Give honor to whom honor is
due (Rom.
13:7)
The
flashing lights in your rearview mirror make you groan. Oh yeah, that was a
stop sign back there, wasn’t it? The one you flew through while glancing down
at the text that lit up your screen. The uniformed officer strides to your window.
You roll it down while your brain scans frantically through your excuse file in
case one of them fits this occasion. He whips off his sunglasses and you
recognize him. The kid from fifth grade! The bully who used to taunt you all
the way to the schoolyard. You heard he got kicked of college and he hits his
wife. He’s a cop now? Heat surges to your face and your fists clench.
Regardless
of what you feel like doing, would it be wisest to: a) jump out of the car and
pound his face? b) stare straight ahead
and refuse to answer anything he asks?
c) show him honor and comply with his request for your license and
registration? We wrestle with the idea of honoring officials who don’t deserve
the title. A policeman, a judge, or an elected official may each be a
dishonorable human being in many ways, but we are to show them honor because of
their position. Honor is not necessarily based upon the character of an
individual. We can show honor to a person because of the office he or she
holds. It is the office that earns our respect, even if the individual holding
that office does not.
God instituted authority
for our good. It works when we “give honor to whom honor is due.”
.
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