Why call a judge "honorable?"

What are we saying when we refer to a judge as "the Honorable So and So?” The very title "Honorable" expresses our recognition that we live in a moral world where the concept of right and wrong is accepted. One dictionary defines honor as "strict conformity to what is considered morally right.”
       But where do moral system come from? Is it custom that decided that one thing is right and another wrong? Is theft wrong simply because it has always been considered wrong? If social practice determined morality, we'd be living in a world where morality would be accidental. In some social groups stealing would be right and in others wrong because that's the way it had always been.
      Somehow this is not a satisfactory answer. I believe the vast majority of people would agree that moral responsibility requires something beyond custom, some outside force, some absolute. One thing is for sure and that is that our sense of "oughtness" didn't create itself. The Christian faith holds that God is the source of our responsibility to do what is right and not do what is wrong. So, for Christians to live honorable lifes requires that they conform to what God has declared morally right. Anything else is dishonorable.
       The theological expression, the righteousness of God, is often thought of in a sort of abstract way, but the truth is that it is a description of the One who always does what is right. A judge is given the title "Honorable" because it is his responsibility to decide if honor can be ascribed (or not) to a given act. God is honorable because it is his very nature. His requirements are an expression of who he is.
       It is interesting that this basic Judeo-Christian precept finds expression in the Greek classical period. Socrates said,   "The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.” Honor is the correlation between what a person says and does. To live in an honorable way is essentially to be in life, what we claim to be. It's the old "walk-the-talk” challenge. As always, contemporary public life continues to demonstrate that, whatever the problem, failure is always someone else's fault. What a dramatic change if those in power would accept the responsibility for what they do. To be honorable one must act in honorable ways. The universal tendency to pretend we are someone different than we really are (the one who didn't do it, say it, think it, is responsible for it) is dishonorable and ought to be designated as such. Transparency is widely recognized as a virtue in our system of governance, but if it exists in theory only it is worthless, and, in fact, dishonorable