Where is Your Honor?
- By Chris Sterrett
- Published 08/14/2008
"L'honneur est comme une ile escarpee et sans bords; On n'y peut plus rentrer des qu'on en est dehors" - Nicolas Boileau Despreaux
Honor. It is always a grand thing when one is "honored" for their actions, their duty, their bravery or stance. Many times a speech, a trophy, certificate, maybe a folded flag or simply a handshake is given to that person.
But what exactly is honor?
Honor - noun: "honesty, fairness, or integrity in one's beliefs and actions"
Honesty is the freedom from deceit or fraud.
Fairness is being fair, not partial, or not having bias in opinion.
Integrity is the adherence to moral and ethical principals.
Alan Simpson said it this way about integrity:
"If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters."
It is vastly important that one gains integrity in their life. Without it, nothing else matters in their life. They have nothing. They are an outsider to the building called honor, looking in.
So it boils down to two things; ethics and morals.
In Christianity, ethics and morals means everything. If you do not have both of these qualities, then you are not truly walking in Christianity. Christianity requires an upright walk. It requires turning the other cheek. It requires allowing God to deal with your accusers or your enemy.
It is when a person crosses that line and begins to play God, begins to take out their bitterness toward another person by way of defamation of their character or by deceitful actions or words, it is at that point one loses his integrity and in the process loses it all.......including their honor.
Where is your honor?
Nicolas Boileau Despreaux was quoted at the beginning of this blog by saying this...
"Honor is like an island, rugged and without shores; we can never re-enter it once we are on the outside."
One you have lost your honor, stepped outside its boundaries, it is painfully hard to acquire it once again. You lost it. People take notice. They can forgive you, they can befriend you still, they can lift you back up, but regardless, you are on the outside of honor desiring to be back on that island.
One of the integral parts
of honor is honesty. Honesty and truth go hand and hand. The manifestation of truth is character. So this brings in another aspect of your Christian life....your character.
I once overheard the following comment...
"If your character and your reputation were to meet in a dark alley, would they recognize each other?"
You see.....your reputation is simply what others see. It is your character that matter the most. In fact, Dale Carnegie put it this way...
"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."
Sadly, many people in today's society will walk around with the Christian label around their neck. They will talk the talk, they will walk the walk, so to speak. They will garner a reputation of an upright man. They will fool many of people who only get a chance to see the outward side of that person.
They are like the Pharisee. Their outward appearance looked clean, it look upright, it looked Christian. However, like Luke 11:39 tells us, it was the inside that was full of wickedness. They fool man but God is not fooled. He knows the inside. He knows their lack of honesty, their lack of integrity and their lack of character.
Wickedness,/darkness, and Honor/light, cannot coexist in the same person. They are either one or the other. They are either on that island of honor or on the outside looking in. Do not fool yourself into thinking you can be two places at the same time. Your actions make a mockery of ethics and morals and most importantly they mock God.
Galatians 6:7 says this:
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap"
What is your honor?
What is your life sowing?
Are you sowing discord?
Sowing deceit?
Sowing destruction of another character?
Sowing bitterness?
Be forewarned.....what you are sowing today, that you shall also reap.
Continue on your ways. Continue ignoring the elements that make ones character. Fool those around you with your fake ways producing a unfitting reputation. Just remember one thing while you exact your lack of honor.....
Romans 12:19 says the Lord will avenge all the things you have done.
Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord.
I ask today....where is your honor?
Honor. It is always a grand thing when one is "honored" for their actions, their duty, their bravery or stance. Many times a speech, a trophy, certificate, maybe a folded flag or simply a handshake is given to that person.
But what exactly is honor?
Honor - noun: "honesty, fairness, or integrity in one's beliefs and actions"
Honesty is the freedom from deceit or fraud.
Fairness is being fair, not partial, or not having bias in opinion.
Integrity is the adherence to moral and ethical principals.
Alan Simpson said it this way about integrity:
"If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters."
It is vastly important that one gains integrity in their life. Without it, nothing else matters in their life. They have nothing. They are an outsider to the building called honor, looking in.
So it boils down to two things; ethics and morals.
In Christianity, ethics and morals means everything. If you do not have both of these qualities, then you are not truly walking in Christianity. Christianity requires an upright walk. It requires turning the other cheek. It requires allowing God to deal with your accusers or your enemy.
It is when a person crosses that line and begins to play God, begins to take out their bitterness toward another person by way of defamation of their character or by deceitful actions or words, it is at that point one loses his integrity and in the process loses it all.......including their honor.
Where is your honor?
Nicolas Boileau Despreaux was quoted at the beginning of this blog by saying this...
"Honor is like an island, rugged and without shores; we can never re-enter it once we are on the outside."
One you have lost your honor, stepped outside its boundaries, it is painfully hard to acquire it once again. You lost it. People take notice. They can forgive you, they can befriend you still, they can lift you back up, but regardless, you are on the outside of honor desiring to be back on that island.
One of the integral parts
I once overheard the following comment...
"If your character and your reputation were to meet in a dark alley, would they recognize each other?"
You see.....your reputation is simply what others see. It is your character that matter the most. In fact, Dale Carnegie put it this way...
"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."
Sadly, many people in today's society will walk around with the Christian label around their neck. They will talk the talk, they will walk the walk, so to speak. They will garner a reputation of an upright man. They will fool many of people who only get a chance to see the outward side of that person.
They are like the Pharisee. Their outward appearance looked clean, it look upright, it looked Christian. However, like Luke 11:39 tells us, it was the inside that was full of wickedness. They fool man but God is not fooled. He knows the inside. He knows their lack of honesty, their lack of integrity and their lack of character.
Wickedness,/darkness, and Honor/light, cannot coexist in the same person. They are either one or the other. They are either on that island of honor or on the outside looking in. Do not fool yourself into thinking you can be two places at the same time. Your actions make a mockery of ethics and morals and most importantly they mock God.
Galatians 6:7 says this:
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap"
What is your honor?
What is your life sowing?
Are you sowing discord?
Sowing deceit?
Sowing destruction of another character?
Sowing bitterness?
Be forewarned.....what you are sowing today, that you shall also reap.
Continue on your ways. Continue ignoring the elements that make ones character. Fool those around you with your fake ways producing a unfitting reputation. Just remember one thing while you exact your lack of honor.....
Romans 12:19 says the Lord will avenge all the things you have done.
Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord.
I ask today....where is your honor?
Chris Sterrett
Born and raised on and under a Pentecostal pew. Have learned many things thru the ups and downs of life but most of all, I learned how to allow God to guide and direct my steps.
