Honor One Another Series

Introduction:

A. Welcome to our annual Friends and Family Day – if you are a visitor with us today, then please know that you are our honored guest and we are thankful and honored that you are with us.

1. On Friend and Family Day, I often break away from the sermon series I am preaching through and give a sermon specially designed for our guests.

2. But I decided not to do that this time, because the series I am sharing with the congregation is about loving one another, and I thought it would be appropriate and helpful for our guests to see what we are striving toward as a family of God.

3. As followers of Jesus, it is God’s will that we love one another and put into practice all of the other “one another” commands of the Bible that you see listed on the two banners in front.

4. So far in our series, we have done the first two on the banner to my right – love one another and be devoted to one another.

5. Today, we are going to explore what it means to honor one another and how to do it.

B. One day a group of four young friends were talking about what they would like to do with their lives when they grow up.

1. The first friend said, “I want to be a congressman so I can draft laws to benefit my countrymen.”

2. The second friend said, “I want to be a lawyer so that I can defend my countrymen.”

3. The third said, “I want to be a doctor so that I can cure my countrymen.”

4. The three friends looked to the fourth and waited for his response.

5. Then the fourth friend said, “I just want to be the countryman that you three serve.”

C. That silly story captures the differences and the challenges we face as human beings who are called to be like Jesus.

1. The giving, serving, other-centered nature of some is very strong and well-developed.

2. But on the other hand, the taking, selfish, self-centered nature of others is also very strong and well-developed.

3. If we are going to experience real Christian community here at the Wetzel Road church, then we are going to have to overcome our selfish nature and become more other centered.

D. To help us do just that, let’s continue our study of the “One Another” passages of the New Testament.

1. Two weeks ago, in our last sermon from this series, we explored what it means to be devoted to one another.

a. We concluded that being devoted to one another required a decision to be devoted to one another, a determination to stick with our decision, and the demonstration of our devotion.

b. That demonstration might include things like: being present, being attentive and being expressive.

2. Today, we want to learn something about what it means to honor one another.

I. The Command – Honor One Another

A. The scripture that contains the command to honor one another is found in the apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans, where in chapter 12 and verse 10, we read: “Honor one another above yourselves.”

1. This sentence in the Greek language that Paul wrote it in only has three words.

2. The first word in the sentence is a Greek word which is translated “honor” and it means “to show honor, respect, or reverence.” (Arndt, p. 817)

a. Another Greek scholar explained the meaning of the term as: “that respect shown another which is measured by one’s evaluation of another.” (Wuest, p. 214)

3. The second word is the Greek word that simply means “one another” – it is a reciprocal pronoun that indicates that each member of a group does something to or for the other members

4. The third Greek word is one that only appears here in the whole New Testament of the Bible, and it means: “preferring, leading or outdoing.

B. Let’s look at the wording of this command in different English translations and see how they try to bring out the meaning of the three Greek words of the command.

1. The New International Version says: “Honor one another above yourselves.”

2. The New American Standard says: “Give preference to one another in honor.”

3. The King James Version says: “In honor preferring one another.”

4. Today’s English Version says: “Be eager to show respect for one another.”

5. The English Standard Version says: “Outdo one another in showing honor.”

6. The Christian Standard Version says: “Take the lead in honoring one another.”

7. The Message (which is a paraphrase version of the Bible, not a translation) says: “Practice playing second fiddle.”

C. To “honor” means to put value to something, to consider it precious, weighty, and to show respect.