Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in
thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh
righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.
He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth
evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach
against his neighbour.

In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he
honoureth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth
to his own hurt, and changeth not. He that putteth
not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against
the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never
be moved (Psalm 15).

Psalm 15 gives us a biblical description of an
honorable man. Many have been blessed by
knowing such people in their lifetimes.

An Honorable Man

As a young man I understood honor because my
father raised me that way. I understood it because
both my grandfathers were honorable men; they
would rather die than lie. And my grandmothers
were honorable women.

I understand what the psalmist means when he
writes about the kind of honor “that sweareth to his
own hurt, and changeth not” (Psalm 15:4).
I understand and respect the kind of person
who is going to do the right thing regardless of
what it may cost. My dad lived this way in front of me.

He tithed from the day he and my mother
were married in 1927. On their wedding day
they made a commitment to one another and to
God that they would tithe every dollar God
gave them all the days of their married life.

God honored that commitment and supported
them through the years. They did not understand
many things He tried to teach them because they
knew very little about faith. However, the Lord took
care of them anyway. During the Great Depression my
dad never went 24 hours without a job.

Mother and Dad lived on an old, dry-land farm in
northwest Texas. The only things in abundance there
were sand and flies. Yet my daddy had a job because
God took care of them.

Eventually, a fellow hired Dad to work in the insurance
business. Dad was very successful at it; so just a few
weeks after he went with the company, he was moved
to Fort Worth as district manager. The man who hired
Dad had been planning for a long time to start his own
company. He was building up reserves while still working
for the company that hired my dad.

But this company had laws, rules and regulations
against the sort of thing this man was doing, and
some of it was even against the laws of the state of Texas.

This man finally announced he was starting his own company.
He had the money and backing to do it, but he needed
my father to make it work. He offered Dad a lot of money
and a big chunk of the company. He wanted Dad to do for
him in the new company exactly what he had been doing under
him with the other company. This man based a great deal of his
planning on Dad’s acceptance of his offer.

It came down to a lawsuit between Dad’s company
and this man. If they could prove he had done some
things wrong, it would cut off over $100,000 from his
new company’s financing. That was around 1956 when
$100,000 was a great deal of money. This man was
depending on that money to help establish his new
insurance business.

At the trial, my dad was the deciding witness.
If the lawyer asked him, “Has this man ever approached
you to work for him doing the same job you’re doing for
your present employers?” and Dad answered no, the
case would be closed. The man would get the
$100,000 financing, and my father would get a huge
chunk of stock and lots of money, along with a high position
and much prestige. If Dad testified that the man had
offered him a job with the new company he was planning
to start, the man would lose the $100,000 and Dad
would get the privilege of keeping his old job.

I was about 19 years old at the time, and was thinking:
Whew, what’s Dad going to do? If he takes the stand and
answers that question one way, he’s an instant multi-millionaire.
(The money was already in the till, and the stock was
already made out.) If he answers the other way, all
he gets is his old job.

Wondering what Dad was going to do, I watched as he
took the stand. He wasn’t a bit nervous or anxious.
He didn’t have any sweat breaking out on his brow.
I couldn’t believe he could be so calm.

The lawyer asked the question: “Did this man offer
you a job with his new company doing the same thing
that you are doing now?” Without a second’s hesitation
Dad answered, “Yes, he did.”

When it was over, he stood up and walked away.
He left all that money lying on the table and
the stock untouched. Later I said, “Boy, Dad,
how did you keep from saying what that man
wanted you to say?” “It would have been a lie.”

It was as simple as that. To get that money, that stock,
that position, Dad would have had to lie. There was
never any question in his mind. He just went right on
with his business. He gave no more thought to the matter.
Every time he would see the man he had testified against,
he would walk up, shake his hand and ask how the new
company was coming along. That man had such respect
for my dad; he loved my dad all his life.

My father is over 80 years old now. His word is still
yea or nay. One of the reasons he is so quick to tell
the truth is because it is the honorable thing to do.
He learned early in life the meaning of honor.

Kenneth Copeland – Ministries

Study to show thyself approved unto God, a
workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane
and vain babblings: for they will increase
unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat
as doth a canker (one translation says “cancer”):

Of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; who
concerning the truth have erred, saying that
the resurrection is past already; and overthrow
the faith of some. Nevertheless the foundation
of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord
knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one
that nameth the name of Christ depart from
iniquity (2 Timothy 2:15-19).

In this passage we are told to avoid those who
babble all the time, who tell lies, who have their
conscience seared to the place that it shipwrecks
their lives.

We have seen this take place in all different
kinds of ministry and churches. It has come to the
attention of the entire world. This kind of thing has
been happening in the Body of Christ among charismatic
people, among word of faith people, in epidemic
proportions. It is an attack of the devil. He intends
to destroy us.

Honorable people do not lie.

Kenneth Copeland – Ministries

Christian people can be snobs, though. Some can
even be so upright and uptight that they don’t live
honorably, even when they think they are. I’ll give
you an example.

I knew a woman in Pensacola, Fla., which is the
home of a U.S. naval base with hundreds and hundreds
of sailors. When one aircraft carrier docks
there, 3,000 people or more may disembark and head
to town. Most of the people there know when a carrier
or some other large warship has docked.

This dear lady would take tracts with her name
and phone number on them and go to every newsstand,
pornography shop and tattoo parlor she could
find. The first thing she would do would be to open
the centerfolds in those girlie magazines and put
tracts in them.

Soon after, some sailor would open one of those
magazines. He probably had sounded big and tough
the night before, but he knew he was just a 19-year-old
boy who was a long way from home. No money. No one
to call. Nothing to do but look at that magazine.

Then he would find that tract right next to the main attraction
and call the person whose name was printed on
the tract. That is when things would start happening!
This is just the way it happened, time and time again.
That woman rescued those young sailors out of sin.

She took them home, prayed for them, fed them, took
them to church, cleaned them up and sent them back
to the Navy as different young men—by the hundreds.
Was she honored for her work? God honored her.

But her church kicked her out because somebody saw
her coming out of one of those ugly places where she
had left her tracts one night.

“Don’t you know you’re liable to get demon-possessed
if you go in there?” she was asked.

“No, I’m not going to get demon-possessed,” she
answered. “Some little puny demon is not going to
run me off—and it ought not run you off either.”

Still she was kicked out of the church, so she started
her own church. I preached in it. She didn’t want to
start her own church, but she had to have a place of
worship—and she needed a place to bring the sailors.

She was a mother to many servicemen. Some of
them would call her and say “I don’t have any business
looking at those dirty old magazines. I know better
than that. I wish you would pray for me. I haven’t been
acting like I should since I joined the service.”
The woman honored God by doing what she
was expected to do, instead of acting like a silly,
sissy, wimpy, no-faith, dishonorable “Christian.”

Those sailors were not coming in to the church, so
she went out to take the gospel to them and bring
them to the Lord. She was kicked out by those who
were too upright and uptight to recognize real
honor when they saw it.

Through it all, she kept an honorable attitude. She
held faith and a good conscience.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

We must honor God by living life as He has directed—
every day! This means honoring those above us, being
subject to them.

If your superiors mistreat you, crying and moaning
won’t help. If you keep crying, “They don’t like
me,” then they won’t. There really is no reason for
them to like you. They don’t know God, and you are
acting like you don’t either.

You are a man or woman of honor. What do you
do when someone cheats you out of your vacation or
your overtime pay or your rightful promotion? You
say: “Lord, You know what’s happening here. I’m being
treated unjustly. You know it, I know it, and they
know it. I just turn this situation over to You. You
handle it any way You want.”

Then a strange thing will happen: In the end,
you will come out ahead. How will that happen? By
honoring God, then living in His honor and by your
own honesty.

There is nothing that we can’t accomplish in
honor, in God’s honor. There is no place we can’t go, no
goal we can’t reach—if we keep an honorable attitude.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Servants, be subject to your masters with all
fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to
the froward. For this is thankworthy, if a man
for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering
wrongfully (1 Peter 2:18-19).

The Amplified Bible says verse 17 this way: “Show
respect for all men [treat them honorably].”
Servants—employees—be subject to your bosses
with all honor.

In verse 17 of this chapter we are told to fear God.
If you look up the Greek word translated fear, you will
find that it relates to reverence. We are to reverence
the Lord. In the same way, in verse 18 we are told to
fear or reverence or give due respect and honor to our
masters—our employers.

We know this is true because it is verified in other
scriptures. The writings of Paul say the same thing.
He wrote to young Timothy: “Let as many servants as
are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of
all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be
not blasphemed” (1 Timothy 6:1).

Notice that we are to give reverence and honor not
only to the good bosses and gentle masters but also to
the “froward.” The word froward means “disobedient
or ugly.”

Even when our boss is not good, not gentle, not
obedient to God, we are to honor him. We are under
obligation to treat him with honor and respect, even
though he may treat us with dishonor and disrespect.
To do this is “thankworthy.” The New International
Version translates this word as commendable.

Thankworthy is an old King James English word that
is so strong, and so powerful, we need to bring it back
into our vocabulary. It is thankworthy if a man, for the
sake of conscience toward God, endures grief, suffering
wrongfully.

If you will treat with honor a dishonorable boss or
superior, you will find favor with God. Of course, you
don’t have to stay there unless God tells you to, but as
long as you work for him, be subject to him. Walk in
love. Love never fails. Treat him with honor just as you
would if he were good and gentle, even though he is
disobedient to God. This is thankworthy, worthy of
thanks from God.

In this passage, God is saying to us: “I want to
thank you for representing Me there on earth the way
I really am, instead of the way the world thinks I am.
I want to thank you for looking and acting like Jesus.
Don’t worry about the one who is abusing or mistreating
you. I will take care of him.”

God may move you out of that situation, but most
likely, you will be an influence on your superior, and
you may even win him to the Lord.

It’s imperative for you to believe God, and then act
like you believe. You must believe and show your honoring
of that belief.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

One time a preacher came into a convenience
store where I was shopping. He was trying to talk
the clerk into giving him a discount on his shotgun
shells because he was a minister. It embarrassed
me. It almost made me want to curse so that clerk
wouldn’t think I was a preacher, too.

I just stood there and shook my head.

The clerk behind the counter got really irritated at
the man. He could not have given him a discount, even
if he had wanted to, because he did not own the store.
I thought, My goodness, I can guess what this guy is
going to start saying about preachers.

It doesn’t have to be that way, and it shouldn’t be
that way. The first time I really saw how it should be
was while I was a student at Oral Roberts University.

Someone told me how Brother Roberts had responded
when a barber offered him a discount on his haircut.
“No sir,” said Brother Roberts. “I don’t accept
discounts just because I’m a preacher. I’m not a
poor man.”
He would not receive it.

“I’ll pay the same price as anybody else,” he told
the barber. “If God puts it in your heart to invest a portion
of your income as an offering in this ministry, or
any other ministry, that’s between you and Him; but
I’ll pay the full price for my own haircut.”

That thrills me. It thrilled that barber, too. He
hadn’t had many preachers coming in and talking to
him like that. Some of them would probably beg him
out of his combs if he would give them away.

We are going to have to stop this begging business
and dishonorable activity. It is a losing attitude for
ministers—and for all believers. It is a bad representation
of our Lord. Do you think Jesus would be begging
people for a discount? No, no, a thousand times, no!

You never heard Jesus beg. You never heard Him
stand up and mock anyone, not even the government.
To have biblical honor means to honor and obey the
political authorities, even in the face of bad government
and poor treatment. You cannot get much worse
government and poorer treatment than what was
coming out of Rome in Jesus’ day.

You never heard Jesus criticize others behind their
backs. If He had anything to say about others, He
said it to them face to face. Because of that, the Bible
says that many of the Jews and Pharisees followed
Him. We tend to focus on the ones who opposed and
rejected Him, but the Bible says that many of them
did believe on Him and follow Him—in fact, great
numbers of them did.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and
pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war
against the soul; having your conversation honest
among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak
against you as evildoers, they may by your good
works, which they shall behold, glorify God in
the day of visitation (1 Peter 2:11-12).

Where do we get the word honest? If you will
study the way this word developed, you will see that
it is related to honor. Honor, honesty and truth are
closely related concepts.

Peter is saying here, “Let your conversation—your
manner of life—be honorable among the gentiles.”
Among the Jews of Peter’s day the word gentile
was used to refer to nations or people without God.
If you study the book of Ephesians, you will see that
at one time you and I were gentiles, but now we who
were afar off have been brought near to God by the
blood of His Son Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:13).

This passage is talking about the way we should
act toward those who don’t know God. Our honorable
manner of life, our living honestly among the gentiles,
is important. Oh, how important it is.

Let just one or two preachers get in trouble and
suddenly all preachers have trouble because of the
way a few “Christian” ministers have lived their lives
and conducted their business. Instead of walking in
honor before the gentiles, these few have disgraced
and damaged all believers. We need to understand
what God intends for us to do and what we can
expect of Him.

Expect of Him? Yes, we expect of Him. If we don’t
expect something from God when we act on the
Word, all we are doing is just making a tradition out of
it. We are doing things because someone said we are
supposed to do it instead of because God said it and
we’re acting on His Word.

We must learn to walk honestly before the gentiles,
so they will behold our good works and glorify
our heavenly Father.

Submit to God-Ordained Authority

Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man
for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as
supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that
are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers,
and for the praise of them that do well.

For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may
put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:
as free, and not using your liberty for a cloak
of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear
God. Honour the king (1 Peter 2:13-17).

We are not to use our freedom to hide our shady
dealings. We don’t use our power or reputation to take
advantage of someone. We must not use our position
and the respect due us as a preacher of the gospel or
as a child of God to defraud anyone.
Some do, though, and it reflects badly on all of
us—and on the Church of Jesus Christ.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus
Christ, to them that have obtained like precious
faith with us through the righteousness of God
and our Saviour Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be
multiplied unto you through the knowledge of

God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine
power hath given unto us all things that pertain
unto life and godliness, through the knowledge
of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

whereby are given unto us exceeding great and
precious promises: that by these ye might be
partakers of the divine nature, having escaped
the corruption that is in the world through lust

The Bible teaches honor all the way through even
though the word honor isn’t always used, as in this
passage from 2 Peter, which speaks of God’s divine
nature and His precious promises.

What is honor? The world defines it in many ways,
but we will define honor as “a keen sense of ethical
conduct.” Honor is often used to refer to one’s word
being given as a guarantee. It is personal integrity.
Honor and honest are related. They are often used
to refer to those who fear the Lord.

We fear, or reverence, or highly honor God by living
life as He directs. God has promised that if we will do
that, if we will honor Him and act on His Word, He
will honor us (1 Samuel 2:30). A common problem
is that many of us have not believed His Word or
believed for the blessings promised in His Word.

For instance, we have not understood what Jesus
meant when He said for us to turn the other cheek
(Matthew 5:39). He was not talking about weakness;
He was talking about meekness.

Such scriptures are not referring to our being weak.
They are referring to our being submitted to God and
committed to doing what He says, whether it looks
good to us or not. That is doing the honorable thing.
We must learn to put aside our own feelings
and human reasonings and just be obedient to the
Lord. Jesus was telling us if we will turn the other
cheek in meekness and in the power of the honor
of God, we cannot be hit again.

Even though a person turns his other cheek, if
he stands on the Word and in the Word, the devil
will have a hard time getting through to hit him
the second time. In order to do this, however, an
individual has to know in whom he has believed.
He has to have faith and trust in the honor of God
and in His divine integrity.

If you and I know how to walk in honor before
God, we don’t have to be afraid of anyone. We don’t
have to fear what men can do to us. The Lord has
promised that if we will honor Him and be obedient
to His Word, He will honor us and protect us
from all our enemies.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries