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Honor, Loyalty, Respect and Trust.

What do these really mean to the majority? Over the years I have been in and have seen many orders, organisations, groups and networks reveal their own interpretations. And they do differ greatly in perception, ideology and indeed practice.



HONOUR:

There's no one definition for it. Honour is made up of a lot of things. I think, first and foremost this: Honour is that thing that makes you act as if someone is watching, even when you know they're not. Honour means treating everything you say as if it's an oath. What is said should be treated as done, and if it is not to be done, it shouldn't be said. Honour also means acknowledging your mistakes.

Honour is used in two different senses here. We can speak of a person's honour and we can talk about giving honour to another person. A person's honour is his integrity. It is the idea of doing what is right in all situations. "Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men" (Romans 12:17). The writer of Proverbs said, "Better is the poor who walks in his integrity than one perverse in his ways, though he be rich" (Proverbs 28:6).

Giving honour, such as to a parent (Ephesians 6:2), means to prize your relationship with them or to value your relationship with them. It can be shown in a variety of ways, such as being obedient to them when your are young, being respectful, and when you are old seeing to their care.



LOYALTY:

Loyalty is something of value. Loyalty is a jewel that is hard to find in today's society. Think of your loyalty to an organisation. People do not spend the same amount of years working for the same company, as their parents and grandparents did. Think of the marriages that end in divorce. People are quicker to terminate marriages for the smallest of issues, such as "irreconcilable differences."

Loyalty is a strong force that will keep you in any relationship, whether business or personal. Your loyalty to someone or even an organisation will always have a high appraisal value. When your mate for example senses a hint of disloyalty in you, the level of trust goes down.

When trust diminishes, the relationship deteriorates. The same is true for the organisation you work for. When disloyalty is evident in you, your opportunities for growth in that organisation are lost. Trust and loyalty go hand in hand.

Loyalty is rooted in the heart. It is not superficial by any means. It is a code by which one lives. It is a standard that will gain you allies for life. It is true that one can be loyal to people or organisations that are negative, such as gangs or terror groups. So loyalty in itself is not a sign of a good trait. What is important is who or what you are loyal to.



RESPECT:

Respect is something that has to be earned. Teachers, priests, authority figures and many other groups of people are classified as people who are supposed to be given respect. Not only are people supposed to be given respect, but people's decisions are also supposed to be respected.

Respect can take years to earn or it can almost be earned overnight. Teachers, priests, authority figures and other groups of people spend years before they earn their respect. Musicians can right a song and earn respect almost immediately.

Respect is ten times easier to lose then it is to gain. Respect can be lost in an instant one word, one decision or one action can loose a person their respect.

People can spend their whole lives thinking of ways to earn respect, but unless they do something they will never get it. It is hard for people to get good jobs if they are not respectable. Everyone has a different opinion on respect and who deserves theirs. In contrast respect is something everyone wants and something no-one wants to loose.

Respect also has two definitions, but they seem almost contradictory. Giving someone respect means being polite. For example, standing up when an older person enters a room is a sign of respect (Leviticus 19:32). We talk about equal rights, personal rights, and the equality of man, but the idea of respect is about a perceived inequality. Respect means some things and some people are more important. The other definition of "respect" is having a sense of shame. Young men are told to use "sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you" (Titus 2:8). In other words, you can gain an enemy's respect by being respectable in your behavior. Again, it is the idea of seeing an inequality in the world; in this case, being embarrassed that your own behavior doesn't measure up to the behavior of another. We show respect when we treat other people better than ourselves (Philippians 2:3-4).



TRUST:

Trust is the relationship, trust is reliance on the other, and trust is the confidence, faith and the foundation of a relationship. Trust is both and emotional and logical act. Emotionally, it is where you expose your vulnerabilities to people, but believing they will not take advantage of your openness. Logically, it is where you have assessed the probabilities of gain and loss, calculating expected utility based on hard performance data, and concluded that the person in question will behave in a predictable manner. In practice, trust is a bit of both. I trust you because I have experienced your trustworthiness and because I have faith in human nature.

From the realms of Wikipedia it claims that trust is a relationship of reliance. A trusted party is presumed to seek to fulfill policies, ethical codes, law and their previous promises.

Trust does not need to involve belief in the good character, vices, or morals of the other party. Persons engaged in a criminal activity usually trust each other to some extent. Also, trust does not need to include an action that you and the other party are mutually engaged in. Trust is a prediction of reliance on an action, based on what a party knows about the other party. Trust is a statement about what is otherwise unknown -- for example, because it is far away, cannot be verified, or is in the future.

Without these no alliances will thrive...


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