Focus on These Things: Whatever Is Honorable
July 15, 2018
Dr. Tom Pace
I Timothy 3:8-13

Today we’re continuing our series of sermons on Philippians 4:8, just one verse of Scripture that we’re going to look at. We’ll take it apart and look at it over the next six weeks. Today we’re looking at the word honorable. Paul says, “Whatever is honorable, focus on these things.”
Now the word honorable is used very seldom in Scripture. It’s used in this place and the Greek word there is semno. The only other place it’s used is in Timothy and Titus when Paul is talking about the way, the characteristics of leaders in a church. There it is not translated as honorable, there it’s translated as serious. Some of the versions translate it as dignified.
We’re going to be looking at what that means today, so listen now as we hear this Scripture read from I Timothy as Paul talks about the characteristics of leaders in the church.
Deacons likewise must be serious, not double-tongued, not indulging in much wine, not greedy for money;they must hold fast to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.And let them first be tested; then, if they prove themselves blameless, let them serve as deacons.Womenlikewise must be serious, not slanderers, but temperate, faithful in all things.Let deacons be married only once, and let them manage their children and their households well;for those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. I Timothy 3:8-13
Let’s join together in prayer. O God, open us up, open our eyes that we might see, open our ears that we might hear, open our hearts that we might feel. Then, O Lord, open our hands that we might serve. Amen.
Sometimes when I read the newspaper online I’ll click on the little comments where people write about what the articles are saying. Don’t do that! It will make you depressed about humanity. People say things in there and sometimes I can’t believe what they’re saying.
There is a degradation it seems to me of discourse in our society. Sort of a diminution of values that are noble, and the way we talk to one another and the things we talk about concern me.
It seems to me that Paul would be speaking into that with the values we’re talking about today. I’d like us to read this Scripture together that’s on the front of your insert. We’re going to keep reading it each week, so we can finally memorize it. So, get out your bulletin insert and read Philippians 4:8 that’s at the top. I want you to think about this as a spoken into our culture today. Let us read together: ^“Finally, beloved,whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is beautiful, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, focus onthese things.”
What’s so interesting about this passage is that it is not a passage of Christian values. Now that may be surprising to you, and it was to me as I studied this recently. I’ve read Philippians dozens, maybe a hundred times, and as I did the work on this particular verse I realized that Paul is not speaking about very specific Christian values. In fact, what he’s doing is lifting up specifically the Greek values of the community of which he’s a part. These are classical Greek values. This is the Roman Empire which is derived from the Greek culture and these values could have come as easily to Aristotle or Plato or Socrates as they do from Paul. Certainly, from Jesus.
Paul has another list of values that are specifically Christian values and that’s in Galatians 5. You may have memorized those yourself as well. It says, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” That’s what happens when we live by the Holy Spirit and when we live according to the way Christ has taught us. Isn’t it interesting that those are not the same values? There may be some overlap. No, these are classical Greek values. Seven classical Greek values are usually lifted up in other places: truth, honor, justice, purity, beauty, excellence, strength. Wow! That’s what Paul’s talking about here.
Why does Paul lift up these values from the pagan philosophers around him? What is it we’re supposed to do in a secular world? How do Christians live in a secular world around us? Do we hunker down? Do we build sort of walls? Do we hang out only with other Christians? Do we go to the Christian auto mechanic or the Christian restaurant or hire a Christian lawyer? So that all we do is with other Christians?
That’s exactly what Paul’s not saying. What he is saying is, to look around you at the world, all around you, and identify things where there is sacred goodness – what we call “common grace.” Where God is at work in the goodness that’s there. And think about those things.
There’s a principle that I lift up a few times every couple of years I would say. I call it the St. Augustine principle. I hope you’ll remember it.
St. Augustine was a saint who lived in the fourth century, and St. Augustine is a type of grass. It’s grass and in Texas you’d never say – though the saint’s name is Augustine – you’d never say “My yard is St. Augustine grass.” People would laugh at that if you said that. So, it’s “Saint August-teen” here in Texas and that’s the grass.
Here’s the question. How do you get the Johnson grass, the weeds, out of your St. Augustine? You fertilize the St. Augustine. You fertilize it, and you fertilize it and you water and water it and get good sunlight and it will choke out the Johnson grass. If you want to have good things going on in your life and in the world around you, then fertilize – feed those. Grow those. Let those command your attention. You can’t change the circumstances always around you, but you can change what will command your attention. And that which is good around you, focus on these things, Paul is saying.
There’s a saying in organizational psychology that says that organizations will replicate what they celebrate. Whatever it is that you lift up and say, “That’s awesome!” You keep talking about that and that behavior begins to grow. So, every week we’re going to keep coming back to that central thesis because that’s what Paul’s talking about here.
Now, let’s talk specifically about this word honorable. This is, by the way, the most difficult of the sermons for me to put together so far. We’ve only had one complete one but as I have all sorts of wonderful ideas jump around for the ones to come. But this one has been a bit of a struggle and here’s why. Because the word honorable and even the word here when you read it in this passage what Paul’s talking about is you need to worry about what other people think of you. You need to worry about what the neighbors think, because honor is a social construct. To be honored says that the people around you respect you, that your peers – the people around you think you’re doing a good job, that you’re an example to be lifted up.
I’ve always sort of pushed back against this idea of living your life based on the expectations of others. I’ve always thought about an audience of one, and it only really matters what God thinks and not what my neighbors think.
Look, that’s not how we were made. We were made as social animals, social creatures formed to live in communities, and those communities establish a certain construct that you are to live as part of that covenant community, and we hold one another to that. We live in ways in which we encourage one another to live according to those constructs.
So, when we talk about honorable why is it important that we live according to the social conventions? Listen to what Paul says, “Deacons likewise must be serious.” Now let me tell you who the deacons were so you get this. At that time, you really had a couple of orders. One group consisted of the elders – those who taught the word. They’re the ones who were involved with spiritual things. They were the successors to the apostles, and deacons were the ones who dealt with the nitty-gritty. They were in charge of the money, they were the treasurers. They were in charge of distributing food to the widows and those in need. They were in charge of making assignments of how the community would live together. They were the ones who made the trains run on time.
What he’s saying is, “Look, you have to have people the community trusts. You have to have people the community feels they can count on.”
“Deacons likewise must be serious [honorable], not double-tongued, not indulging in much wine, not greedy for money;they must hold fast to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.And let them first be tested; then, if they prove themselves blameless, let them serve as deacons.” In other words, let the community come around and say, “Do we trust these people? Okay, if we do, then they can be deacons.”
He goes on: “Women (and he means women deacons) likewise must be serious, not slanderers, but temperate, faithful in all things.Let deacons be married only once …” Sometimes that’s translated “husbands of but one wife” and that means that one at a time. This is just so you know that this was time when there was still plural marriage around. So, you’re saying, No, these aren’t people who take multiple wives.
It continues: “…and let them manage their children and their households well…” Now here’s the punch line. Why is that important? “...for those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.” In other words, it gives them credibility.
Let’s look more specifically at this word. I’ve sort of given it four words that we can use to kind of pick apart this idea of honorable. First, to be honorable means to be respectful of others.
When I was small my parents taught me that if I wanted people to like me I should like them first. If I want people to respect me I should respect them first.
I remember when I first started in ministry Dr. Tom Peel was my supervising pastor at First Methodist Church in Duncanville, Texas. I was still in seminary. They don’t really teach you anything about ministry in seminary; it’s more like “How many angels fit on the head of a pin?” kind of thing. But how to really do ministry is hard to figure out. So, you learn that in your first churches or while you’re on your internship or on a residency.
So, we did hospital visits. Dr. Peel took me along with him as he visited hospitals. I can remember a particular time when we came to a hospital room door, knocked on it, and no one answered. We knocked again and again no one answered. We cracked open the door and looked in and the patient – a lady – was sleeping.
Now if you go on a hospital visit and you find someone sleeping there’s a big debate. Do I just leave a card and let them know I’ve been by? Or do we wake them and have a conversation? Dr. Peel knew the elderly lady we were visiting and so he said, “I think we should wake her.”
But here’s what was interesting. When we walked in the room while she’d been asleep, she’d kicked off all her covers. He very gently walked up before he woke her and took all her covers and very tenderly covered her up. Then he touched her on the shoulder to wake her and then we had a great conversation and a prayer together. As we left the room, he said, “Always respect everyone. Treat everyone with respect. It’s important that you do your best to preserve the dignity of anyone you’re talking to.”
That has sort of stuck with me a lot. This idea of seeing the presence of God in every single person, the face of Christ on them, and to do everything you can to preserve their dignity. To treat them with respect.
Now the flip side of course is that you are not just respectful but to be respectable. This part has always bugged me a little but because being respectable seems kind of like when you say, “He was a very respectable man.” Kind of boring. It seemed to have to do with – say – manners.
Let me talk to you about manners for a moment. Manners are social conventions and as a kid I’ve always thought, “What does it matter what fork you eat with? Come on! Why do you have to say ‘yes, sir’ and ‘no, ma’am.’ Why can’t you put your elbows on the table when you want to rest?”
I remember conversations about what I was supposed to wear places. I would say, “It doesn’t matter what you wear. I can wear anything I want to. It doesn’t matter what you wear.” My mom or dad would say, “Well, if it doesn’t matter what you wear then you’ll wear what we tell you to wear.” If it really doesn’t matter, then what’s the point? Why do you care? I would rebel against that and you can see pictures of me in high school and it wasn’t pretty.
Think about this for a moment. Those manners are social constructs and if you read I and II Timothy it is full of social conventions. Over and over the author is saying, “Follow those social conventions. Women should keep silence in church – that’s a social convention. Women should keep their heads covered. Men should keep their heads covered in prayer.”
These are clearly social conventions. Why is it that those are so important? They’re important because they “gain a good standing for themselves and great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.”
If these things don’t really matter, everything in your life, Paul is saying, is just submitting self to the mission to which you have been called. Everything in your life is to submit itself to that mission.
Adam Hamilton is the pastor of the largest United Methodist church in America and maybe in the world. He came and spoke to our Annual Conference a few years ago. There was a pastors’ conference as part of it and I was so excited to go hear him speak because I knew he was going to offer some brilliant spiritual guidance for us. Do you know what he talked about? He talked about what you wear to work. Talked about what time to be there and what time to go home. He talked about how to return emails within the first 24 hours.
His point was to say, “Look, these are the things you have to learn to do because if you don’t learn to do them, your congregation will never give you any credibility. Then you won’t be able to talk about the stuff that really matters.” Because the stuff that really does matter is your witness to the love of God in their lives. To be respected is to honor the social conventions around you, to treat others with incredible respect, and that will give your witness power, credibility, a good standing. So, you can “speak boldly in the faith.”
The third “R” is the word real. You notice how clever that was with four “R’s”? It’s respectful, respectable, and the third is real.
Here’s the challenge. If what I worry about is what others think, then pretty soon I begin to lose myself. Like I’ve lived my life based on what everybody thinks. And that’s not good either. And here’s why it’s not good. Because our witness has to be real and authentic. Look, we all have a “BS Meter” and everybody knows when you’re faking it.
My friend Morris Matthis says that the secret to a good ministry is authenticity. And when you learn to fake that, you’re got it made. That authentic witness.
I ran across this fairly well-known article by a woman named Bronnie Ware and she worked in palliative care – she worked with the dying. The article she wrote is “The Top Five Regrets of Those Who Are Dying.” I wonder if you can guess what the top five regrets are. I’m going to go through them. According to the article, the number one regret is “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” Number two is “I wish I didn’t work so hard.” Number three is “I wish I’d had the courage to express what I really think and feel.” Number four is “I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends.” And number five is “I wish I’d let myself be happier.” To have the courage to be the people God made us to be. Because here’s the deal – your real witness has power. So, on those things that don’t matter, on those things that aren’t a part of your core identity… wear the things that give you credibility, treat others with respect, and use good manners – all of that good stuff. But at the center there’s a sense of this real witness that we have to offer people, that this is who God made me to be and I can share that honestly and openly with you.
Here’s the fourth thing – reverence. This says, “I’m going to figure out what really matters and I’m going to ascribe value to that, not to the things that don’t matter so much.” I’m going to follow the social conventions but I’m going to ascribe value to the things that really matter.
Jesus broke all sorts of social conventions. He ate with sinners and tax collectors, hung out with unclean people, picked grain and healed on the Sabbath. Why did he do those things? It was because in those moments he could identify that what matters was not that social convention but the person he was with at that given moment. They mattered. Love for that person, to see the very presence of God in that person.
One of my favorite crazy movies is from about ten years ago – it’s “Little Miss Sunshine.” Have you seen it? It’s the story of this poor pathetic little family and all of them don’t really do life very well. They have struggles, and social-convention wise, they don’t really fit in. They all have these dreams, but they can’t seem to actualize them. Poor little Olive is seven years old and she wants to win the Miss America contest. It’s really clear early in the movie that she’s not going to become Miss America. She’s awkward, wears glasses and just doesn’t have the right social graces. So, she gets entered into the “Little Miss Sunshine” beauty pageant and they make this long adventuresome journey to the pageant.
When it comes time for the talent competition, she’s to dance, and her grandfather has taught her a very inappropriate dance – that’s the best way to say that. It’s a strip tease that she’s to do for the “Little Miss Sunshine” contest, clearly against every social convention that can possibly happen.
The whole audience – parents of other contestants – are booing and aghast and they want her off the stage. But her family worries only about little Olive. So, they begin to cheer for her and ultimately, they get up on the stage and dance with her. It’s a way of saying, “In this moment what matters is not what the neighbors think, but what matters is you. We love you.” That’s what was in Jesus’ heart.
To be respectable, to be honorable means that you want to be a good example. But the way to do that is to know what really matters, and to make that paramount, to make that the focus of your mission. And everything falls in line.
Let’s pray together. Gracious God, we want to live lives that are focused on the mission to which you call us. Our individual missions. For you made us with intentionality that gave us gifts and unique graces, passions. We pray that we would identify those things that don’t really matter and fall in line in those areas so that we would have credibility in the ways that do. We pray in Christ’s name, Amen.