People honour us, and it's okay to just receive that, but we should reflect it back to God. When people honour you for something you've done, and appreciate you, it's okay to receive it; but then reflect it, bring it back - Father, this has come from You, this is what You've done. You always bring the honour back to Him. There's an honour that comes from men, which is temporary. In life, people have temporary; they look good for a while… but watch their whole life - they don't look good all the time! He said: there's also an honour that comes from God, which is eternal. What will you pursue? The honour that comes from men: position, recognition, understanding, people liking you; or are you going to seek the honour that comes from God? If we seek the honour that comes from men, the outcome is we'll never develop a life of faith that pleases God.
Galatians 1:10 – “Am I now trying to win the favour and approval of men, or of God?”
There it is. What's motivating you: wanting people to like you, and approve of you, and favour you; or do you want that from God? He says: am I seeking to please someone; for if I'm trying to be popular with men, I cannot be the servant of Christ. He makes it very clear: if I seek to please men, I can't be the servant of Christ. All of us are going to find ourselves, as we follow Jesus, there will come points of conflict, where people misunderstand you, people reject you, people speak against you. You should not try to explain or try to repair that. We make our focus on honouring God in what we do. This requires a life of faith, trusting that God is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Jesus taught an honour system that was different. He taught this is what the eternal honour system, or the culture of kingdom of heaven, is.
Matthew 20:25 – “Jesus called to them and said: you know the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them”.
In the kingdoms of the world, people seek honour; privilege; roles; titles; influence; recognition; seating at the highest place in the table; having people acknowledge them, whenever they come in the room. He said: that's what they do; but it shall not be so, among you. He makes it very clear that in the kingdom of heaven, greatness is demonstrated by the heart of a servant - a humble heart, a serving heart.
Humility and serving, sacrificial serving, is the core of what God is like, and Jesus demonstrated it in many ways. He says: “whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your servant, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give His life a ransom for many”. Jesus never had any expectation that people, or life, would serve Him, and this is where many people get angry and frustrated. They have an unspoken expectation that life should work well for me; people should be nice to me; life should go good for me; and when you have that expectation, you'll have disappointment - you'll get frustrated, and angry.
“He did not come to serve, to be served, but to serve”.
Whenever He entered a relationship with someone, or went into a situation, it was not to extract value out of it; it was to give value into it. Jesus identified clearly that the honour system of the world is rooted in pride, and it's based on a desire for position, power, control, privilege, and honour. You can either seek it in this life; or you can seek it in eternity. In eternity it goes on for eternity; but when you seek it in this life, it comes and goes! You can be doing well one day and gone the next; but if our goal is to honour God, and seek His honour, then what happens is we'll go through seasons of elevation and humiliation, but at the end, God lifts us up.
So that's the teaching around honour, and we see that honour is a kingdom value. The culture of the kingdom is one of honour - the honour of all men, not just a privileged few. Even in Christian circles, often the honour flows all one way, but it doesn't flow back again; but in the kingdom of God, He says: honour all men; and He gives a list of all the people to honour. We honour widows, children, kings, those in authority, leaders, elders... Honour is the value of people, regardless of what they do. It's a gift to them. We all must choose then, between the honour of the world, or the honour of God.