Dishonor
Dishonor means to fail to observe or respect, according to our modern dictionary. In Greek, it meant to render infamous, maltreat, despise, and shamefully enreat.
John 8:48 Then the Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” 49 Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. 50 And I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks and judges. 51 Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word, he shall never see death.”
How did they dishonor Jesus? By not recognizing who He truly was and falsely accusing Him as a result.
Today, there are still many who say they are loyal to the law covenant Moses gave, and they believe they honor it by defending it in the church. However, when you diminish it to make it palatable in a way that leads others to think they could keep it, you dishonor it. To not see it as something so holy that it is unattainable in the flesh and therefore requires a sacrifice to be made for failing to keep it, that diminishes it. To deny it is as it is described in Scripture, "The Ministry of death," is to dishonor it. By clinging to it as a means of continuing to be right with God and merit His fellowship and favor, they ignorantly falsely accuse Jesus of not having completed His mission and offering only a partial righteousness that needs the law to maintain it.
Meanwhile, Jesus said if anyone kept His word, that person would never see death. So to promote a different covenant other than the one Jesus established, or promote another means of righteousness other than what Jesus offers, is to dishonor Jesus.
If you were to say to a duly appointed judge who is ruling according to the law correctly that he has no authority to convict anyone in a court of law, you would be dishonoring that judge. You have held him in contempt. You have placed yourself above him in authority in your imagination.
It is one thing to say Jesus is Lord and a whole other thing to live like it. I am not living like it if I give greater credence to something outside of His covenant. If I give my allegiance to something other than Him for righteousness, I am holding Him and His finished work in contempt.
This is why the covenant Jesus established through His gospel should be given greater attention and be embraced more fully by the church. However, this is not the case in every church. Some churches draw the attention of their attendees to a former covenant and its rules and regulations, serving as a model for their lifestyle. They are overly focused on behavior for obtaining and maintaining one's righteousness as opposed to pointing them to Jesus for it. They have made fellowship and favor with God conditional based on a person's actions, rather than on what Jesus did to resolve the issue.
By doing this, they prove they are ignorant of how they dishonor Jesus by promoting something as a rival to what He has accomplished already for us and made obtainable by faith in Him alone. It is not grace plus something; it is grace plus nothing. It is not Jesus plus something; it is Jesus alone. I do not wish to dishonor my Lord by not believing He did everything and has provided everything for me that pertains to life and godliness by making it possible for me to be in Him and for Him to be in me. I wish to give Him all the credit He deserves. My favor and fellowship with the Father is in Christ and through Christ, not me.
