HONOUR
1 Timothy 5
“Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.”
It is interesting that “honour” is embedded in the 10 commandments, “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you” and is the first command in the Decalogue that is not directed towards God but it has consequence for the life we live.
From the way Paul expands the idea of “honour” in 1 Timothy 4, we learn that “honour”—to give respect where respect is due, and to respect the differences between the people in our community, to honour those who lead and have authority over us and also to honour those who are in need and powerless to help themselves—is a basic principle that can help us live right. Paul even got down to the level of honouring our bodies and not abusing it for some higher principle. Everyone, and everything, have their proper place in our life and we do well to honour them.
As is true in so much of life, sometimes the truth is clear and apparent and sometimes the truth will show itself in more subtle ways, becoming apparent only over time; but Paul is certain that the truth—to act on the basis of honour is a God-given principle to guide us through life—cannot remain hidden forever.
The promise of the fifth command, that we will “live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you”, is obviously about life in the Promised Land for the Jews, but surely we will not be wrong to believe that this is also true for us in our Promised Land, the kingdom of God.
Placed in-between chapter 4 — “godliness has value for all things” — and chapter 6 — “godliness with contentment is great gain”, chapter 5 is intriguing for its down-to-earth focus on people and life.
“The sins of some are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them. In the same way, good deeds are obvious, and even those that are not obvious cannot remain hidden forever.”