Honouring God: what it means and how to do it every day
Some words wear thin from overuse. “Honour” is one of them: it sounds like medals, speeches and ceremonies. But in the Bible it is a word with weight, and God himself speaks it in one of the most serious and most beautiful sentences in all of Scripture:
“Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.”
1 Samuel 2:30
“Them that honour me I will honour.” The sentence was spoken in a sad hour, to an old priest who had stopped taking God seriously, yet it holds a promise for anyone willing to receive it. This article sets out to understand it: what it means to honour God, why he deserves it, how he is honoured in everyday life, what dishonours him, and what happens when we discover that we have not honoured him. There is a prayer at the end.
What it means to honour
In Hebrew, “to honour” and “glory” spring from the same root (kabed, kabod), which means “to be heavy”. To honour someone is to give them weight: to treat them as someone who counts, whose word tips the scales of our decisions. The opposite is to “despise”, to treat as a light thing. That is exactly what the verse says: those for whom God carries weight, God honours; those who think little of him end up “lightly esteemed”.
In the Greek of the New Testament the word is timē, which means both “honour” and “price”. To honour is to recognise what something is worth. That is why the question of God’s honour is so concrete: how much does God weigh in my real life? Not in what I say I believe, but in my diary, my money, my conversations, and what I do when nobody is watching.
To honour God, then, is not to add something he lacks. He does not need our honour in order to be glorious. It is to recognise what he already is and to live accordingly.
Why God deserves honour
“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”
Revelation 4:11
The first reason is simple: he made us. We exist because he willed it. Daniel said it to King Belshazzar in a sentence that makes one tremble: “the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified” (Daniel 5:23). Every breath is on loan.
The second is greater still: he bought us. “Ye are bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20). That price—the very same Greek word as “honour”—was the blood of his Son. God gave worth to us before we ever acknowledged his.
And Paul shows that this is where all human wandering begins: “when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful” (Romans 1:21). Sin does not begin with a scandal but with ingratitude: treating God as though he had no weight.
“Where is mine honour?”
“A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?”
Malachi 1:6
In Malachi’s day nobody had stopped going to the temple. Worship went on; the sacrifices went on. But people were bringing to the altar the animals that were of no use to them: the blind, the lame, the sick. And God sets them a test that has not aged: “offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee?” (1:8). What you would not dare offer your employer, do you offer to God?
The question still stands. What do I give God? The best of my day, or the minutes left over when I have nothing left? My attention or my distraction? The first or the remains? God does not ask for quantities: he asks for first place. Dishonouring him hardly ever means insulting him. It means giving him the leftovers.
And notice how those priests replied: “Wherein have we despised thy name?” They had not noticed. A lack of honour is rarely visible from the inside. That is why it is wise to ask God about it in prayer, and to listen for the answer.
Honouring with the lips
“This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”
Matthew 15:8-9
Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah to describe the commonest danger among religious people: a mouth that is near and a heart that is far. It is possible to sing, pray, preach and post Bible verses while God weighs nothing in our decisions. “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
Samuel said it to Saul, who tried to cover an act of disobedience with an offering: “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22). And Jesus taught that the Father seeks those who worship “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23). None of this belittles the praise of the lips, which the Bible commands; it asks that behind the lips there be a life.
To honour God is to honour the Son
Jesus said something no prophet had ever dared to say: “That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him” (John 5:23). God cannot be honoured while Jesus Christ is set aside. The Father himself “hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name”, so that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, “to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).
That is why the first way to honour God, before any work at all, is to believe him: to receive the Son he sent and to trust in him. And it is the Holy Spirit who brings us to do so. Of him Jesus said: “He shall glorify me” (John 16:14). Where the Spirit is at work, Christ carries more weight.
How God is honoured every day
The Bible brings the honour of God down from the temple into the kitchen. Here are seven concrete ways.
With gratitude
“Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me” (Psalm 50:23). Jesus healed ten lepers and only one turned back and “with a loud voice glorified God”. And Jesus asked: “Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?” (Luke 17:15, 17). Giving thanks is the simplest form of honour: acknowledging where what I have comes from. Begin and end the day by giving thanks for something specific. The Psalms and the article Hallelujah: the meaning and power of praise teach that language.
With the body
“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
The body is not an obstacle to the spiritual life: it is the place where God is honoured. He is honoured by purity, by rest, by care for our health, by what we look at and by the places we go. Paul calls it presenting the body as “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God” (Romans 12:1). Read We do not live after the flesh.
With our possessions
“Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.”
Proverbs 3:9-10
“Firstfruits” means what comes first, not what is left once everything else has been paid. Giving to God and to those in need before we spend is a way of saying: this is not mine, it was entrusted to me. But Jesus measured the offering differently from us: the widow who threw in “two mites” cast in “more … than all”, because the others gave “of their abundance” (Mark 12:42-44). What counts is not the figure but the heart.
A necessary warning: this proverb is not a formula for getting rich, and nobody has the right to use it to pressure you into giving what your family needs to live on. “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). God is also honoured when we pay our debts, deal honestly in business and do not hold back another person’s wages. Read The Lord and money.
With our words
“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain” (Exodus 20:7). To honour his name is not to use it as a filler, nor in a false oath, nor to lend authority to our own opinions. James goes further: with the same tongue “bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God” (James 3:9). God is not honoured on Sunday if on Monday we tear someone apart with our mouth.
With work and ordinary things
“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Eating and drinking: the most ordinary things there are. “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men” (Colossians 3:23). Whoever sweeps well, heals well, teaches well, cooks with love or writes an honest invoice is honouring God, even if nobody calls it worship.
With the way we treat others
“He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor” (Proverbs 14:31). God counts himself honoured or offended by the way we treat those who bear his image. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:40). That is why the Bible commands: “Honour all men” (1 Peter 2:17), and before anyone else: “Honour thy father and thy mother” (Exodus 20:12). Read A prayer for our parents and Love for your neighbour according to the Bible.
In secret
True honour is tested where nobody applauds. Jesus warned against doing good “to be seen” (Matthew 6:1) and spoke of a Father “which seeth in secret” (6:4). John tells of some who believed in Jesus and did not dare confess him: “they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God” (John 12:43). The one who honours God does what is right though nobody finds out, and is not ashamed of him when everybody is watching.
Jesus, the one who honoured the Father
Only one man has ever honoured God completely. “I honour my Father,” said Jesus (John 8:49). He did not seek his own glory. In Gethsemane he prayed: “not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39). And when his soul was troubled before the cross, his request was: “Father, glorify thy name” (John 12:28). On the eve of his death he could say: “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do” (John 17:4).
This is gospel, and not only example. The honour we owed to God and did not give him, Christ gave him on our behalf, even to the shame of the cross. That is why honouring God is not the way to earn his love: it is the response of someone who has already been loved.
What dishonours God
Paul wrote to religious people: “Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you” (Romans 2:23-24). Nothing dishonours God more than a believer who speaks of him and lives against him: the one who swindles with a Bible in his hand, the one who mistreats those at home and smiles in church, the one who uses the pulpit for himself.
Keeping the glory also dishonours him. Herod let himself be hailed as a god and fell “because he gave not God the glory” (Acts 12:23). Nebuchadnezzar had to lose everything before he learned to say: “I … praise and extol and honour the King of heaven … those that walk in pride he is able to abase” (Daniel 4:37). “What hast thou that thou didst not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). The psalmist left us the prayer that protects us: “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory” (Psalm 115:1).
And let us return to Eli. His fault was not a crime of his own but a silence: his sons were abusing the people and the altar, he knew it and he did not stop them. God put it to him like this: thou “honourest thy sons above me” (1 Samuel 2:29). God is dishonoured whenever someone—a child, a partner, an employer, other people’s opinion, oneself—weighs more than he does. And he is dishonoured in an especially grave way when evil is covered up inside his house.
The promise: “them that honour me I will honour”
The promise is real. Jesus repeated it: “if any man serve me, him will my Father honour” (John 12:26). And the psalm: “I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him” (Psalm 91:15).
But it must be understood rightly. It is not a business deal in which I give and God pays. God’s honour is not always success, health or money; many of those who honoured him most paid for it with their reputation, their work or their life. Jesus spoke to Peter of “by what death he should glorify God” (John 21:19). The honour God gives is his presence now, his approval—worth more than everyone else’s—and, at the end, his word: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant … enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matthew 25:21).
David understood this. When he danced before the ark and his wife despised him for lowering himself, he answered: “And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight” (2 Samuel 6:22). Whoever honours God accepts looking small in some people’s eyes. “Before honour is humility” (Proverbs 15:33).
When we have not honoured him
Anyone who reads all this honestly ends up admitting: I have not honoured him. I have given him the leftovers, I have honoured him with my lips, I have kept his glory for myself. That confession is not the end: it is the door. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:17). “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins” (1 John 1:9).
The prodigal son had dishonoured his father in every possible way, and he came back saying: I “am no more worthy to be called thy son”. The father’s answer was: “Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand” (Luke 15:21-22). God honours the one who returns. If you have drifted away, read Coming back to Christ.
Frequently asked questions
Is honouring God the same as worshipping him? Worship is its centre, but honour is wider: it takes in obedience, gratitude, the use of money, body and words, and the way we treat others. It is worship stretched across the whole of life.
Does God need my honour? No. He lacks nothing. We are the ones who need it: we were made for his glory (Isaiah 43:7), and only when God has his place does the heart find its own.
Does honouring God with my possessions mean I must give money even if I have none? No. It means giving him first place, freely and gladly, according to what each one has. Nobody pressured the widow with her two mites. Be wary of anyone who promises you wealth in exchange for an offering.
If I honour God, will everything go well for me? God promises to honour those who honour him, but he does not promise a life without a cross. He promises his presence, his care and a reward that cannot be lost.
How do I begin today? With three small steps: give thanks for something specific, give God the first of your day and not the leftovers, and obey in the thing you already know he is asking of you.
Prayer
Holy Father, you are worthy to receive glory and honour, for you made me and my breath is in your hand. Today I come before you without excuses. I have given you the leftovers: the time I had to spare, the attention I was not using, words said from memory. I have honoured you with my lips while my heart was far away. I have kept applause that was yours, and I have cared more about what people think of me than about what you think. Forgive me. Thank you, Lord Jesus, because you honoured the Father for me all the way to the cross, and because you bought me with a price when I was worth nothing in my own eyes. Come, Holy Spirit. Make God weigh more in my life than everything else: more than my fear, more than my money, more than my name. Teach me to honour you in small things: at my table, in my work, in my body, in the way I speak and the way I treat those closest to me. Give me a thankful heart that turns back, like that leper, to give you glory. And when nobody sees me, may you find me faithful. Not unto me, Lord, not unto me, but unto your name give glory. I want to live for you, and at the end of my road, by your grace alone, to be able to say to you: I have honoured you on the earth. Amen.