How Do I Think Honorable Thoughts?

Do you frequently interact with individuals who were raised in honor-shame cultures? If so, you know that in that setting, a person's value is primarily determined by how others perceive them. Social standing, family reputation, and group loyalty matter deeply.

Right and wrong are filtered through the lens of what brings honor or shame to oneself, one’s family, or one’s community. These cultures emphasize saving face, maintaining respect, and avoiding disgrace, often prioritizing communal harmony over individual expression.

In contrast, guilt-innocence cultures (like most in the West) focus more on personal responsibility, internal conscience, and legal or moral rightness. There, wrongdoing leads to feelings of guilt and a need for justice or forgiveness, rather than shame and a need for restoration of honor. One culture is deeply relational and external, the other is more individualistic and internal.

As someone who frequently interacts with honor-shame people for work, this is something I need to keep at the forefront of my mind, and it shapes how I read Philippians 4:8, which says:

“Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable — if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy — dwell on these things.”

What Paul Meant By Honor

When Paul urged the Philippians to dwell on whatever is honorable, he was speaking into an honor-shame culture—a world where public recognition, reputation, and relational status carried immense weight. In Greco-Roman society, honor was more than personal virtue. It was a public currency. One's standing in the community, family, and even the gods' favor, was tied to how honorable or shameful one was perceived to be.

But Paul subverts the usual definitions. In his reimagined kingdom ethic, honor is no longer rooted in status, wealth, or public accolades. It is grounded in moral and spiritual weight. The Greek word semnos (translated “honorable”) “means what is dignified and above reproach—that which inspires respect from others.”^[1] While the term has a wide range of meanings, Paul uses it here not to refer to the outer display of social honor but to the inner life shaped by the values of heaven.

For the early church, especially in places like Philippi (a Roman colony deeply infused with imperial values), this was radical. To follow Christ meant rethinking what was truly worthy of honor. The Roman world honored power, conquest, and pedigree. But Paul presents a crucified Messiah as the highest form of glory (Philippians 2:5–11). In God’s economy, humility is honorable. Faithfulness is honorable. Dignity isn’t found in climbing social ladders, but in lowering oneself in love and service.

So when Paul says, “dwell on whatever is honorable,” he’s inviting us to meditate on what heaven esteems.

How Do I Live an Honorable Life?

To dwell on what is honorable, then, is not just to think high-minded thoughts. It is to rewire our internal compass to value what God values, and to live in a way that reflects the upside-down glory of the cross. And most of all, it means thinking often of Jesus, the one who bore public shame to restore us to honor. His life redefined greatness. His death absorbed our disgrace. His resurrection enthroned the humble.