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Honouring Others

When Paul has his Damascus Road experience in Acts chapter 9 and falls to the ground the question the Lord asks him is ‘why are you persecuting ME?’ Of course Paul isn’t persecuting Jesus directly, it is the church he is after. However, Jesus identifies with his church so strongly that it is one and the same thing. Which got me thinking about how we treat the church and its members. Do we really treat the church and those who make up the church as though they were Jesus? Probably not. It is all too easy to complain and criticise, and, lets face it, there is plenty to be critical about in the church, but Jesus honours her by identifying so completely with her.

In his letter to the Philippian church Paul instructed them to ‘honour others above themselves’. Why should we honour one another?

In Genesis 1 God made humanity in his image and positioned them, male and female to reign over the earth. Humanity was to bear the father’s image, reflecting back to God his likeness. Submitted to God, reigning in his name and demonstrating who he was to one another as they lived in unity and humility with one another. There was honour in carrying the image. But then sin arrived and with it came the alienation between God and humanity, and within humanity itself. It brought with it division, status, and hierarchy on the basis of gender, race, wealth, education, birthright. The unity and the image were broken; the honour was tarnished.

Christ came to reconcile us back to God and also to one another, as Paul reminds us in Galatians; ‘ There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus’. God’s son came voluntarily to win back the carriers of the image; we are honoured in the most profound way by the death of the perfect image bearer. When Paul calls us to submit to one another it is to the image of the Father in one another that we submit, we recognise that image in esteeming another as being of more value than ourselves.

We are not called to submit to that which is wrong or evil, and not in the image or character of God. We are not called to submit in a way that dishonours the image we carry – we were made equal in his sight. That was the original plan. But, we are called to honour one another and to honour the body of Christ. Oh, and by the way, the ‘one another’ includes the whole of humanity.

Title:	Sunday 19th June 2011

Date:	19/06/11
Reference:
Series:	General Topics
Speaker:	Dr. Ian Jagelman

Time:	51:01
Hits:	533

Honouring Others

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