Let’s Talk About Heroes

Do you have heroes?

If your answer is yes, then chances are, if they are or were publicly known figures, there are a lot of people who will disagree with your list of heroes. In fact, some people will probably categorize your heroes as villains.

The whole issue of heroes is at the heart of a lot of division and polarization in America today. (It’s true for other countries and cultures as well, but I’m writing from an American context). Here is a list of people who are well known — people from our past or in our present — that Americans are DEEPLY divided over how to categorize them:

Christopher Columbus (technically not American)
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Tecumseh
Andrew Jackson
John Brown
Abraham Lincoln
Robert E. Lee
Ulysses S. Grant
Frederick Douglass
Teddy Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Harry Truman
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ronald Reagan
Barack Obama
Michelle Obama
Donald Trump

The preceding list is nowhere near all-inclusive. It’s just designed to provoke some thinking. All of these people have their admirers and their detractors. Depending on who you talk with, the aforementioned individuals are either worthy of our admiration and respect OR our condemnation and contempt.

Let me pause and say that the Bible tells us we should first see these people — and all others — as human beings made in the image of God and as our “neighbor” (see Jesus’ teaching on loving one’s neighbor as well as the parable of the Good Samaritan if you need clarification on that). So, the idea that you can hold another human being in contempt or make them a perpetual target of your ridicule or scorn is unbiblical.

Hating another human being is ungodly.

We should love our neighbor and we should even love our enemies. Jesus couldn’t be clearer about this.

If, for some reason, He isn’t clear to you. I encourage you to re-read the gospels and then read James’s epistle and Paul’s epistles as well. Well, just go ahead and read the whole New Testament. And keep reading it — until it’s clear that you are commanded to love your neighbor, love your enemies, and overcome evil with good.

Sound good?

Okay…

Now, let’s get back to the question of heroes. We are supposed to love our neighbor but that doesn’t mean every one of the human beings we share planet Earth with deserves to be respected or honored as a hero… right?

Well…

The Apostle Peter actually says we are to honor everyone. Here is what he says in his epistle…

Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king. (I Peter 2:17, KJV)
Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. (I Peter 2:17, NKJV)
Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. (I Peter 2:17, NASB)
Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor. (I Peter 2:17, NIV)
Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. (I Peter 2:17, ESV)

Now, clearly, there’s an emphasis in this passage on “the king” (or, as the ESV and NIV say, “emperor.”) But the verse begins with an exhortation to honor everyone.

So…

We should pay special honor to parents (as the Bible makes clear in other passages), our leaders (as Peter and Paul both say in their writings), but we really should respect and honor everybody in our life. That’s what Peter is saying here.

Therefore…

God’s people should be in the habit of honoring others. Let that sink in.

So… having said all the above…

Are there degrees of honor? Are there some people who deserve to be honored more than the general honoring that God’s people should be in the habit of doing?

I believe the answer is yes, and I think there’s some biblical backing for that position.

In the New Testament, Paul encourages church members to honor their pastors because of the responsibility that they carry (I Thessalonians 5:12-13). This is something above and beyond just simply honoring them because they are your brothers in Christ. The writer of Hebrews echoes that same point (Hebrews 13:7, 17).

What’s more, Paul says that the elders (or pastors) who “rule well” should be “counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.” (I Timothy 5:17). So…all pastors warrant honor. Those pastors doing an excellent job deserve “double” honor. Note the degree.

This article isn’t about pastors. I am just using what Paul and Peter say about pastors to show that this is an example of degrees of honor. Everyone should be honored, but some people warrant more honor than others.

It’s my contention that, while we should (as a general rule) honor everyone, some people deserve a higher degree of honor than others.

In my opinion, this list would include men and women who make sacrifices above and beyond the ordinary to render much-needed services to their fellow human beings. It also includes those men and women who made overall positive contributions to communities (both small and large) and helped move them forward. And it includes those whose lives can be characterized by more good than bad and who exemplify one or more positive qualities that we can learn from or inspired by.

It’s NOT my contention that any human being is perfect. On the contrary, every single human being that has ever lived and who is living today is morally flawed and thoroughly imperfect. This is why we all need Jesus (see Romans 3:10, 3:23, 6:23, 5:8, and 10:9-13).

It’s also why you will be able to find fault with every single person our nation regards as a hero.

No exceptions.

Consider those Americans on our currency, our coins, on Mount Rushmore, whose names adorn street signs, who have statues erected in their honor, or who have holidays dedicated to them… all those Americans are flawed. They all have sins in their lives. They all have proverbial skeletons in their closet.

This doesn’t mean that we can’t use the term “hero” to describe them. It just means we have to keep that term in perspective.

I recall reading, years ago, that one of the most common acts which earned a soldier a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor (our nation’s highest military decoration) was throwing one’s body on a grenade to protect his comrades-in-arms. That’s a heroic deed. And the person who does such a deed deserves the appellation of “hero” even if such a person has sins, scandals, or shortcomings in his life – because I guarantee he does.

Evidence strongly shows that Martin Luther King, Jr. was unfaithful to his wife. There are some indications that this was commonplace. Some allege MLK was, at times, abusive. Adultery is a serious sin, and some of the allegations that say King did more than that are disturbing. But…

I still regard Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as an overall hero in American history. I obviously condemn his adultery and any abuse he may have committed. I also don’t agree with all his theology (especially some of his writings in seminary). Nevertheless… on balance, the good far outweighs the bad. And the good he contributed to America was frankly invaluable and indispensable.

It’s also true that all Americans can be inspired by King’s unswerving commitment to justice, civil rights, non-violence, and racial reconciliation. And his courage and his passion. He deserves his holiday. He deserves the honors he has received and continues to receive. And he deserves to be called a “hero.”

He also deserves to be called a sinner — one who needed Jesus. And I hope he had a personal saving relationship with Jesus Christ (only God knows a person’s heart) and that I will see him in heaven whenever I get there.

I feel the same way when it comes to all our nation’s heroes — whether we’re talking about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Abraham Lincoln, William Jennings Bryan, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, Douglas MacArthur, George Patton, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and on and on.

I feel the same way about the heroes in the Bible — whether we’re talking about Abraham, Moses, King David, Peter, or Paul.

No human being is perfect, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be inspired by other human beings or consider some to be heroes.

In fact, I could make an argument that a society without heroes is a society doomed to failure and catastrophe. I’ll have to make that argument in another post, though. For now, let me ask you this simple question, my fellow Christian, why is Hebrews 11 in the Bible? Maybe the Holy Spirit knows something that the cynical and the anti-hero people don’t know. Something to think about.

There’s no problem having heroes. In fact, I think it’s (on balance) good to have heroes SO LONG AS we keep them in perspective.

We should honor our heroes but never worship them.

The only one worthy of worship is God.

Because He is the only One who is not flawed and who never sins.

And who never lets us down.

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