John 12.26 describes, whoever serves Me must follow Me; and where I am, My servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves Me.

Honor, it is the recognition of significance. Men pursue honor because we are made in God’s image and He pursues honor through His creation. We were made by God to honor God. Yet sin has caused us to lose our knowledge of our Creator, our purpose for being created, and so we pursue honor among men for ourselves.

We are fools really for the honor men give is temporary even as we are temporary. It takes nearly a lifetime to earn honor before men, moments to receive it and then like the wind, it disappears and is gone. God will honor the person who serves Jesus.

God is good with honoring men and therefore with men pursuing honor from Him. The honor that comes from God is eternal, it will be rewarded and recognized forever because God is eternal and so are the men who live with Him in heaven and upon the new earth. How much wiser to pursue the honor that lasts rather than the honor that doesn’t.

The means to honor couldn’t be any different between God and man. To receive man’s honor is to climb to the top of something. To receive God’s honor is to serve increasingly from the bottom. As Jesus, Who is God, did not consider equality with God something to be maintained but instead made Himself a servant taking on the appearance of a man, He humbled Himself, serving to the point of death. Therefore God the Father exalted God the Son to the highest place so that every tongue confesses Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

So the man whom God honors will deny himself, and lay down his life, in order to see others come to faith and grow in faith until all are formed into the image of the Lord Jesus. Pursuing honor is normal, pursuing honor from God is abnormal. Honoring God is divine.