Sermon: Honor One Another

I invite you now to take a copy of God's Word and open with me to the book of Romans and chapter 12, Romans chapter 12, page 9 48, if you are using a pew Bible.

And you may be thinking, weren't we just in Romans 12 last week and the week before that? And yes, you would be right. In fact, tonight we're going to be in Romans 1210, which we were also in last week. So Romans 12 and chapter, uh, Romans chapter 12 and verse 10 is where we're gonna be tonight. Before we read God's word, let's pray and ask for His blessing upon it.

Father, your word is truth. As we hear your word, may we receive it as it is your inspired iner, infallible truth kept for us. And help us, we pray, not to be hearers only, but doers of it. And we need your help both to be good listeners and to be doers of it. So we ask for this help in the name of Jesus, your Son, in whose name we pray, amen. Romans chapter 12, verse 10, love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

Amen. Well, dear friends, and the Lord Jesus Christ, as my barber reminded me yesterday, my children are fun ages, maybe even some of the very best ages. My oldest is five, my son is three, and my youngest daughter is almost two.

This is, they are in a very fun season of life. We enjoy being their parents. It also happens to be a season that's not just fun, but also a season of their lives where they are all the time seeking to outdo one another always. So this is just in the last 24 hours. I'm bigger, I'm taller, I'm faster, I'm older. And then every time we go up the stairs, usually for bedtime, somebody in the family is going to hear, I beat you.

Rarely, rarely is the outdoing in acts of kindness or mercy or words of affirmation. My children love to outdo one another. And our passage this evening calls for siblings to outdo one another. That's the point of our passage. It's not to be the best, not in getting honor, but in giving honor as we read outdo one another and showing honor, this is a good word for my children. It's a good word for me. It's a good word for each of us.

So to organize tonight's sermon content, I wanna answer three questions. Three very simple questions. What, why, and how? What, why, and how. So what? What is honor? What does it mean to honor each other? And to do this, let's just briefly study each of the words here in the, in this verse, in Romans 12, 10 B. In the ESV, which I read from, there's six words in the original Greek, there's just four, and one of them is a definite article.

So really three that we're gonna consider the first being honor, that's the subject of our attention tonight. So we'll begin there. We should have, I think, a pretty good idea of what honor means, of what honor looks like. Honor simply means to value or to esteem highly or to highly regard you honor what you or who you value you honor what you value or who you value. Contemporary western culture might even say American culture specifically

is probably not the preeminent place for which to find examples of showing honor. But our culture does maintain some traditional practices of showing honor. So just think with me. When the president walks in the room, what does everyone do? They stand right. They stand out of respect either for the person or at least for the office of president. When the national anthem is played, as it has been over the last week at the Olympic trials,

people are to stand, they're to cross their heart. They're to remove their caps, they're to face the flag, right? Respect. We honor what the flag stands for. We have a whole day set apart for honoring those who have given their lives with great courage for our nation, fighting to defend our freedom Memorial Day today, where we honor the service and the memory of those who served. There is even a high in rare form of honor that is given to a select few, a medal,

a medal of honor given to soldiers who showed great courage in battle. These are just a few examples from our culture. Traditionally, what they look like in our society shows respect, honor, regard, esteem, and the biblical concept of honor is similar. Honor looks like treating someone or something with respect or treating something or someone as valuable because of who they are or because of what they have done. That's honor.

Now, the ESV translates the Greek word pro agno as outdo outdo. If you happen to have brought with you tonight a different translation than the ESV, so maybe the NIV or the NASB or the KJV or the CSB, all common translations of the English, uh, of the English language in the Bible, they all, all of them have slightly different translations. So if you brought one of those tonight, you'll see, ah, it doesn't say exactly what you read tonight.

And one reason for that is because this Greek word that's translated outdo, the only time it ever shows up in the Bible in this form is here in Romans 12 verse 10. So one of the reasons why translators have a variety of ways to translate it is because there's no other examples to which to compare. So it becomes, as some translators say, a difficult translation.

But I'm not wanting us to maybe focus on the difficulty of translating. I think what we need to focus on is that the concept here that we find in the ESV is perfectly clear, right? Outdo one another in showing honor. What does that mean? Outdo rather than glorying. In honor for self, we ought to glory in honor for others and we ought to contribute in giving honor to others.

Some of you will notice when you leave tonight, there will be a group of young boys who have made their way out of the church, building out onto the basketball court shooting hoops.

Think of that in your mind. Now, think of the boy who loves to score, who loves to be the ball hog, right? The guy who doesn't pass the ball doesn't share the rock, he just wants to take the ball and score it. They do it for themselves. They're often, the ball hog is often not trying to gain honor for the team. He is trying to gain honor for himself primarily. And then maybe secondarily best read, secondarily caring about team success.

That is the opposite of what is meant here in our text. Many have pointed out that our verse, there's a parallel in Philippians two verse three. This is a familiar verse for you all. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. This is what it means to outdo. To outdo. We count others more significant. We esteem others more highly than ourselves. We honor others above ourselves.

At a recent wedding I attended, the pastor actually addressed the couple from this verse, and actually just this part of the verse. And apparently he had chosen this particular verse to address the couple because they were highly competitive. They were always sort of keeping score the first date they went and played mini golf. And the girl came home and told her Dad, I won. I beat him. And then a few weeks later on one of their following dates,

they played pickleball. And she didn't go and say forthrightly that she won. But when dad asked, yeah, I won, they were very good at keeping score and outdoing one another in competition. And so the pastor simply tried to take what they was already true to their natures and try to move it, encourage them in a constructive way. If you're going to outdo each other, if you are going to compete in marriage, make it this competition.

Outdo one another in giving honor to the other. So the concept here is clear, the point of the word outdo. The point of this verse is that we should prefer to give honor to others rather than to receive honor from others. Thirdly, one, another one another. The Greek word for one another is simply one word, a lay loose. And it's the word that we've made the whole subject of our evening series throughout the summer one another.

They're studying these one another's throughout the book of Romans. Now, because this is the third week, I think a pop quiz is probably in order. What? Who is the one another? Who is the one another's here? Subject in this passage, who are we to outdo in showing honor? One another of course is other Christians. Other Christians. Verse five says, members one of another. We are members of the same body of Christ, those whom we have been united with in the body of Christ,

our brothers and sisters in Christ. That's who we are to outdo in showing honor. The Bible tells us to honor all people. In fact, in one Peter chapter two, we're actually told to honor non-Christians. The reason being, uh, as Psalm eight would remind us, is that all human beings are made in the image of God. And as being his image bearers, they are worth being honored, worthy of honor. But here we're not commanded about honoring everyone,

sort of broadly speaking. We are here commanded to honor one another, those in the Lord and the body of Christ. It follows and makes good sense. If we are as Christians to honor all people, including non-Christians, shouldn't we also then be expected to honor those with whom we have been united, those with whom we share fellowship, those with whom we belong in the family and the household of God? Indeed, indeed. This is how Christians should treat one another,

giving honor to our brothers and sisters to the Lord. So in summary of the what question, to outdo one another, and showing honor means that we, Christians prefer one another fellow Christians in giving honor. Why? Why? This is the second question. Why is this commanded? Why is this important? Why do we have this command here in scripture? And I want to have us briefly consider four reasons why this command is given, why it's important,

or to state it more clearly. Why are we to outdo one another and showing honor if you are taking notes, the four reasons are going to be A, B, C, D, in reverse, okay? D, C, B, A. All right. So first D, the design of God. It's fairly straightforward. It's fairly straightforward. Why it's important for us to show honor. The Bible tells us so, and we take our cues from the Bible, right, of what we are to do, what we are to be about.

But I, I want to elaborate for just a minute. And in order to do that, I want you to turn in your Bible with me to one Corinthians 12. So just over a few pages to the right, it's page 9 59. And here in one Corinthians 12, Paul is urging the church in a very similar manner, as in Romans 12, he's reminding the church in Corinth that they are one in Christ yet made of many parts, just like the human body. So as I read for you,

one Corinthians 12, 21 through 26, what I want you to simply take notice of, there's a lot to take notice of here. What I simply want you to take notice of is who designed, who designed the church or the body to function in this particular way. Okay? So one Corinthians 12, 21 through 26,

the I cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to defeat. I have no need of you. On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker, are indispensable. And on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow the greater honor and are unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body,

giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. God is the one who designed in the body of Christ in the church for honor to be given to one another in this particular way. So the first reason why it's important to honor others in the church is that God designed it.

Second. The second reason why it's important to honor others in the church is that it bears witness to the reality of our new nature in Christ. When we prefer to honor others, we are demonstrating that we have been saved by grace. And now the spirit of Christ dwells in us.

You see, apart from Christ, we are all dishonorable. We are all dishonorable, first and foremost, and primarily to God. We are dishonorable to God by repeatedly breaking. His law says Romans 2 23, we don't give him the honor and the respect and the glory that is due His name. We prefer other things to God. We live a life of dishonor. But you know the gospel, you know the gospel. God who is rich in infinite mercy gave his son while we were still sinners,

while we were still dishonorable, actively dishonoring him in order to save us, to save us from sin, to save us from death, to save us from hell. And it isn't, isn't it? If you just think about it, you just think about it. Isn't it nearly incomprehensible that God would value you so much that he would send his only son, that he would regard you in your lowest state, in your sinful estate, in your dishonorable state, and he would honor you.

He would value you by sending his son to save you, to pull you out of your dishonorable state, all by his grace to make you honorable.

That's what God does. He rescues sinners. He makes that which was dishonorable, honorable.

But then we also find an example in Jesus, God's only Son, don't we? Jesus, when he comes to earth, he honors other people. When he's in the upper room, he is not the one who is having his feet washed by others. He is the one kneeling as a servant to wash the feet of his disciples. He is honoring his disciples. Jesus sets an example. And brothers and sisters, we have been united to Christ. What we heard about this morning,

we have been united to Christ. And now his spirit, the spirit that empowered Jesus Christ to honor others above even himself, is the one who lives in us. He lives in us. He empowers us to honor others. So by honoring one another in the church, we demonstrate this new reality that's true of us. We have been saved, we have been transformed. We have been empowered by Jesus. That's the second reason why. The third reason why it's important

to honor others in the church is that be, it builds up the body. It builds up the body contrary to what the ball hog might think.

Every single person on the team is important. They all have a role to play, contrary to what the ball hog might think about the church, we all have a part to play. There are no dispensable parts in the body of Christ. The church needs every part. And so we don't dishonor the lesser parts. We don't dishonor the weaker parts. We honor all.

And think about it, think about your own personal life. When someone takes care to honor you, whether it be a spouse or a child, or an employer or your employee, or maybe a teammate or a teacher, when someone takes care to honor you, what happens? Don't you feel encouraged and just feel so good that someone would value you and respect you even if you're unworthy? That is true in the church. When we honor others, it builds others up,

it strengthens them, it encourages them, it nourishes them. And since we desire to see the body strengthened and built up, we ought to honor one another. And then the fourth reason why it's important to honor others in the church is that it is a attractive, it's attractive. And by this I mean that when we prefer that others receive honor more than ourselves, the world is gonna take notice. The world will notice that something is different

and it's going to be very attractive, very attractive. There is not one single person in the universe who likes to be undervalued, devalued, or not valued at all. Can you think of anyone? I couldn't. Nobody wants to be disrespected or viewed as unimportant or not shown honor. There's not a single person. But in the church, it happens all the time in the world, though it happens all the time. But in the church, everyone is honored.

Everyone the least gifted, the most needy, the least attractive, the most annoying, the least mature, the most unworthy. Everyone in the body of Christ is honored. And we're not out to get honor for our own name. We're out to get honor for the name of others. And ultimately then for God's honor. And don't you think this is going to be attractive to the world? It's going to make others outside the church wonder. What is it about those people?

Why do they not have to be about themselves? Why is it that they can defer honor to others? It's because of what Jesus has done for us, and we do for others. It will be attractive. So why is it important to outdo one another in the church? By showing honor? It's God's design. It bears witness to our new reality of Christ's work in us. It builds up the body and it's, it makes the church attractive. That's the why question. So the third question, how, how?

How do we outdo one another in showing honor? Here? I, I want to attempt to help us think practically. I want us to think broadly and as deeply as we can with our time remaining about application. About application. Remember these one another's here in Romans 12 are in the how then shall we live part of the book of Romans, right? Starting at 12 verse one, how then shall we live in response to this glorious gospel which was expounded

in one through 11? In other words, these one anothers are to be lived. This isn't just, ah, let's study what these one anothers are for our own interest. Let's put them into practice. Let's exercise these in the body of Christ, all of us.

Now, I can't say everything there's to say. So what you're gonna have to do is you're gonna have to take what I say, and you're gonna have to think along with me, okay? And you're gonna have to think about your own life. What? What is it that Pastor Nate's saying that I can take, maybe, that I can contextualize and I can apply in my own personal life as I seek to honor others in the body of Christ? Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm just gonna give you a few

general principles of how we can distinguish honor, how we can honor others with distinguishment, if that's a word. I don't know. Secondly, I'm gonna give you a couple of specific relationships in which to practice showing honor. Okay? So how? How do we honor the general principles? First is with humility. With humility. I mentioned earlier that many commentators see Philippians two verse three as a parallel to this verse here in Romans 1210.

Philippians two you'll remember is instructing believers to imitate Christ's humility and to count others as better than yourself. By definition. By definition, if we are going to count others as better than ourselves, if we are going to honor others above ourselves, we will need to do so with humility. With humility. We ought to honor with sincerity. Sincerity. Now, you know those people whose humility is insincere. It's not sincere. You might say it's false humility.

False humility. They may seem humble. They may seem modest. What? What they're really doing is cloaking their pride. They're full of pride and they're trying to mask it from you. And so you might see them downplay their achievements or their gifts or their abilities, which may seem really humble, but really what they're trying to do is when they're downplaying their achievements in front of you, what they're really hoping for is

that you're gonna turn around and say, oh no, you're so good. That was amazing. I've, I've never seen anyone do anything just like that. You are so great. And they're gonna walk away and they're gonna say, yes, I knew it. That's what I was after you. You know those people right with who have false humility. The Bible tells us that we are to be sincerely humble and just as we are, to be sincerely humble. The honor we give must be sincere.

It is possible. It is possible that to show honor to others, so that in turn it's gonna come back to you. It's possible to show honor so that you might receive honor. It's possible to really actually downplay others' achievements, others' abilities, so that you're giving them some honor, but you're holding and withholding something back. And it's possible as God condemns to honor with our words, but in our hearts to dishonor.

It's possible that our honor can be a false honor to let your honor be sincere. Now, I just wanna say to you, you can be sure of this. It is not always gonna be easy. It will not always be easy. And you know what? It's actually probably gonna be really hard most times when you see others honored above yourselves, because you yourself are going to want that honor. And maybe someone is giving honor to someone else who really deserves none of the credit.

Like your boss, oh man, you did a great job. You get a pay raise. Well, all the while you, his employee are doing the grunt work and have really made it happen. And the honor is given to your boss and it's not given to you. You're really going to want that honor. And it's gonna be hard. It might feel costly. But in the body of Christ, our honor must be sincere. And we should not be surprised when it feels like it costs us something to honor others

above ourselves when it feels hard for others to get the honor that you yourself are wishing for. As Romans 12, verse two says, we are to present our bodies as living sacrifices. That language is hard, isn't it? A living sacrifice? So we should not be surprised when honoring others is difficult. Thirdly, and similarly, our honor ought to be without, without partiality. Without partiality. James two verse one says, my brothers

show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. What James goes on to do is to warn that we dishonor, we actually dishonor the poor man. When we show favor or special attention to the rich man, he's warning Christians not to show partiality in the body of Christ. We don't say to the rich man, here's a really nice chair. You sit here and you bring the poor man and you put him over here.

Don't show partiality in that way. We are not to show honor in that way. Our honor is to be without partiality. We're not to honor one person more highly than another, or give special status or special favor or special attention in the body of Christ. And then we are to honor with rejoicing. So if you think back on that passage from one Corinthians 12, where God has so composed the body in such a way that honor is given

to even the lesser parts, when others are honored by us or by others, we are to rejoice. One Corinthians 12 says, if one member suffers, all suffer together, if one member is honored, all rejoice together and we can do so because we are all one in Christ. It is our joy. It is our joy Whenever anyone in the body of Christ is honored, even if it's not you, even if it's not me.

Now, what are some specific relationships in which you can practice this here at University Reform Church? How are we going to see in the coming weeks the fruit of this passage at work amongst us? What sort of relationships will we see it? We're gonna see it children to parents, spouses, husband to wife, wife to husband. We're gonna see honor given to church leaders and from church leaders to everyone in the body of Christ.

And we're gonna see it among equals, and I'll explain that language in a minute. I just want us to consider too, we don't have time to look at all of these tonight, these specific relationships, how this might be worked out. So I'm, I'm gonna start with children to parents. We had children before us tonight publicly professing their faith. And you all know that one of the 10 commandments, the fifth commandment, actually has this word honor in it, right?

Honor your father and your mother, honor show honor to your parents. So children especially that are here, I want you guys to especially listen, all of us have parents. And so we can all honor our parents still until the day we die. But children, I want you to pay special attention. This is the first commandment outta the 10 Commandments. That's others oriented. It's horizontal. The first four commandments are about honoring God.

And then from five through 10, it's about honoring others. How are we to live with others? And the very first commandment in that list of 10, of uh, five through 10 is to honor your father and your mother. Now, young people, your parents might not be cool

and they probably know it.

Your parents might not be deserving of your honor, or so you think they might not deserve it. Maybe they're unkind toward you or they don't love you as much as you think they should. But the Bible tells you that you have a responsibility to show your parents honor, to honor them, and to respect them. I wanted to tell you the reason why God is commanding this of you so that it will go well with you. It's for your good, it's for your benefit.

That's why God has given this command. So what is it gonna look like for you to honor your father and mother? How can you do this? First of all, you start right here. You start in your heart, revere your parents in your heart. What is in your heart is gonna come out, okay? So you start with your heart. Revere your parents in your heart. Give them respect and honor them. Highly regard them. And then in your words, your words about them to your friends.

You don't have to tell all of your friends that your parents aren't cool. Your friends might already know it, okay? So you don't have to take the time in your words to tell everybody else. So in your words, you can honor your parents about them, but also to them. Treat them as if they have been given authority in your life, for your good, for your good, and thank them for it. And then in your behavior toward them, in your behavior toward them, the way that you listen

to them, the way that you respond to them when they ask something of you.

And then this one is really good, okay? Because you already know this. You know this is true. I know this about myself, and I'm a parent. Your parents are mess ups, and I know that because I'm a mess up, okay? Your parents are gonna really mess up in fulfilling their God-given responsibilities to you. The way that you can honor your parents when they mess up is to bear with them. Bear with them. You already know their weak

and they have many weaknesses. You bear with them. If they make a mistake, you don't hold it against them. You can forgive them and you can cover them in your love. You can cover them in your love. That is how you can honor your parents. Okay? Since this is a whole sermon about honor, we're gonna start with you guys. And I, what I want to challenge each of you kids to do is this. We're all, we can all be watching and we're not gonna watch over your shoulder,

but we're gonna watch for fruit so that we can celebrate together. That God is using this sermon to bear fruit in our lives and in our church. Okay? So I want to challenge you in these next weeks, honor your parents, okay? So that we can all rejoice together. Second, relationship is among equals. Among equals. So our catechism, Westminster, larger catechism, says that the scope of the fifth commandment, this commandment

that I just said, honor your father and mother, honor your father and mother, is the, the scope of it is not limited to the family, to the relationship between children and parents and parents to children. The scope of it goes beyond to even authorities, authorities, authority, figures. So whether in the church or even beyond. And so it talks about the relationship, the duties and sins, both of the relationships, inferiors

to superiors, superiors to inferiors, and then to equals. Now, I know this language, it's it's old language, okay? This is from the 16 hundreds, okay? This just means those who are, who have God-given authority, rightfully so, equals. It just meant is it just meant to say among everyone, among everyone one another in the body of Christ, there are duties that we have to honor one another. If you wanna check these out later,

you can look at Westminster larger catechism, 1 31 and 1 32. And I here to close. I just, I tried to think this week about some particular categories, particular spheres areas, ways in which we as the body of Christ here at URC can think about honor and honoring one another. So I just want you to, to just think with me here for just a moment as I list out a few different ways, honoring one another in every conversation.

Every conversation, whether private or public, inside the church or out of the church, do your words. Do your words and the way that you say them, bestow honor to others in the body of Christ. Do they bestow honor

honoring the smallest individuals in the church, the kids? Do you show even the kids some honor? We had 10 year olds up here who profess their faith in Christ. They are your equals in the body of Christ. Do you show them and treat them with honor, even the ones with least to give? Think about honor in the way you act at dig kids. Are you honoring one another? Or when you're in men's or women's ministry groups, how are you showing honor to others?

Or maybe if you're in leadership meetings here in the church, could be hard to show honor to others, especially when you disagree. How is it that you are showing honor in that place? You can honor in the way that you hear and respond to a wrong answer, a clearly wrong answer in Sunday school or in growth group. How will you honor that individual when a wrong answer is shared, you can honor in the way that you engage a brand new Christian

who comes into our doors who might not know much of anything about Jesus. How are you gonna honor them? How can you show them? Honor? Think about this one. This is a hard one. How do you honor those in the body of Christ? Who think differently than you? Who think differently than you, who come up with different ideas than the ones you have? Very different. You might be right-brained. They might be left-brained. How do you honor their ideas?

How do you honor their thoughts? How do you honor their person? What about in the way that you show hospitality? How do you honor those in showing hospitality? Think about those who you invite over to your house. Is it always the popular people? Is it the ones that can return the hospitality to you? Or who is it that you spend time with after church here in the church? Or maybe outside? Is it only your friends? Or might it also be someone new to you that you don't know

in your countenance, in your countenance, the way that you look at others or might say this the way you don't even look at that person. You don't even acknowledge them in your countenance. You can show honor to another person. And then lastly, in the ministries you choose to serve in, where are you gonna spend your time in the church? Is it going to be in the places where others are going to see what you're doing so that you can be honored later on?

Or might you serve in a place because it's needed in a place where maybe no one will see it at all? The contributions that you make though important, maybe nobody sees them, you're never gonna hear about it. How are you going to serve others and honor others even if it goes unnoticed? Brothers and sisters, just a final couple questions then. Will you be known for showing honor, giving honor to others? And then for us collectively, will we be known as a church,

as a particular church body of Christ for showing honor to others? Outdoing one another in showing honor? Let us give honor to others and prefer to give honor to others even over ourselves, for the good of others and for the glory of God. Amen. Amen. Alright, let's pray. Father in heaven, we need your help. And so help us, we pray. Forgive us. We need your forgiveness. We don't do this well, I speak for myself, but I, I love

to receive honor even more than I give it out. So forgive us of our sin. And Father, would you strengthen this church, strengthen this particular church through the way that we brothers and sisters in Christ interact with, with one another, showing honor to the least of these, to the greatest of these, strengthen us and help us to be a good witness for the glory of Jesus. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.