Encompassing Command to Honor All Men

Recap of 1 Peter's Structure and Flow

0:02 Now let us turn together to 1 Peter and the second chapter, 1 Peter chapter 2, and will you follow, please, in your own Bibles as I read verses 11 through 17. 1 Peter chapter 2, beginning the reading at verse 11. Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your behavior seemly among the Gentiles, that wherein they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works which they behold glorify God in the day of visitation. Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme or unto governors as sent by him for vengeance. Be subject to every ordinance on evildoers and for praise to them that do well. For so is the will of God, that by well-doing you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, as free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants

1:29 of God. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God.

1:37 Honor. Now, two months have passed since I last said to you from this pulpit, let us turn together to the book of 1 Peter.

1:55 Precise, it was on November 15th of the year that has passed that we last examined together a portion of this epistle of the apostle Peter. And as we come this morning to begin an exposition of verse 17, I do want to take a moment to take a few minutes to remind you of the overall structure of this letter and the flow and connection of thought as we have studied it together thus far. Those of you who have been present for the majority of the expositions will remember, I trust, that Peter is here expressing under the guidance of the Spirit, deep then, she identifies these believers under the image of Jesus. In the imagery of elect sojourners of the dispersion who dwell in those five Roman provinces,

3:11 Peter begins that breathtaking eulogy, blesses God for this amazing confession of every believer, end of verse 12, and then, in what is an obvious transition, knowing these believers, believingly, and lay horse should be, the terminology again and again, dictatives of grace are the foundation of the imperatives of grace.

4:22 The fancy way of sin have in Christ is the foundation of what we are to do and to be imperatives, commanding of this amazing salvation to live a life of steadfast hope, universal holiness, verse 15, love of the brethren, verse 22, and a life marked by constant spiritual hunger, chapter 2 and verse 2. Then in chapter 2 and verse 4, he now lays out another string of indicatives, that is, a concentrated explanation of God. The focus is not so much upon those privileges as they are highlighted by considering them

5:36 in the individual life of the believer, but in the corporate identity of the people of God. And so he tells them that they are, they are made living stones, and as such, they are built together into a spiritual house, verses 4 and 5. Furthermore, he tells them they are made a holy priesthood. They are not only the temple, but the priests who are active in that temple.

6:04 And as this holy priesthood, they are privileged to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ the Lord. And then in the following verses, he tells them, that as believers, rightly related to Christ, the chief cornerstone in the spiritual temple, described in verses 9 and 10, an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of possession, in order that they might show forth the excellencies or the virtues of Him who called them out of darkness into marvelous light, a people who at one time were no people, but now are, the people of God. Then, in a transition just as evident as we found in chapter 1 in verse 13, Peter, in chapter 2 in verse 11, now turns from the indicative, from the what is, to the what ought to be. And so he begins, Beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your behavior seemly, living an attractive Christian lifestyle among the Gentiles.

7:27 And so now he's going to move from statements of privilege, responsibility, and duty. And he begins then with this general call, with negative and positive aspects, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, have your behavior seemly, that is a call now issued, to these privileged saints. From the general call, he then moves to verse 13, to chapter 3, upon this people of God, are to abstain from fleshly lusts, and to live out by the grace of God, this worthy pattern of life. And I trust you remember what that specific area is. It confronts us in verse 13,

8:37 To your masters, like manner you wives, be in subjection, of what is the specific area that Peter addresses. It's as though people ask the question, Well, Peter, yes. In the light of my great privileges as an individual believer, in the light of my amazing privileges as part of that spiritual temple, that holy priesthood, that royal nation, how am I to live this attractive, this praiseworthy lifestyle that will condemn the validity of the gospel before the minds of unlooking people, Gentiles that will validate that indeed I have been brought into union with Christ, that I have been raised to newness of life in that union with Christ. Peter, what in the world does it mean in the stuff of real life? Peter's answer is, it means that you will, that submission

10:02 is mandated by the revealed will of God. Do you want to live a lifestyle that commends the gospel, you saints in Asia Minor? Are you sincere in asking the question, what does it mean in the nitty-gritty of everyday life to abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul? Have my behavior attractive and seemly and praiseworthy? Peter says, this is what it means. First of all, it means, wherever you find yourself, you will be able to live a lifestyle that commends the gospel. Find yourself in any relationship. You are the one to receive directions and orders and commands from the heart, your place of submission. Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. Servants be in subjection to your masters. Wives be in subjection to your masters. How

11:02 relevant is this? Here we are reading a first century document written by a converted Galilean fisherman named Peter, most likely from the city of Rome, to believers scattered to the far reaches of the then existing Roman Empire in Asia Minor, and he says this issue is critical. Life that glorifies God and validates the gospel, a right relationship, constituted frameworks, and I say based on this emphasis, in testimony of the grace of God validated in the eyes of the non-looking world. If we would commend the gospel by a praiseworthy life, where God has established a relationship of submission to authority, the child of God must evidence that relationship from the depths. So in our last

12:24 studies, I sought to open up in your hearing verses 13 in its first category, after saying, Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. He then focuses upon what we would call the authority of the civil governor, whether to kings as supreme or governors as sent by him for vengeance on evildoers and for praise to them that do well. Then he gives the motivation, for so is the will of God that by well-doing you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Then he focuses upon the disposition with which they are to do this, as free men, not regarding this as bondage, but as those who have been set free from the condemning power of the law, from the thralldom of the devil and the kingdom of darkness, from the laws and commandments of men that would in any way rival the authority of God. You are to fulfill this directive as free men, in the spirit of filial freedom. And joy, but as those who are not abusing their freedom as free, yet not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness. Don't say, because I'm free before the law of God, no longer condemned by the

13:53 God of the universe, free from the commandments of men, therefore that makes me utterly free from any obligation to any human authority. He said, no, no, that's to use your freedom as a cloak for wickedness. But rather, he said, with a disposition of joyful, servitude to God, literally, as slaves of God, as those who purchased faithfully, taking their posture as the loving bond slaves. That's an overview of the structure of the letter, and as we have sought to expound it over the past months. And that brings us then to verse 17. And we ought to be surprised. If I had been writing the letter, of course, assuming that I were under the guidance of the Spirit of God as people, I would not have been writing the letter. I would not have been

The Surprising Insertion of Four Imperatives

14:48 unless I was writing the通 años. And then to finish, what I was Flower deplqeshaped of Catholicplan, to do so, is to teach us how to take on the leadership role of the Synod of Christ. He's given this statement that covers the issue of being submissive or in subjection to this ordinance of human government. And then he's going to move to the servant master relationship. But before he does, he confronts us with what we find in our Bibles as chapter two and verse seventeen. Honor, All men love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. Here is this surprising insertion of four very terse, very succinct, very simple, direct imperatives. For you who know a little something about grammar and syntax, here we have no subordinate clauses.

15:45 We have no anacluthon. We don't have a statement that starts here and gets hung over here and to which the author may or may not return. We don't have any parenthetical phrases, no dashes, no colons. Just like machine gun fire, four bullets are shot at us.

16:04 Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. Here are imperatives. They're even more simple than the original. Now what in the world is going on?

16:22 What in the world is going on here? Has Peter had a temporary lapse of direction? Has he been like a preacher, gets caught up in his sermon and in his illustration and forgets where he was and where he's going and has to stop and go look at his notes and come back again? Well, of course not.

16:37 He is under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The great shepherd of the sheep, the Lord Jesus, is exercising his shepherding care for these saints in Asia Minor through his servant Peter. And he is deeply concerned. And he is deeply concerned about the issues that are couched in these four imperatives.

Question 1: Connection to the Paragraph (The Train Analogy)

16:57 And as I attempt to begin to unpack them this morning, it seems to me that it's absolutely necessary that together we ask two questions of the text.

17:10 The ending of the words. Question number one, what is the connection of this text with the whole paragraph? What is the connection of this? Now some of you may say, oh, here's...

17:32 Well, my friend, listen.

17:38 Context is a pretext. Context is a pretext. And the connections are as much the product of the inspiration of the Spirit of God as the...

17:51 Ever forget that. The Spirit has inspired...

18:04 And to be indifferent to the connections is to put ourselves in the way of misunderstanding the content.

18:15 Irritated when someone loves your soul enough to take the time to patiently and clearly show you the connectives is to succumb to an... Irresponsible haste in your desire to know the Bible that puts you in the way of embracing anything can be proved from the text of...

18:42 She can be proved by a script.

18:52 Question number one, what's the connection of these four scottal-like imperatives with the whole drift paragraph? Well, let me try to use an illustration. Suppose a wealthy man...

19:08 I mean, this guy is filthy rich. He's got big...

19:11 A few thousand... A couple hundred thousand.

19:16 He's up there with Bill Gates in his hill. He's got lots of shekels. His affections are moved to you, and he wants to give you a very, very special and a unique present. No strings attached.

19:32 Just give it out of the love and out of the grace and generosity of his heart. So one day you receive an official document by registered mail that this wealthy man has had constructed specifically for you and deposited at some particular place a very special...

19:50 personally commended to you train. And on a given day you go to the place and you just can't figure all of this out and sure enough all the documents are there and here is this train. And you look at it and there at the front is an engine.

20:10 And then right behind it there is a cargo car and behind that there are three passenger cars and then there is a dining car and then there is a sleeping car and there is a caboose.

20:26 And you're fascinated by this arrangement. So you ask your wealthy benefactor. You say to him, Sir, I can't figure out why you've given me this train, but tell me, why have you arranged it? He said, oh, there's a very, very good reason.

20:42 I hope you understand why the engine's in front. It's got to pull all the rest. I say, yes, I can understand that. Why have you got the cargo car there?

20:49 He said, well, there's a good reason. Because there may be things in that cargo car that we wouldn't want the ordinary passenger car to see. There might be toxic materials that would be dangerous for them to be near them. And so we've put it there that none of the passengers will ever have to pass through that cargo car.

21:09 We say, oh, that makes sense. And why are the next three cars passenger cars? Well, that way the passengers can move freely from one to another. Oh, I understand that.

21:18 Well, why did you put the dining car where you did? Well, that way when people want to eat they can pass through their cars, go to the dining car, but at the same time people that have gone in to the sleeping car will only have to go one car over into the dining car. They won't have to walk through the ordinary passenger cars. And the caboose, you know why that's where it is.

21:41 That way the staff and the personnel will be very sensitive to people sleeping in the sleeping car. When they need to do their things and they need to rest, they'll go to the caboose. And you see, there's great wisdom in the arrangement of the cargo car. Now, it was all of grace and the kindness and the beneficence of the heart of this wealthy man that he gave you the train.

22:02 But in his wisdom, he had a specific design in each of the cars of that train.

22:09 Now, are you at liberty if you're going to respect both the largeness of his heart and the wisdom of his head to rearrange the whole thing and put the engine in the middle and the caboose in the front and the sleeping car number two and the baggage car and the... You say, of course not.

22:32 Well, that's the point I'm making with God's Word. God's Word is not just the cars in the train, but it's God's cars in God's train with God's arrangement. Don't mess around with the caboose and with the engine and take the time to find out why the caboose is at the end and the engine's at the front and the dining car, is second to last. Now, long after you forgot a lot about my sermon, I hope you remember that every time you get irritated and pick up your Bible and say, oh, I've got this big, long sentence and there's this wherefore and the whereas, I just want a blessing.

23:12 You start coming to your Bible like a heavenly Ouija board and you will forfeit the right to know what God has said in His Word. This is not a celestial Ouija board. Get jagged with something and feel good. It demands...

23:30 It demands the engagement of all of your faculties, not only in your personal study, but when you're sitting at the feet of a responsible... Your mind functions to anyone.

23:48 I don't care how eloquent, how persuasive, how clever, how impassioned he may be. If he doesn't take the time to lead you into the connections...

24:02 I've given all that polemic. It was a good play. We want to answer the question. The connection.

24:09 Sometimes the connections are very obvious. Here, they're not so obvious, but it appears to me that this is the connection. Look at the passage. Peter has just said the motive that ought to govern our desire to be subject to every ordinance of man is not only for the Lord's sake generally and specifically to the king and to governors, but it is this, that it is the will of God, verse 15, that by well doing, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.

24:48 He is concerned that by a pattern of well doing, the mouths of ignorant and foolish men may be stopped. And it seems to me that that passionate concern that throbs through Peter's letter, he is constantly exhorting and teaching these believers in the consciousness that they are living in a hostile, hostile society. They are living among those who do not have a native sympathy for the things that are now most dear and precious to them. And it's as though some of them have asked and said, well, Peter, if being submissive to the king and to governors is part of a lifestyle of well doing that becomes a muzzle upon the mouths of the ignorant of foolish men, then, Peter, is there something else that will help us in pursuing that noble goal? And it's as though Peter says, yes, before we leave this subject entirely, honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God.

26:07 Honor the king. A less obvious connection, but very possible connection, derives, from verse 16. Peter was conscious that these people, having come into an appreciation of their newfound freedom in Christ, might be tempted to abuse that freedom. So he gives this preventive, this inoculation against a libertine spirit as free, yet not using your freedom as a cloak for wickedness, but as the slaves of could the connection be that Peter is saying, look, yes, you are free.

26:50 You are free from any man binding your conscience beyond what God says. You are free from the tyranny of men's threats and men's frowns, but you are not free from obligations to all men. Honor all men. Yes, you are free.

27:08 You stand before God in Jesus Christ, and in that sense, you stand in a noble individuality, but you do not stand alone. There is a brotherhood, established by grace. Love the brotherhood. And above all, your freedom has not released you from the most solemn obligations to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to live all of your life before his eye.

27:32 Therefore, fear God. And lest you think I have forgotten my overall subject, I tell you, honor the king. Well, it seems to me that those are at least the possibilities of the connection of verse 17 with the thrust of the previous paragraph. The second question is this.

Question 2: Internal Structure of the Text

27:52 What is the internal structure within the text itself?

27:58 Now we're asking not where is the engine in the caboose, but what does the engine look like? What are its component parts? And when we look at this text in our English translations, we see four simple, straightforward imperatives. Honor all men.

28:15 Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. But then you have a problem.

28:22 You look at the text in the original and you say, well, wait a minute. Peter used a different form of the verb when he said, honor all men. He uses a form of the verb that is more concentrated and strident. For the other three imperatives, he uses present imperatives.

28:41 Well, is he doing that to set apart that first one as something that's a key to the rest? And some say, yes, that's the internal structure. What he's saying is, honor all men. Honor all.

28:52 Well, that is,

28:55 you are to, and here are the specifics. Love the brotherhood. That's how you honor them. How do you honor God?

29:02 You fear him. And how do you show honor to the king? Well, you just honor him. In other words, they try to make the three imperatives that come after the first one explanatory and flowering out of the first.

29:16 Frankly, it doesn't carry my judgment, nor does it carry the judgment of the majority of the commentators. Some suggest, well, what we're really, what we have is two couplets. And Peter, with pastoral wisdom, understands the hearts and the minds of these people. And what he is saying is this.

29:35 Here are relationships where there is no authority involved. All men in general and your relationship to the brotherhood. One of those things is obvious. Surely it's obvious you're to love the brotherhood because Peter's already told them in chapter one, you've been begotten again by the Spirit of God unto one man.

29:54 And you've been begotten again by the Spirit of God unto one man. And you've been begotten again for the unfeigned love of the brethren, therefore love one another from the heart fervently. But then he adds a duty that may not be so obvious at the horizontal level. Yes, you know you're to love the brotherhood, but I'm telling you honor all men.

30:08 Then there's a second couplet where authority is involved. And that is God and the King. So he starts with God and says fear Him and furthermore fearing Him. Perhaps even thinking of a text in Proverbs that says fear God and the King.

30:24 He says, fear God and honor the King. So some see the internal structure of two couplets, two spheres of relationship, one with authority, the other without authority. Some suggest, no, you have an ascending scale. What Peter does, he says, all right, honor all men.

30:43 That's the broad base duty. Then you rise a little higher to a select circle of men. You love the brotherhood. Then you come to the exclusive right of the one who's at the top of the ascending scale.

30:55 You have a certain staircase of duty. Fear God. And in the midst of those obligations, don't forget, and he descends back again, you have the responsibility to honor the King. And then some others suggest, say, no, what you have here is sort of buckshot expression of duty.

31:14 You find it in several of the epistles, Romans chapter 13, beginning with verse 7 or 8 to the end of the chapter, 1 Thessalonians 5, where you have one duty after another and there is no necessary duty. There is no necessary internal logical relationship. And you know what's thrilled me again in my preparation? That there are men that love God's word enough to spend the time to even try to find out what the internal structure is.

31:39 It shows a high reverence for the word of God. That not only are the words inspired and the thoughts they convey, but the connections as well. And my own judgment is carried by the last three, any one of them or any combination of them. Number one, I throw out as unworthy, of consideration, but in opening up the text, I will assume that there's some validity in those last three.

Explanation of 'Honor All Men'

32:04 All right then, now we come to the text itself. And we're going to have time this morning only to consider the first imperative, honor both men. And we'll do so by explanation, secondly, amplification, and then thirdly and briefly, application. First of all, an explanation of the words of the text or the duty explained.

32:26 Honor all men. Now the word used for honor in its verb form can be used to mean to evaluate or to fix a price upon something.

32:41 A very clear example of this is Matthew chapter 27 in verse 9. Very familiar passage to many of us concerning what the priest did with the money that Judas came and threw down in the temple.

32:56 The money they had given him. For betraying the Lord Jesus. Verse 9. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, saying, They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was priced.

33:11 There's our verb. Whom certain of the children of Israel, here's our verb again, did price. Our word rendered honor. Our verb rendered honor in the imperative is the same verb used here and translated was priced of God.

33:28 Our value was placed upon a certain commodity. And in the noun form, honor, that's the other word that's used here in the passage. The price at which it was priced. The noun, the verb.

33:44 So that very naturally it came to be a word in the verb and noun form to speak of making an estimation of someone in terms of our perception of their value, and then relating to them accordingly. Six times the fifth commandment is recorded in the New Testament. You know what the fifth commandment is? Honor thy father and thy mother.

34:12 Each time this is the verb that is used. Children, honor your father and your mother. All of us are to honor them, not just children. Children, obey your parents, but we are all to honor father and mother.

34:24 What does it mean to honor them? Make a correct estimation of who and what they are. In terms of the will of God placing them over us as our parents and relate to them accordingly. This is the verb used in the familiar words of John 5.23 where Jesus speaks of the necessity of honoring the son even as they honor the father. Honoring the son even as they honor the father. All may honor the son as they honor the father. If it honors not the son, honors not the father.

35:08 He who does not place a proper value upon the son as he places upon the father and relate to the son accordingly even as he relates to the father. You see the sense of the verb? When Peter wrote, honor all men, he is saying, place, a proper value upon men and relate to them in terms of that value. Now what about the word translated in our English Bibles, all men?

35:42 It's an unfortunate translation. It's one of the problems of translation. The original does not convey the idea, honor all adult males.

35:52 No, it doesn't say that. It could say that. There's language that would fix the meaning there. But the word for all is generic.

36:00 All men, women, boys, girls, any color, any type, any background. Let me quote several usages that will make this evident right away. Jesus said in Matthew 10, 22, you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. That is, of all peoples.

36:18 Luke 2, 1 to 3, all the world went to be enrolled for that first taxation. Mary goes with Joseph up to Bethlehem. Didn't say all the male members of the, of the Roman Empire. And then the familiar words of Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned.

36:37 Now, everyone who's married knows that doesn't just apply to the husbands. Or you who are parents just apply to you as parents. All have sinned. All men, all women, all boys, all girls.

36:50 That's the word that Peter uses here. So we could perhaps give a better rendering by saying, honor all people. Honor all fellow human beings. In fact, in the original, the emphasis falls upon this breadth of the command.

37:08 It's placed forward. To give a more wooden rendering would be all honor all your fellow human beings. Honor all women, boys, and girls. Honor.

37:26 So then, in explaining the words of the text, in summary, very simply stated, these words constitute a broad, a sweeping, all-encompassing command to every child of God, to honor all people, all human beings, as opposed to animals, to plants, to rocks.

37:56 Think of the train of thought as though Peter is saying, would you really engage in well-doing that shuts the mouths of ignorant opposers of the gospel? Would you really prove that you love your place as a bond slave?

Amplification: Why Honor All Men? (Created Dignity and Redemptive Capacity)

38:17 Now you upon every... Now we come to an amplification of the duty demanded.

38:58 We've seen the duty established. Now the duty amplified.

39:04 In seeking to understand and implement gospel obedience to this simple imperative, once again, it seems to me, two questions have to be addressed. If we're thinking it all, if we're thinking it all, two questions need to be addressed. Why are we under obligation to honor all men? And secondly, how do we do it?

39:27 Don't those questions come to your mind? Why does God tell me I'm to honor all of my fellow human beings? Let me suggest that though we could come up with many more reasons, almost all of them can be reduced to two simple parts of the answer. First of all, because of their created dignity, and secondly, because of their redemptive capacity or potentiality.

39:53 Why are we under obligation to honor all of our fellow human beings? That is, to regard them in terms of their true value. And relate to them accordingly. Why?

40:08 Because of their created dignity and because of their redemptive capacity. You see, often simple statements in the Bible, like this simple command, have beneath them massive mounds of biblical data. And we're just seeing one little structure of responsibility or privilege constructed in the Bible. And we're just seeing constructed on top of that massive subterranean mound of biblical materials.

40:41 And when Peter says to these converted pagans in Asia Minor, would you engage in the well-doing that validates the gospel and shuts the mouths of the opposers of the truth of God, then honor all men. Why, Peter? Because all men are possessed to make man in our image and after our likeness. In the image of God created he him, male and female created he them.

41:23 And even though the Bible records the tragic event of the fall in Genesis 3, get hold of this to obliterate man's identity as image of God.

41:37 The very rationale for capital punishment in Genesis chapter 9 is that man is still the image of God even after the fall. And in James 3 and verse 9, James says, look, you ought not to be cussing your fellow creatures in one moment and blessing God in the next moment with the same tongue. He said, should we be cursing those who are made after the likeness of God?

42:05 We're to honor all men because all men have created dignity.

42:14 Man is not cosmic junk. You're not cosmic junk. No man however degraded. No man is a just a speck of matter that came from somewhere who knows where operated upon by time and space and chance and this is what he is.

42:41 No, man never was cosmic junk. Man was never cosmic accident from the very inception. Man is image of God. Yes, the image is marred, twisted, scarred, and crippled.

42:57 But you've seen pictures, haven't you? Perhaps some of you have been there and seen the ruins of ancient Rome. The massive remains of the once glorious impressive Colosseum. You've seen pictures of the remains of the massive impressive temples in Greece.

43:14 What do those remains tell us? All we need is a little imagination with modern computerized imaging. It's been amazing how people have taken very exact pictures and photographs of those ruins and they've been able to project what they looked like in their pristine beauty. And when we see those ruins, we don't say all those ruins are just a mass of rubble that came together with time plus space plus chance.

43:42 No. Those ruins remind us of the glory that once was. And when we look upon our fellow men, no matter how scarred, no matter how much they appear as the rubble of the image they once were, that very reality should be a reminder of the glory that once was. The glory that once was.

44:09 Suppose we were all to get into some buses and make our way into the city and find one of those areas where the homeless still gather. And we were to find some poor, pathetic creature curled up over a subway heating vent to try to keep warm. And as we drew closer to him, we see that his face is all pockmarked and covered with lesions. He has the look of a man who may be dying of AIDS.

44:40 His eyes are bleary and his breath reeks of alcohol. He's a poor, pathetic death lying in You get the picture? Now go to the Nassau Coliseum where they're having a dog show. And in come all of these dogs primped and fussed over and nails manicured and perfumed and flushed.

45:10 Go to some prestigious horse show and find the finest horses being brought for display. And then go to some large and well-known flower show in some other part of the country and bring together all of the most impressive animals, dogs and horses and flowers and floral arrangements that look beautiful to the eye and smell in a way that is pleasing to the nostrils and impressive but all of that together and listen all of that does not have one ten thousands of the world is image of God. He alone is endowed with rationality and with a capacity to know his God and to commune with him. He alone is image of God. And so when Peter says honor all of your fellow human beings it has nothing to do with what they're stationed.

46:24 It has nothing to do with what their moral character is. Yes, there is a doctrine of a certain form of honor that is due to those who are worthy of that honor. I'm fully aware of the other expanded aspects of this in my Bible but neither you nor I can escape the pressure of this. Honor all men.

46:48 They are not cosmic junk. And though sin has greatly marred and twisted and skewed that image it is nonetheless most precious because it is in it that man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul of one image farer is worth more than ten thousand worlds. The argument for the dignity of man of course comes to its when the words became one and dwelt among us. God has taken our humanity to himself never never to divorce himself from it. God the sinful fluff of which the derelict is made not his sin but leads the evil position and the sins of others

48:11 that have contributed on his way to the cross went into Joseph's tomb and is now at the hand of God. You listen you might as well act like I must honor them.

49:20 Why? As if their redemptive capacity or potentiality. What do I mean by those words? Simply this that person upon whom you look look, whoever he may be, could be transformed and restored as an image-bearer by the grace and power of God. If you could see a fallen angel, you could not look upon a fallen angel as a creature of redemptive capacity or potentiality. God bypassed the angels that fell. He has no purpose of restorative grace for them, none whatsoever. The Scripture says that they are kept in chains awaiting the judgment of the last day. But there is no human being

50:20 who breathes concerning whom I cannot say. He, see, by the grace and power of God, could become a restored image-bearer. There is redemptive capacity or potentiality. The Bible records that God's grace comes to the most unlikely. Read the story of Manasseh, the most wicked king that Israel ever had, and God transforms him. Saul of Tarsus, breathing out threatenings and slaughters. Take a poll. I'm sick of this government by poll. I don't believe them

51:11 anyway. That's my own opinion. I've lived in one place for thirty-five years, and I ain't never been called. I never had a call. Anyone here been called about this? I wonder who. I wonder who these people are. But anyway, that's just a little aside to let your mind loosen up for a minute. But come back to this issue that we're dealing with. The Bible records the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. If we'd done a poll among the church two days before Saul was arrested on the road to Damascus, who is the least likely candidate to become a Christian, let alone to become its most powerful, perceptive exponent and propagator? Saul of Tarsus would have won the poll. Hands down.

51:51 And yet God transformed him. And God can transform a Timothy who has the benefit and the impact of godly nurture for two generations. We need not look upon any man, woman, boy or girl in any other light. And that is a fallen image-bearer. That is a potential recipient of the grace of God. One author whom I consulted beautifully illustrated it this way. He said, suppose there was a young man, a prince. My dad said, I'm saved by death and my grandfather's eye now. He was practically a high-ocrist in reply to my childhood questions. I'd like to hear you write about your thoughts about that. I'm SWAT. Now, specifically, what does the text Если cama Godi choberсти dan Holland denies Doe Campbell can be I wonder, did you come back to community by his consumption of property?

52:55 I think I show concentration. But الن Fatman truce if you're one who's scattered and who's talking about Jesus Christ, why trouble is immigration happening and not government money? Well it's by constitution. He's dead going to DC. And the resolution is not about resilience.

52:55 No, you'd look upon him and you'd see, though he is destitute and stands before you in rags and tatters and sunken cheeks and the evidence of malnourishment, you would recognize here is one who could eventually be on a throne and rule as a king in spring. You get the point? No matter what sin is done, every fellow human being is a disinherited son or bit upon a throat who says, if you are sons, then heirs, heirs. Be gracious and loving to you and show an interest in you year after year when you still refuse my Christ. Why? Because I know you have the potential to become a fellow traveler. God is pleased to show you the loveliness of Christ.

54:12 As he's shown it to my hell-deserving heart, you'll be one of us. And glad you are. Because of their creative dignity, because of their redemptive capacity or potentiality, listen to what John Brown wrote so perceptive. There is indeed something revoltingly unnatural, something inconceivably mean and base, something grotesquely...

54:49 ...grotesquely absurd in a human being regarding with contempt any other.

54:56 He's marshaled his strongest language, something inconceivably mean and base, grotesquely absurd, something revoltingly unnatural to regard any fellow human being with contempt ever committed. Ask the question, why must we honor all men? And here, we need to have a whole sermon. How do we honor all men? How do we do it?

Amplification: How to Honor All Men (Biblical View and Tangible Manifestations)

55:52 Well, it seems to me as I've wrestled with that question, it all comes down to two very basic matters. And it's a lifetime to work them out. We must continually cultivate a biblical view and a biblical attitude toward all people. Cultivate a biblical view and a biblical attitude.

56:09 Look upon them as image-bearers. Yes, marred, scarred, fallen, hell-deserving image-bearers. Yes, but image-bearers. There is a created dignity.

56:21 There is redemptive potentiality. They become the recipients of God's grace. I've got to look upon them and think biblically when I look upon them. And then, secondly, I must continually seek tangible and appropriate manifestations of that attitude in my looks, in my words, and in my deeds.

56:45 It's useless to think I'm honoring all men if my honoring does not show in my looks. How I look at them, how I speak to them, and how I act in their presence. You see, that's where the Bible starts, doesn't it, with the attitude? Honor your father and your mother, Ephesians 6.

57:08 Then he says, children, obey your parents. If I inwardly honor them, I would outwardly obey them. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Make the tree good and its fruit good.

57:21 Guard your heart above all that you guard. Proud of it are the issues of life. Peter says, honor all men. That is, cultivate the inward disposition and perspective that the Bible mandates.

57:33 And then seek appropriate expressions of that in your life.

57:42 And I will prayerfully seek God about whether to bring a more full and extensive and detailed exposition of what some of those things are. But let me just sow a couple of seeds as we draw this message toward its close. If I think every time I'm in the presence of a fellow human being, whatever his or her circumstances be, you are image bearer, you are a potential recipient of grace. How will that manifest itself?

58:11 It will manifest itself in the way I look at them, and when I have opportunity to be where their eyes can meet mine. My eyes will say, I regard you with creative dignity. See, the Bible speaks about haughty eyes and lofty looks. You see?

58:30 You see another human being and go like this. What do your eyes and what does your facial expression say? I despise you. You're condescending.

58:45 Honor all. Even when that face appears on the TV, it pointed its finger and blatantly lied.

58:57 Don't you be guilty of the sin of despising that marred image bearer who is called President William Jefferson Clinton.

59:08 You have no right to despise. You have no right to despise him. No!

59:19 And if your looks are showing it, and your words are reflecting it, you're sinning. Repent. Have a commendable testimony of the grace of God. Rationally, biblically, in appropriate settings, expose his lies or anyone else's lies for the abominable thing that lying is.

59:43 Yes! In the context of internally honoring even that man.

59:52 The last imperative is, Honor the king with no parenthesis. If he's worthy of your honor. If, if, if, no ifs. Nero was in the palace when Peter wrote, Honor the king.

60:11 The way we look at people. I had an exercise in this just Friday when my wife was at the Hilton Hospital Cancer Center for her most recent infusion of the chemotherapy. And she normally goes on Thursdays, but Thursday got scuttled because of the weather. So we went.

60:30 We went on Friday, and we didn't see the people that are normally there when she goes in every three weeks on a Thursday.

60:37 And we pray that God will give us a witness and a testimony. We seek to be outgoing and personable. The man came in, looked to be about my age, tall man, about six foot three. He had the look of a man having a losing battle with cancer, but obviously lost weight, face was pallid, colorless, drawn, eyes a bit sunken.

61:01 When he walked through the door, I tried to look at him in a way that says, Sir, my face and heart are toward you. Absolute blank in response.

61:11 Four or five times in the course of the time that my wife was receiving her treatment and he was across the room, I deliberately looked over at him. I let a smile play off the corner of my mouth. Everything in me was saying, Sir, you're an image bearer of God. You could know the grace in this trial that my wife and I know.

61:31 You could have the shining countenance. That she has, if you only knew her sake.

61:40 It was a grievous thing. I could get nothing from his eyes but resentment and bitterness. A horrible thing if all he got from mine was callous indifference. And I pray God haunt him with my look of love and openness.

62:02 That it will make a way into his heart that I might see him again and speak to him of Christ and of your salvation. Dear people, when you walk through the mall, your eyes say to people, I regard you with inherent dignity. You bear the image of your God, though you don't know it and won't recognize it. And you could be a co-heir with Christ for all eternity.

62:30 Is that what your eyes say to people? Or do you insulate yourself and think that separation from the world is disdaining all things? Could it be that this is perhaps the biggest barrier to effective evangelism? Natural fruit?

62:48 Will evangelism? Peter has the shadows. Remember verse 15 over verse 17. He says that by well-doing you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.

63:02 Later on in chapter 3, he'll speak of sanctifying Christ as Lord, ready to give an answer to everyone who asks what a reason of the hope that is in them. My prayer is that as people see not something put on in plastic, that flows out of the heart, that we do not sit in that cancer center swallowed with despair, but in communion with our God.

63:30 That they'll be forced to answer, ask, what makes you tick? Has your wife just got a very benign type of problem? No, we're dealing with something serious, something in itself ominous.

64:04 No, you know what the words of common courtesy are? They are the verbal symbols. That we regard our fellow human beings as having created dignity. Animals groan to one another.

64:18 Pardon me, ma'am.

64:24 Forgotten my watch. Would it be an inconvenience for you to tell me the time of the day? Hey, man. Hey, woman.

64:31 What's the time?

64:34 Christians to be curt and coarse. Image bearers of God. Let your speech reflect this internal disposition. I see them in their dignity.

64:55 I see them in their redemptive potentiality. The way I address them will reflect that. My deeds of common courtesy. We open the door for women.

65:07 And when they look surprised, we tell them why we do it. We may not be able to sit down for a half an hour and preach the gospel, but at least we've dropped a grain of salt on an otherwise harsh, rude society. I'm so weary of rudeness. Some of you parents got work to do with your kids.

65:29 Some of you are doing admirably. I commend you when you do. Your kids answer the phone. Hello?

65:36 I feel like saying, hang up. I'll call again. Answer the phone with a little sense of respect. Treat me with a little dignity.

65:47 You've got to teach your children this.

65:51 If they dare to answer the phone and just say, hello, you ought to deal with that as much as if they'd said a cuss word. That's unacceptable in this house. That's another human being on the end of the phone. Worthy of being treated with dignity.

66:08 And I say some of you to be commended. Your children answer in a very gracious way. Hello, this is John Jones. Who is speaking?

66:15 May I help you? All different. Nothing plastic, artificial. But you see, these are not just little inconsequential things.

66:22 They are reflections of whether we've internalized these great gospel principles.

Application: God-Centered Motives and Evangelism

66:30 For all men, place the proper value upon men and women, boys and girls, in their created dignity and redemptive potentiality, and then act appropriately. And in this way, by this kind of well-doing, you may well silence the ignorance of foolish men. That's the exposition of the words, the amplification of the duty. The application, well, I've been applying all along.

66:53 But Christians, go back through this paragraph and notice how God-centered are the motives. Be subject to every ordinance of man. For the Lord's sake, verse 15, for so is the will of God. Verse 15, 16, as bond slaves of God, the shadow of those motivational perspectives is over this text.

67:16 The Lord says, honor all men. It is the will of God. Honor all men as bond slaves of God. Honor all men.

67:27 If it's not in our Northeast culture, then bury your Northeast culture in Jesus' cross and in Jesus' tomb. Let there be a Christian cultural conditioning in this place. It has nothing to do with regional culture. It has to do with the Bible.

67:45 That's why when I was saying yes and please, I didn't bring in the Southern yes man, yes sir. Though I confess I like it. But that's cultural. But please and yes and thank you.

67:59 That's not regional, cultural.

68:02 An expression of biblical. A day when life is cheap. Abortion on demand. Euthanasia soon upon demand.

68:13 Some of our friends from Holland know the horror of euthanasia. Action. Movies where body counts go up into the dozens and we're rearing a generation that have no sense of shock when God's image is obliterated. It's an opportunity to honor all men and have it reflect the impact of the gospel.

68:40 If God doesn't visit our society with an outpouring of the spirit, the time is soon coming when the only people that will show common politeness will be Christians. Let's take the lead in honoring all men. My unconverted friend. I want to do what this text says.

68:57 You know, the best way I can honor you if you're not saved is to tell you I don't think you're cosmic junk. I don't believe you're just a pile of appetites and passions and itches and desires to be fulfilled. A belly to be filled with food for a few more years. A mind to be filled with aesthetically pleasing sounds.

69:19 Sexual appetites to be gratified and then grow old and die and rot in the grave. I don't believe that's who you are. I don't believe that's who you are. I don't believe that's who you are.

69:27 You are image of God. You're made to know God. To find your highest delight in God. To find your joy in communion with God.

69:38 And I would honor you this morning by telling you who you are. And you know deep down inside that's what you are.

69:45 And telling you that the only way you can be what you were made to be is to go to Christ in whom all the recreated grace and power is to be found. And in you the ruin. might be repaired. And in the language of Ephesians 4, you might be created anew in righteousness and holiness and truth and begin now to bear the image of God in Christ and bear it perfectly forever in His presence.

70:17 You see, the way we ultimately show our greatest honor to all men is to point them to Jesus Christ in whom alone they can come to their true identity as image bearers of God. Well, Peter, you gave us a lot to work on with one simple little imperative. Honor all men. Let us pray.

70:44 Our Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for this clear word of instruction from the pen of Your servant Peter. Give us grace to embrace it. Give us more grace to work it out day by day.

71:08 Forgive us. Forgive us when we have not honored various segments of our fellow man. Forgive us when we've had any of that despicable attitude of a sneering, condescending pride and disdain for any creature made in Your image. Lord, have mercy upon us.

71:30 We pray for those who do not know You. May the things they've heard today awaken within them a deep and an insatiable dismay. We desire to be what You made them to be. Hear then our prayers and seal Your Word, we pray.

71:48 In Jesus' name, amen.