Truly honorable

The man who tries to be good, loving, and kind finds life, righteousness, and honor. 

(Proverbs 21:21 TLB)

How does one live in a manner that expresses the goodness of God? This is probably one of the hardest questions for us to answer in life because goodness, true goodness, often evades the human mind and heart. "Good" expresses the meaning of moral excellence - virtue taken to the 'nth' degree. This is why it is sometimes hard for us to truly grasp this type of behavior - because it is motivated in a heart not corrupted in any manner by sin - or with a sin nature at the core of all its actions. Indeed, we need an exchanged heart, for ours is incapable of this type of 'moral excellence' or goodness.

A loving and kind disposition is what stems from this goodness of heart. Honestly, if we struggle at times to act in a way that expresses the love of Christ, it is probably that we haven't connected in some time with the heart of Christ! We need more time getting to know him, being renewed by his Spirit, and taking in little bits and pieces of his person into us so that we are molded and fashioned by that character into morally strong and confident beings.

Life, righteousness, and honor - the three byproducts of seeking this moral goodness in every fiber of our being. Life comes because we are disconnected from a decaying life source and reconnected to the source of eternal and vibrant life. Righteousness because we begin to see the sin nature stripped away until what is left is right and true. We see an exchange of what appealed to our sinful desires - because our desires begin to change the more we find ourselves spending time with Jesus.

Honor seems oddly placed in this list of character traits because we often see this as belonging to God himself and not us. Did you realize the primary definition of honor is honesty, fairness, or integrity in one's beliefs or actions? In other words, get the mind and heart of Christ into the fibers of your being and what emerges is a total "connection" between our actions and that heart of Christ. There is a congruity of character! One that is worthy of being called "honorable". Just sayin!