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Without Honor, Double Honor, Proper Honor Matthew 13:57, 1 Timothy 5:17, 1 Thessalonians 5:13
Men and women look upon God’s servants with greatly varying attitudes. Some give them no honor. Others set them upon pedestals and almost idolize them. What should a believer’s attitude be toward those men who faithfully labor in the work of the Gospel for the benefit of his immortal soul?
Without Honor Our Lord Jesus tells us plainly that “a prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own house” (Matthew 13:57). Those people among whom our Savior labored, his own neighbors and kinsmen, were offended by the Son of God because of his doctrine, and looked upon him with contempt, giving him no honor. Because they were very familiar with him, they did not esteem him above anyone else. Our Lord turned this fact into a point of needful instruction to his followers. He tells us that God’s prophets are commonly more highly esteemed by people who live at a distance from them. Every faithful man, in every age and society, has experienced this sad and painful fact (2 Kings 2:23). In this modern age of electronic communication and ease of travel, a preacher is commonly known by many who live far from him, and is often admired by those who see him face to face only a few times a year. Those same people, if they lived near and regularly attended that man’s ministry, would soon cease to honor him. I learned long ago that it is much easier to be a person’s pastor if he lives a thousand miles away, than it is if he lives next door. As long as he lives at a distance, a man has no sense of responsibility to the church or its pastor, and does not have to fit in with the family.
Double Honor The Spirit of God tells us that pastors who rule the house of God well, “especially they who labor in the word and doctrine,” are to be “counted worthy of double honor” (1 Timothy 5:17). The word translated “honor” means “value, pay, preciousness, esteem, and dignity.” That means that the man who faithfully labors for your soul is to be counted by you as one worthy of “double” the honor you heap upon him, one to whom you cannot give sufficient honor.
Proper Honor 1st Thessalonians 5:13 tells us precisely what our attitude ought to be with regard to God’s servants. — “Esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake.” Let every saved sinner in every Gospel church highly esteem his own pastor in love, realizing that his pastor (if he is God’s servant) devotes his life to the work of the Gospel for the everlasting salvation of those he serves. Give that same love and high esteem to all God’s servants known to you, for Christ’s sake. Such high esteem is proper honor to faithful men. It is honoring to God and honoring to the Gospel. And this high esteem is the secret to peace in God’s church. Where it is found, there is “peace among yourselves.” Where this proper esteem is not found, in any local church, there is turmoil.
Don Fortner
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