📖Scripture:
“Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.”
- 1 Peter 2:17
🔎Examination:
The sermon pressed this home: God alone defines human value. Peter’s command is not subjective honor or sentimental niceness; it is theological warfare against a demonic culture of death and a narcissistic culture of self. The Greek term for “honor” carries the idea of fixed, objective value — tee-mah-oh — intrinsic and fixed worth determined by God, not negotiated by people.
Every human being — born or unborn, strong or weak, aged or young, healthy or disabled, convenient or “inconvenient” — bears the image of our Creator. That is ontological, not optional. Human value is not derived from usefulness, productivity, or desirability; it is declared by the Holy One who knits us together in the womb and stamps His likeness upon us.
This immediately confronts two lies. First, the lie of self-exaltation: “It’s all about me! My worth, my feelings, my story, my entitlements, and my rights.” Second, the lie of dehumanization: “Some lives are expendable, inconvenient, or less than human.” The abortion industry, eugenics, euthanasia, racism, and every form of “undesirable product of conception” language are not neutral political issues; they are open rebellion against God’s divine verdict regarding immeasurable human value. To treat an image-bearer as disposable is to spit on the image of God and side with the murderer from the beginning.
Peter tells us where to begin: “Love the brotherhood.” The Church is not a voluntary club of spiritual consumers; she is the regenerate, covenanted, local Body and Bride of Christ, purchased not with silver or gold but with the precious blood of the Lamb. Since God has assigned such value to His people that He gave His Son for them, what does it reveal when professing Christians treat humans as expendable chattel, and the local church as optional, expendable, or merely instrumental for their personal prosperity?
“Fear God. Honor the king.” This adds more layers. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom; without it, we will inevitably either idolize or despise human authority. Peter wrote under a pagan emperor, yet called the elect to honor the governing authorities - not because they are righteous, but because God is sovereign. To fear God keeps us from worshiping the state. Honoring earthly kings (not worshipping them) means to point them (as Daniel did) to Christ. It doesn’t mean blind submission and servitude. This keeps us from despising the providence of God despite imperfect rulers over us.
This is where the sermon’s critique of “spiritual socialism” pierces. Many want the benefits of being counted among God’s people — comfort, community, affirmation — without the cost of self-denying love. They want everyone else’s intrinsic value to translate into their own entitlement. But Scripture starts by asking: How do you treat others? Do you defend the unborn? Do you uphold the dignity of the weak, the marginalized, those who are marginalized and considered “the inconvenient byproduct of conception”? Do you love the saints sacrificially? Do you fear God in total submission to His Word, even when it condemns and corrects your politics, your tribe, or your preferences?
Regeneration resets our value system. United to Christ, we see human beings not as obstacles or tools, but as eternal souls, either headed toward everlasting joy in the presence of God or everlasting judgment under His wrath. The local church ceases to be a spiritual food court and becomes the holy household where we serve as devoted slaves of Christ, honoring one another as blood-bought brothers and sisters.
🤺Action:
Examine your view of people (Ps 139:23–24): Do you subtly rank image-bearers (humans) as “worthy” or “expendable” based on convenience, worldly ideologies, or similarity to you?
Test your love for the saints (Gal 6:3–5): Are you actively gathering, growing, giving, and going as a devoted member of a local church? Are you bearing others' burdens, or merely consuming spiritual goods and services?
Weigh your posture toward rulers (1 Pet 2:17; Rom 13:1–2): Does your speech build up God's church by displaying fear of God and honor toward authority, or contempt and functional anarchy through gossip and a loose tongue?
Test your doctrine of life by Scripture (2 Cor 13:5): Are you quietly excusing or supporting any ideology that justifies the shedding of innocent blood by reducing people with intrinsic value fixed by God to "less than"?
🧠Reflection:
In a world that shouts, “I'ts all about you,” Scripture whispers and thunders, “You are not the standard.” God is. His verdict over every human life is what stands. As you move through your day, ask the Holy Spirit to guide the eyes of your heart. That inconvenient coworker, that difficult family member, that fragile elderly neighbor, that unborn child — each is a divine image-bearer, each has a story written by the Creator.
Let the cross of Christ recalibrate your sense of value. Since the eternal Son had to die to redeem a people, then no person is trivial and nobody is disposable. Let that truth drive you deeper into covenant loyalty to your local church and deeper into courageous GOSPEL advocacy (not social justice) for the voiceless. Honor all, love the family of saints, fear God, honor the king — not because culture applauds it, but because the King of kings commands it.
Blessings & love,
Kevin M. Kelley
Pastor
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Click the following link for a link to Sunday's sermon:
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