Honor One Another – Paulette Reed

TRUTH, PROTECTION AND LOVE

“Honor one another above yourselves” comes from Romans 12:10 which says, “Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other.” It’s a short verse with a lot of weight behind it. Simple words, deep wisdom. When you slow down and really sit with them, they quietly challenge the way we move through everyday life; how we listen, how we respond, how we treat people when no one is watching.

Let’s look at this, layer by layer.

What “Honor” Really Means

In the biblical sense, honor isn’t flattery or putting people on a pedestal. It isn’t pretending someone is perfect or overlooking harm. Honor means recognizing the God-given worth of another person. Psalm 139 reminds us that God knit every human together in their mother’s womb. That means every person you encounter carries sacred value, whether or not they live in a way that reflects it.

So honor looks like this:

Treating people with respect, dignity, and care. Acting in ways that protect rather than diminish.
Choosing to lift others when you have the power to tear them down.
Remembering that honor is something we practice, not just something we feel.

“Above Yourselves” Doesn’t Mean Self-Contempt

Preferring others above ourselves doesn’t mean shrinking into self-erasure or thinking poorly of yourself. Humility isn’t humiliation. It’s simply choosing not to center yourself in every moment.

It looks like:

Resisting the urge to self-promote.
Letting go of always needing to be first.
Choosing humility over competition.
Making room for someone else’s voice to matter.

This kind of humility doesn’t weaken you. It actually steadies you. You become grounded, not fragile.

What Honor Looks Like in Everyday Life

Honoring others above ourselves might mean:

Listening deeply instead of planning your response.
Celebrating someone else’s success without comparison. Your turn will come.
Giving credit instead of quietly collecting it.
Yielding your preference when it’s not essential.
Treating people kindly regardless of status.
Remembering that people are to be loved, things are to be used.

Honor is agape love expressed through intentional humility. And when practiced consistently, it changes atmospheres. Families soften. Communities heal. Even institutions begin to shift. When everyone seeks to honor others, everyone is honored.

Honoring Those Who Came Before Us

When I wrote Austin’s Cabin – Clinging to Hope, I found myself reflecting on how we can honor those who’ve gone before us. Honoring them doesn’t mean freezing them in perfection or living in the past. It means gratitude. It means remembering that our lives were shaped by others’ courage, labor, prayers, and even imperfect attempts to love well.

We honor them by:

Acknowledging how their lives helped make our life tapestry whole.
Telling their stories in faithful remembrance.
Carrying forward the values we choose to keep.
Building on what they started, rather than just dismissing it.
Living well and moving forward with Jesus and our loved ones in our hearts.

Of course, we don’t agree with everything they believed or how they did things, and that’s okay. Honor doesn’t require agreement. It requires gratitude without denial of truth.

Boundaries Matter

Honoring others above yourself does not mean:

– Enduring abuse, manipulation, or harm.

– Silencing your conscience or convictions.

– Surrendering responsibility for your own well-being.

– Treating someone’s demands as sacred.

– Confusing humility with passivity.

A key distinction:
Honor says, “You matter.”
Boundaries say, “And so do I.”

You can honor someone and still say no.
You can respect someone without agreeing.
You can love someone and still create distance if necessary.

Jesus Redefined Honor

Jesus consistently flipped the world’s definition of honor upside down.

-“The last will be first.”

– “Whoever wants to be great must be a servant.”

– He elevated children, the poor, the outsider, the overlooked.

What He didn’t honor was hypocrisy, oppression, or pride. His sharpest words were reserved for those who demanded honor but refused humility. In Jesus, we see that true honor is always tethered to truth and love, never to ego.

Honor Protects Life and Community

The Fourth Commandment says, “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long…” This isn’t a suggestion; it’s one of the ten commandments. These commandments are loving boundaries God gave for our own protection and well-being. They are meant to guard our hearts, shape our character, and lead us into a life that flourishes rather than falls apart. Honoring isn’t just about individual longevity. It’s about the health of families, the stability of communities, and the continuity of generations.

Honor functions like a load-bearing beam in a house. Remove it, and cracks spread. Things may not collapse immediately, but weakness quietly enters.

When honor disappears, trust erodes. When honor is restored, life flourishes.

Honoring Authority Without Losing Discernment

Romans 13 10: 1-2 teaches that authority exists under God’s sovereignty. It reads, “Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted. . .”

Respect for authority helps maintain order and stability in society. Yet honoring authority does not mean excusing sin or ignoring injustice. God sees the full picture. He knows when leaders fail. He is not surprised, and He is not powerless.

If authority figure walks in sin, the most honoring response may be to refuse dishonor without enabling harm.

Sometimes honor looks like truth spoken.
Sometimes it looks like healthy distance.
Sometimes it looks like silence that refuses to become slander.

Dishonor toward authority can bring harm or even curses to a nation, a church, or a workplace. Yet honoring authority does not mean excusing wrongdoing or remaining in unsafe situations.

If we truly, truly cannot honor someone in authority, we can still trust God to be God. And we can choose to honor the office or position they hold, without partnering with sin.

God is in control; we are not. He is able to bring good even out of what is broken and unjust.

Remember: the world is watching. Our children are watching.

A Quiet Invitation

Honoring one another above ourselves is not about being perfect. It’s about choosing, again and again, to move through the world with awareness, courage, and love. It protects the truth. It guards the heart. It builds something sturdy enough to hold real relationships.

And in a world that feels increasingly sharp and divided, choosing honor becomes a quiet act of resistance and a gentle way of keeping your soul intact. In other words, the world feels tense, hostile, polarized, online arguments, politics, culture wars, people being cruel to each other. However, we consistently choose honor. We act with integrity: honesty, kindness, fairness, not becoming vicious just because others are.

Choosing honor as the Bible teaches, protects our inner values and mental/emotional well-being. Don’t let the ugliness outside turn you into someone you don’t respect.

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Scripture quotations are taken from The Passion Translation (TPT) unless noted.

AUSTIN’S CABIN ON AMAZON NOW!