Three Words That Describe Your Commitment as a Christian: Honour, Code & Loyalty!
What Does Your Commitment Actually Amount To?
Ask a believer what their commitment to Christ actually amounts to and, more often than not, the answer wanders. We talk about going to church, about doing our best, about loving the Lord — and all of that may well be true, but none of it is something you can pick up and carry into a Monday morning. So let me give you three words, and I want you to write them down, because that is what today is for. Honour. Code. Loyalty. They are soldiers' words, and that is no accident, because the Christian life is a walk and a warfare both. Think of every quality you would hope to see in a believer — faithful, humble, obedient, forgiving, prayerful, thankful, holy. Every one of them hangs on these three. Settle these, and the rest has somewhere to grow. And the standard behind all three is the verse this whole ministry is built around: That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God [Colossians 1:10 KJV]. Walk worthy. Not perfectly, not impressively — worthily. That is what these three words are for.
Honour — Living So His Name Is Not Cheapened by Ours
To honour God is to live in such a way that His name is not cheapened by ours. Every believer carries that name into the office, the shop floor, the school gate and the family group chat, whether we think about it or not. And honour is not a Sunday word. Paul takes it right down to the dinner table: Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God [1 Corinthians 10:31 KJV]. Eating and drinking. That is how far down it goes. It governs the thoughts nobody else hears, the way you speak about someone who has just left the room, and the job you do when nobody is going to check it. The psalmist puts it plainly: Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness [Psalm 29:2 KJV]. Glory that is due is a debt, not a favour.
Here is the test of it. Honour given to God always shows up as honour given to people. When the Lord Jesus was asked which commandments to keep, He did not skip past the home: Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself [Matthew 19:19 KJV]. Honour is measured most accurately by how you treat the people nearest to you — the ones who see you with your shoes off. You cannot give the Lord the glory due unto His name on a Sunday and then treat your husband, your wife, your parents or your children with contempt on a Monday. If honour has not reached the kitchen, it has not really reached the heart.
Code — and Our Code Is a Book
Every soldier lives by a code. Ours is a book. Not instinct. Not the mood of the age. Not whatever everybody else happens to be doing this year. And not a feeling, because feelings move and the Word does not. When Joshua was handed the leadership of a nation, he was not given a strategy — he was given a book: This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein [Joshua 1:8 KJV]. That was written for our learning, and notice the words observe to do. Not admire. Not underline. Do. A code that is only ever read is not a code at all; it is a hobby. The Word is meant to be in the mouth, in the mind day and night, and then out through the hands.
Some hear the word "code" and think of rules, restrictions and a life with all the joy squeezed out of it. The Lord Jesus said the very opposite: If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free [John 8:31-32 KJV]. Continuing in His word is what marks a disciple, and it is the way out of bondage, not the way in. And the Word does not light up the whole road ahead of you at once — it was never meant to. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path [Psalm 119:105 KJV]. A lamp for the feet lights the next step. And the next step is all a walk ever needs.
Loyalty — Proved When It Costs
Loyalty is easy when it costs nothing. Anyone can be loyal in a warm room among people who agree with them. Loyalty is only ever proved when it costs — when the joke at work is at the Lord's expense, when obedience loses you the deal, when the easy road and the right road part company. No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon [Matthew 6:24 KJV]. A divided heart does not stay divided for long. It ends up despising one of its masters, and it will not be the one that flatters it. Loyalty also finishes. Listen to how Paul summed up an entire life at the end of it: For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith [2 Timothy 4:6-7 KJV]. There is not one achievement in that list. Fought. Finished. Kept. And the promise to the loyal is plain: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life [Revelation 2:10 KJV].
So understand this. Honour, code and loyalty are not three virtues to admire from a distance, like medals in a cabinet. They are one life laid down. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service [Romans 12:1 KJV]. Reasonable — not extreme, not for the few. And if you look at those three words today and feel how far short you fall, take heart. You are not holding this together in your own strength. Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ [Philippians 1:6 KJV]. He started it. He will finish it. Your part is to take the next step.
Key Takeaways:
- Three words carry a Christian's commitment: Honour, Code and Loyalty — the standard behind them is a worthy walk — [Colossians 1:10 KJV]
- Honour is not a Sunday word — it is doing everything, down to eating and drinking, to the glory of God — [1 Corinthians 10:31 KJV]
- Honour given to God shows up as honour given to people, beginning at home — [Psalm 29:2 KJV], [Matthew 19:19 KJV]
- Our code is a book, not a feeling — meditated on day and night and done, not merely admired — [Joshua 1:8 KJV]
- Living by that code is liberty, not bondage — continuing in His word is what marks a disciple — [John 8:31-32 KJV]
- The Word lights the next step, which is all a walk ever needs — [Psalm 119:105 KJV]
- Loyalty is proved when it costs — no one can serve two masters — [Matthew 6:24 KJV]
- Loyalty finishes: the fight fought, the course finished, the faith kept — [2 Timothy 4:6-7 KJV], [Revelation 2:10 KJV]
- All three are one offering — the body presented as a living sacrifice — [Romans 12:1 KJV]
- What God begins in a believer He finishes — [Philippians 1:6 KJV]
Where to go from here:
Sit down with Romans 12:1-2 this week and read it slowly, asking which of the three words it presses on hardest in your own life. Then keep the step: the weakest of the three, one act of obedience, today.
📽️ Watch this teaching 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpgao7oIOwQ&list=PLhtPbQ4aPQH6K0TDlgzCawShhmIro6pUU&index=1
🧭 Start Here — Who We Are in Christ! — the teachings to read first 👉 https://back-to-basics-christian-living.ghost.io/start-here/
🎥 The playlist to watch alongside them 👉 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEPKdqB9RuLI
➡️ Next in this week's theme — Thursday: Mind the Gap!
That is where we begin: who we are in Christ, taken in order. Then, Monday to Thursday, we take one truth and look at it from four sides — this week, the Christian Walk. Fridays, we work through a series — at present Ephesians: The Letter Written to You. One email on Sunday closes the week and opens the next.
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