Monday, August 24, 2020
719 - Honorable Mention, Part 1
Spirituality Column #719
August 25, 2020
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
Honorable Mention, Part 1
By Bob Walters
“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be
wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” – Apostle Peter,
Acts 3:19
Does everybody understand that we repent not to be focused
on and shackled to our sins, but to free ourselves from worldly shame and enter
into the honor of Christ?
That is how things will go best for us, when we honor God
and others.
“Me” is the wrong thing to honor.
Honor. Who in the
current worldly culture talks about honor?
Almost nobody, because worldly culture is doing its utmost to remove God
in general and Jesus Christ in particular from the controlling conversation of
civil society. We hear a lot about
shame, because you can control people with their shame and/or their fear of
being “found out” or accused of some shameful infraction of worldly protocol.
It’s fine, however, if in the conceited cause of human
control, one dishonors God.
Freedom comes when we repent of our sins before God, honor
others, and know, trust, and believe that in their own God-inspired humility,
others honor and respect us. We depend
on that in a free society. We need it
and cherish it. It’s what “Do unto
others as you would have them do unto you” (Matthew 7:12) actually means.
Most of human history – including nearly 1800 years of the
Christian era – did not get that right.
Humanity continued to make the same mistake of the ancient Israelites,
demanding earthly kings rather than embracing the absolute Lordship of God of
the old covenant, and the saving grace and Lordship of Jesus Christ – God – in
the new.
How ironic that it was the non-devout, anti-church but not
entirely atheistic philosophical Enlightenment era of the 17th-19th
centuries – an era that mostly sought to dethrone, define-down, and “modernize”
God – that led one society to fully embrace the Godly rights of man. An ethical and Godly people – endowed with
and, importantly, recognizing their rights from God – could honor each
other with their labors, creativity, justice, opportunity, aspirations, government,
and equality before God. Hello, USA.
The trick to maintaining freedom and honor would be in
remaining a “Godly people.” I think that
meant that however one viewed the authority of Jesus, the Bible, church, God,
or Holy Spirit, it was nonetheless foundationally critical to honor the notion
of a Creator who created humanity in His own image: a Creator who loves us,
gives us purpose, watches us, is with us, and judges us. He is watching how we
treat each other.
That’s a Christian nation, whether one chooses to call it
that or not. When we repent of our sins
before man, freedom is not necessarily the prize. But it is when we repent sincerely in the
name of Jesus Christ. Honor Him, and divine
freedom follows.
Honor is hard to find today because along with original sin,
never-ending guilt is front-loaded into the secular, social justice “gospel” so
very ascendant in the divisive identity politics of our time. Jesus isn’t honored; His grace isn’t
considered. Today’s earthly, Pharisaical accusers cynically target the destruction
of God-honoring order.
Things work best when we humbly listen to each other. God is listening, too. “Sinners repent!” sounds like a cry to focus
on sin. No, it is a cry to focus on Jesus,
to refresh our love for one another, and to honor God. He is the only place honor exists.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com)
will discuss the Bible’s view of honor next week.
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