father (1 John 3:1), but you must honour Him if He is truly your Father. To honour Him, you must love Him wholeheartedly and supremely (Mathew 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27; Deuteronomy 6:5). And the proof of loving God is obedience to Him. Jesus told His disciples, “If you love Me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15 NKJV). If you love God, you will also love fellow human beings, as love your neighbour as yourself is the next most important commandment after the commandment to love God (Matthew 22:36-40; Mark 12:28-34; Luke 10:25-28). As the Bible says, whoever says he loves God but hates others is a liar, for we cannot love whom we have not seen if we do not love others whom we have seen (1 John 4:20).
2. Show the highest respect for God’s name and anything called by His name, or set apart as holy to Him. Rebuking Eli, God says in 1 Samuel 2:29, “Why do you kick at My sacrifice and My offering which I have commanded in My dwelling place, and honor your sons more than Me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel My people?” (NKJV). In other words, kicking at people’s sacrifice and offering to God by Eli’s sons amounted to dishonouring God.
Whenever you treat anything that’s connected to God or belongs to Him dishonourably, you also dishonour Him. The converse is also true. Whatever belongs to God is holy, and it must be handled as such. Eli’s sons and Eli died because they dishonoured God. Additionally, due to this, the priesthood was finally taken away from his lineage in 1 Kings 2:27, as God had previously stated in 1 Samuel 2:27-36.
In Leviticus 10:10, the LORD told Aaron, “You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean” (ESV). Holy things of God must not be handled as common things. Verses 1–2 state how two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, died before the LORD for offering strange or unauthorised fire. Fire came out from before Him and consumed them.
Be cautious in your approach to the holy things of God. Honour Him. Remember what Paul said about the Lord’s Supper. It is not an ordinary meal. 1 Corinthians 11:27-30 says, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died” (ESV).
While believers must honour God as they worship Him, knowing that they are in the presence of the Most Holy, they must not harbour the legalistic fear of the Old Testament but approach the throne of grace with boldness to obtain mercy and find grace for help based on the finished work of Christ on the cross (Hebrews 4:16).
3. Use every part of your body to glorify God. As a child of God, your body does not belong to you. Christ has purchased you with His blood (Acts 20:28). Your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, you must glorify God in your body. By this, you honour Him. 1 Corinthians 6:15-20 says, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For ‘the two,’ He says, ‘shall become one flesh’ But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (NKJV).
Note the last verse in this passage: “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:20 NKJV). The New Living Translation puts it this way: “For God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” Similarly, the Living Bible paraphrase says, “For God has bought you with a great price. So use every part of your body to give glory back to God because he owns it.”
Honour God by not yielding members of your body as instruments of sin but of holiness. Romans 6:13 says, “And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (NKJV).
Present your body to God as a living sacrifice. As Romans 12:1 says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (NIV). Honour God by holy living. He who called you is holy, and He says you should be holy in your conduct as He is. “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15-16 NIV).
4. Sing and speak out His honour from the heart, accompanied by reverent postures before Him. Psalm 66:2 says, “Sing out the honor of His name; make His praise glorious” (NKJV). Revelation 4:9-11, 5:13, and 7:11-12 also record honour being given to God. Reverent postures in the Bible for honouring God include kneeling, bowing, lifting hands, and prostrating (Psalm 95:6; 1 Timothy 2:8). These postures are appropriate today for honouring God, but must be an outward expression of your inward attitude, not showmanship or a performance.
5. Give God a worthy portion of what He has blessed you with. Not all offerings or sacrifices were accepted in the Bible. Cain’s sacrifice wasn’t, while Abel’s was (Genesis 4:4-5). The LORD says to Aaron through Moses in Leviticus 22:20, “Whatever has a defect, you shall not offer, for it shall not be acceptable on your behalf” (NKJV). Similarly, the LORD says in Jeremiah 6:20, “For what purpose to Me comes frankincense from Sheba, and sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet to Me” (NKJV).
In Malachi 1:6-9, God rebuked Judah’s priests for offering unworthy sacrifices to Him—blind, lame, and sick animals—that didn’t honour Him. He challenged them to offer the animals to their governor to see if he would be pleased with them.
In the New Testament, we don’t offer animals as sacrifice to God, for Christ has offered Himself as the final, perfect sacrifice (Hebrews 10:10-14). However, we learn from the Old Testament scriptures that the money, time, or service offered to God must be worthy and honourable. Proverbs 3:9 reminds us, “Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase” (NKJV). Note the word “honour.” You cannot pay God for anything; you must give whatever you give to honour Him. Give bountifully or generously, and purposefully; give cheerfully and not grudgingly (2 Corinthians 9:6-7). Additionally, give voluntarily and according to your ability (Acts 11:29). Such giving honours Him.
Conclusion: Remember what God says in 1 Samuel 2:30 that He will honour those who honour Him, and those who despise Him shall be lightly esteemed. If God is your Father, where is His honour? Don’t honour men more than you honour God, and don’t give to anyone the honour or reverence due to God alone.
TAKE ACTION!
If you are not born again, you must give your heart to Jesus now. Please take the following steps: *Admit that you are a sinner and you cannot save yourself, and repent of your sins. *Confess Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. *Renounce your past way of life—your relationship with the devil and his works. *Invite Jesus into your heart. *As a mark of seriousness to mature in the faith, start attending a Bible-believing, Bible-teaching, and Bible-practising church. There, they will teach you how to grow in the Kingdom of God.
Kindly say this prayer now: O Lord God, I come unto You today. I know I am a sinner, and I cannot save myself. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross to save me, and God raised Him on the third day. I repent of my sins and confess Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. I invite Jesus into my heart. By this prayer, I know I am saved. Thank You, Jesus, for saving me and making me a child of God.
I believe you have said this prayer from your heart. Congratulations! You must join a Bible-believing, Bible-teaching, and Bible-practising church where they will teach you how to live your new life in Christ Jesus. I pray that you flourish like a palm tree and grow like a cedar of Lebanon. May you grow into Christ in all things and become all God wants you to be. I will be glad to hear from you. The Lord be with you.
T. O. Banso is the President of Cedar Ministry International, Abuja, Nigeria.
Phone No: +2348155744752, +2348033113523
WhatsApp No: +2349081295947
Email: cedarministryintl@yahoo.com,
cedarministryng@gmail.com
Website: www.cedarministry.org
BE OUR FINANCIAL PARTNER
Account Name: Cedar Ministry International
Bank: United Bank for Africa
Account Number: 1027304911 (Naira)
Account Number: 3004481420 (USD)
Swift Code: UNAFNGLA
