Respect 1-6-08
Respect seems to be important to us. From pop culture we know that Aretha Franklin was asking for it and Rodney Dangerfield never got it. We have all heard tales of fights started (and deaths caused) by someone not demonstrating enough respect for another person. Many of our traditions and habits come from a sense of respect: the military salute, the opening of doors for women, and standing for the judge in a courtroom. All over the world, despite the differences in cultures and religions, people want respect.
Christians (being people) want respect. This is sometimes a problem as the world has little respect for Jesus Christ, and so views Christians as harmless and misguided (best case) or as the source of all that is wrong in the world (worst case). Christians are blamed for most things that go wrong. We’ve been blamed for teen pregnancy, teen suicide, civil rights abuses, school shootings (including Columbine), 9/11, the war in Iraq, and many others throughout history. Since we do not naturally get the respect we want, some Christians dim their message in order to appear more open-minded. As my wife is fond of pointing out, some have become so open-minded that their brains have fallen out! In the rush to appear respectable, some of these Christians jump on the bandwagon of church-bashing, sometimes even apologizing for atrocities the church never committed.
They seem to have forgotten what Jesus taught on the subject of respect. He taught on the importance of honoring your father and mother, as well as honoring each other:
Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ he is not to ‘honor his father’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ” ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’” (Matthew 15:3-9 NIV)
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “the teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. “Everything they do is done for men to see: they make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’ But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant.” (Matthew 23:1-11 NIV)
Most important to this idea of respect is to respect God. Christians need to avoid the trap of the world, which says that self-respect is the key to a fulfilled life. The world is full of failed attempts to achieve self-respect. The key to a truly fulfilled life is to respect God. From that respect comes respect for each other as God’s created children. From respecting God, and respecting other people, comes a true self-respect. To paraphrase Solomon, wisdom starts with fearing God (RESPECT). Respecting God leads to obedience to the “golden rule” of Jesus: do for others what you would want done for yourself.
How do you treat God? Is he inconvenient and outdated in your life, or is he the central core around which you are built? Do you strive to get to know him better each day, or is he a distant and unimportant piece of your life? How do you treat other people? Do you show kindness and patience, or are you rude, arrogant, and disdainful of them? Are other people important enough to show them the gospel, or are you unconcerned with the fates of strangers? How do you treat yourself? Do you feed yourself from the bread of life and avail yourself of the waters of life? Or do you allow yourself to remain mired in the mud and slime of this world?
Think about these questions as we head into the new year. Maybe 2008 will be the year that God gains more respect from our country. With all that he’s done for us, it would be about time!
-Charles Peterson