The Honor Competition

The Honor Competition

God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name.

Philippians 2:9

IN WORD We live in a competitive world. Brothers and sisters cultivate rivalries against brothers and sisters. Spouses argue with spouses. Businesses compete for limited shares of the market. Nations war against nations. Civilizations clash against civilizations. And what is at stake? Personal plans and dreams? ideology? resources? power? Maybe. But something else is involved in every competition. There is one key concept that can turn a petty disagreement into a lifelong feud, one treasure that can prompt armies to sacrifice thousands for small parcels of worthless land: Honor.

Have you noticed how integral honor is to human relationships? Our spirits are easily wounded from our—or someone else’s—sense of honor. Egos are stroked and rivalries deepened over honor. Sports teams spend their last drop of energy on a field over the honor of winning. Honor shapes a lot of what we do.

Drop it. Lay it down. It’s a pride issue, and in the end, there is only one winner in the honor competition: Jesus. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. That is the direction this whole creation is moving—though it hardly knows it now. Eventually, though, every heart, every knee, every cell, every atom, will point toward the throne of God.

IN DEED Are you there yet? That’s what worship is. It is letting every corner of your world bow toward God. It is turning every aspect of your life to Him—your dreams, your goals, your fears, the people and things that feed your life, and the people and things you feed. Every relationship, every thought, every impulse you have, whatever you can consider as “yours”—does it confess Him as Lord? If not, think of something specific today—just one thing—that you once withheld but can now give to Him. Do that every day until you can find nothing else in your life that refuses to call Him Lord. The honor is rightfully His.

There’s not a thumb’s breadth of this universe about which Jesus Christ does not say, “It is mine.”

—ABRAHAM KUYPER