Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
The verse joins four duties into one rule of life, calling for respect toward every person, special love toward fellow believers, reverence toward God, and respect toward civil rulers, with reverence toward God standing highest and shaping the rest. To honor all people means to treat each one as valuable to God and belonging to Him, refusing harsh condemnation, control, or exploitation, and showing the same mercy to the faults of others that is needed for one's own. To love the brotherhood means that believers everywhere are one family who are to show love to one another in word and life, in the home by courtesy and respect for rights, among workers by unselfish support, and across divisions of race by treating all as fellow members. Reverence for God leads to honoring rulers when their authority is exercised justly, yet it sets the limit to that honor, for religion takes its authority from God and not from a ruler, and any demand that dishonors God must be refused in obedience to Him rather than to men. Even in such refusal, especially when Sabbath observance is at stake, respect is still required, shown in a calm spirit without anger, defiance, boasting, or retaliation, trusting God and leaving a right impression.
The Fourfold Command
The verse lays down four duties together: to honor every person, to love the community of believers, to revere God, and to honor the king. These stand within a call to submit to human ordinances for the Lord's sake, to do good and live godly lives, and to use freedom as God's servants rather than as a cover for wrongdoing. The four clauses distinguish different responses, with respect owed to all people and to civil rulers, particular love owed to the brotherhood, and reverence owed to God. They are addressed to a people chosen out of the world who are to remain separate from the world while living in it and to be kept free from its contaminating influences. That separation means not binding up with worldlings in councils and not bringing worldly lawyers into connection with God's work, while medical missionary work is bound up with gospel ministry in unity and all labor disinterestedly in soul-saving work while respecting all whom God has called.
Reverence for God leads to honoring the king when he exercises just and legitimate authority. Honoring rulers does not require shaping religion according to a ruler's wishes, for true religion receives its authority from God and God's Word, not a ruler's preference, determines what people are to believe. Reverence for God sets the limit to honoring the king, for when any requirement shows disrespect to the Seventh-day Sabbath eternal interests are involved and compliance must be refused in obedience to God rather than man. Even then the duty requires a calm, respectful, non-defiant spirit, without sharp retaliation, passion, unwise boasting about liberty, or using liberty as a cloak for maliciousness, but acting as God's servants, taking everything to God in prayer and trusting Him alone to restrain rulers.
Honor and Love in Practice
Honoring every person means showing respect to all, even to those whose conduct falls short of one's own standards. That respect rules out harshly condemning the mistakes of others while failing to judge one's own errors with equal care. The same honor toward all and love toward fellow believers applies even when they do not reach the standard set for them and have made mistakes. It forbids discouraging, condemning, and sharply censuring fellow workers, and requires remembering that one's own life is not faultless and treating the mistakes of others with the same mercy given to one's own. This rests on Christ's pitying tenderness in seeking to save sinners, on His pleading the case of every tempted soul, and on the fact that those who are criticized belong to Him by creation and redemption.
Honoring all rests on the fact that every person is valuable to God and therefore to be treated with respect. Fellow workers are to be met on equal ground, with regard for human weakness, without trying to control them or bind them to another person's judgment. Every person must be honored as a brother and as God's property, which in practice means treating others with integrity and mercy rather than using position to control or exploit them. Such respect does not weaken God's cause but strengthens and ennobles those who work in it and encourages unselfish service.
Loving the brotherhood means that God's children throughout the world form one great family. Its members should show love for one another and supreme love for their heavenly Father in words and actions, with consistent holy lives distinguishing them from the world. Because Christians are one family, white people should show the Spirit of Christ and treat colored people as fellow members of that brotherhood, working to teach and encourage Christian living. The principle of brotherhood is recognized and obeyed in a home where family members are polite and courteous, carefully respect one another's rights, and keep self from asserting itself, with faith working through love guiding the household.
Love for the brotherhood is expressed by strengthening bonds among believers, with those responsible for one part of God's work also encouraging and sustaining its interests in other localities as far as they can rather than acting selfishly. Such mutual support closes the way to jealousy and resentment that position and prosperity can provoke unless God's grace governs the heart. Toward civil authorities, especially when liberty about working on Sunday is taken away or Sabbath observance is at stake, the verse requires a calm, respectful, non-defiant spirit. It means refusing requirements that show disrespect to the Sabbath while avoiding retaliation, anger, passion, defiance, unwise boasting about liberty, and malicious conduct. Believers are to act as God's servants, taking everything to God in prayer and trusting Him alone to restrain the power of rulers, so as to leave a correct impression, and the verse is of real value to all brought into straight places, forbidding anything showing defiance or that could be interpreted as maliciousness.
The verse joins four duties into one rule of life, calling for respect toward every person, special love toward fellow believers, reverence toward God, and respect toward civil rulers, with reverence toward God standing highest and shaping the rest. To honor all people means to treat each one as valuable to God and belonging to Him, refusing harsh condemnation, control, or exploitation, and showing the same mercy to the faults of others that is needed for one's own. To love the brotherhood means that believers everywhere are one family who are to show love to one another in word and life, in the home by courtesy and respect for rights, among workers by unselfish support, and across divisions of race by treating all as fellow members. Reverence for God leads to honoring rulers when their authority is exercised justly, yet it sets the limit to that honor, for religion takes its authority from God and not from a ruler, and any demand that dishonors God must be refused in obedience to Him rather than to men. Even in such refusal, especially when Sabbath observance is at stake, respect is still required, shown in a calm spirit without anger, defiance, boasting, or retaliation, trusting God and leaving a right impression.
The Fourfold Command
The verse lays down four duties together: to honor every person, to love the community of believers, to revere God, and to honor the king. These stand within a call to submit to human ordinances for the Lord's sake, to do good and live godly lives, and to use freedom as God's servants rather than as a cover for wrongdoing. The four clauses distinguish different responses, with respect owed to all people and to civil rulers, particular love owed to the brotherhood, and reverence owed to God. They are addressed to a people chosen out of the world who are to remain separate from the world while living in it and to be kept free from its contaminating influences. That separation means not binding up with worldlings in councils and not bringing worldly lawyers into connection with God's work, while medical missionary work is bound up with gospel ministry in unity and all labor disinterestedly in soul-saving work while respecting all whom God has called.
Reverence for God leads to honoring the king when he exercises just and legitimate authority. Honoring rulers does not require shaping religion according to a ruler's wishes, for true religion receives its authority from God and God's Word, not a ruler's preference, determines what people are to believe. Reverence for God sets the limit to honoring the king, for when any requirement shows disrespect to the Seventh-day Sabbath eternal interests are involved and compliance must be refused in obedience to God rather than man. Even then the duty requires a calm, respectful, non-defiant spirit, without sharp retaliation, passion, unwise boasting about liberty, or using liberty as a cloak for maliciousness, but acting as God's servants, taking everything to God in prayer and trusting Him alone to restrain rulers.
Honor and Love in Practice
Honoring every person means showing respect to all, even to those whose conduct falls short of one's own standards. That respect rules out harshly condemning the mistakes of others while failing to judge one's own errors with equal care. The same honor toward all and love toward fellow believers applies even when they do not reach the standard set for them and have made mistakes. It forbids discouraging, condemning, and sharply censuring fellow workers, and requires remembering that one's own life is not faultless and treating the mistakes of others with the same mercy given to one's own. This rests on Christ's pitying tenderness in seeking to save sinners, on His pleading the case of every tempted soul, and on the fact that those who are criticized belong to Him by creation and redemption.
Honoring all rests on the fact that every person is valuable to God and therefore to be treated with respect. Fellow workers are to be met on equal ground, with regard for human weakness, without trying to control them or bind them to another person's judgment. Every person must be honored as a brother and as God's property, which in practice means treating others with integrity and mercy rather than using position to control or exploit them. Such respect does not weaken God's cause but strengthens and ennobles those who work in it and encourages unselfish service.
Loving the brotherhood means that God's children throughout the world form one great family. Its members should show love for one another and supreme love for their heavenly Father in words and actions, with consistent holy lives distinguishing them from the world. Because Christians are one family, white people should show the Spirit of Christ and treat colored people as fellow members of that brotherhood, working to teach and encourage Christian living. The principle of brotherhood is recognized and obeyed in a home where family members are polite and courteous, carefully respect one another's rights, and keep self from asserting itself, with faith working through love guiding the household.
Love for the brotherhood is expressed by strengthening bonds among believers, with those responsible for one part of God's work also encouraging and sustaining its interests in other localities as far as they can rather than acting selfishly. Such mutual support closes the way to jealousy and resentment that position and prosperity can provoke unless God's grace governs the heart. Toward civil authorities, especially when liberty about working on Sunday is taken away or Sabbath observance is at stake, the verse requires a calm, respectful, non-defiant spirit. It means refusing requirements that show disrespect to the Sabbath while avoiding retaliation, anger, passion, defiance, unwise boasting about liberty, and malicious conduct. Believers are to act as God's servants, taking everything to God in prayer and trusting Him alone to restrain the power of rulers, so as to leave a correct impression, and the verse is of real value to all brought into straight places, forbidding anything showing defiance or that could be interpreted as maliciousness.