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Honor Must Resist Contempt

This culture is one of dishonor and contempt. A harsh one of both brutality and backlash. We show contempt for those who don’t agree with our political views, contempt for those with different religious views, contempt for the rich, contempt for the poor, contempt for those family members who always seems to be embarrassing us and causing trouble. 

And we show contempt in the church. Contempt for those with different theological positions, different styles of worship, different structures of leadership, different styles of preaching. 

Deep in our hearts, we feel sick about the hostility, dishonor, and disdain in our world. There is a kind of collective fatigue in our cultural disgust. We are exhausted by the devaluing of others but feel paralyzed to stop. Unity feels like a pipe dream and healing out of reach. 

Our hearts are grieved by the failure of the church as well. The way we devalue people for their theology or lack of it, different practices and traditions, and struggles with sin. Our vision of God has been lowered; his power is scarce and his love is a rumor that’s been chased away.

I believe there is cure for the cancer of contempt. Honor. 

Honor is the call to recognize the value in God and each other, and order our recognition and relationships around it. Honor is the operating system of the kingdom of God. How seriously have you taken the value of honor in your own life?

“From now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view,” wrote the apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 5:16). This makes me imagine a new kind of calling in the world, one that all of us can share—becoming honor workers. Those who, case by case, find the pain of contempt in a person’s life and restore a sense of honor. 

What a glory to gather the outcasts! The world is aching for a community of honor. May it begin with us, for honor must resist contempt.

How can you be an “honor worker” raising up a victim of contempt today?