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Honor: The esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation.
Greek: timao[tim-ah’o]: honor [19], value [2]. from (timios); to prize, i.e. fix a valuation upon; by implication to revere :- honour, value. Strong's Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary. "to honor" (akin to A, No. 1), is used of (a) valuing Christ at a price, Matt. 27:9, cp. A, No. 1, (a); (b) "honoring" a person: (1) the "honor" done by Christ to the Father, John 8:49; (2) "honor" bestowed by the Father upon him who serves Christ, John 12:26; (3) the duty of all to "honor" the Son equally with the Father, John 5:23; (4) the duty of children to "honor" their parents, Matt. 15:4; Matt. 19:19; Mark 7:10; Mark 10:19; Luke 18:20; Eph. 6:2; Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old Testament and New Testament Words.
All the many years that I have been on this earth, I do not remember a time, even in my youth, that I spoke about or to my parents with disrespect. Many years of college and out in the world found me around the folks who said a lot of negative things about their parents, and I even experienced them talking to them with disrespect. Never did I call them names like ‘old man’ or ‘old woman’ and as a result, I have never said this about my wife or friends.
We see a great deal of disrespect for parents these days and the fruit of that is Deuteronomy 5:16 (NKJV) 'Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
I had a friend years ago who brought his son up in a church and loved him in a way that I felt was appropriate. As years passed and he entered his twenties, he was following the crowd and in total rebellion against the parents, to the tune of stealing and lying to them on a regular basis. It got so bad that the father had to ask him to leave the house and yet the son continued to steal. Eventually my friend had to turn him into the authorities and the long and the short of it—he went to prison for 10 years. How sad is that, yet it all came about because of disrespect of the parents and not trusting their words.
Honor is defined as: to regard with great respect, pay public respect to, to fulfill an obligation. The key point here is that the parent is not to earn this respect, but it is to be given to the parents because of who they are. I realize that the actions of parents can move a child one way or another, but this does not negate the idea that the honor of the parents has already been earned by the blood.
If you have been in a situation where dishonor has been apparent, talk to your mom and/or dad and repent and get it fixed. This is one of the greatest shortfalls of the ‘end of your life experience’ that I have seen with especially men. They wish they could get their dad back to get it fixed. Don’t be one of these types of prideful men, it is not worth it.
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