1 Peter 2:17 “Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.”
Everyone longs to be respected, no matter who they are. Aretha Franklin spelled it out in her iconic song. “R-E-S-P-E-C-T; find out what it means to me.” Although we live in a world of voices demanding respect, it seems fewer and fewer are trying to find out what it means to the person in front of them.
Whatever happened to respect?
The Apostle Peter tells us to respect everyone who shares the unique commonality of being human. But in today’s market, showing respect to people who differ from us has become a liability. Even in the church. And honoring authority? Forget it.
When people stop having a holy fear of God, they dismiss both his authority and standards. They no longer look on his creation as something to cherish. The deluge of crudity, vulgarity and irreverence we’re now experiencing in our culture desensitizes us to what is real and true and beautiful. When skepticism replaces respect as the modus operandi, the world becomes very ugly very fast.
If we hope to reclaim R-E-S-P-E-C-T, we have to begin with another word: H-U-M-I-L-I-T-Y. Augustine said the four cardinal virtues are humility, humility, humility and humility. Humility teaches us how to view life. But humility isn’t about focusing on how small we are; it’s about realizing how great God is. Groveling over our sin doesn’t humble us. Basking in the light of undeserved grace does.
Jesus Christ’s domain extends over all existence. Incredibly, he calls us to steward that domain. To do it well means we show respect for all who bear his image. People just like us, who make poor choices, who resist his love, maybe even spit in his face. But people he died for. We may not like what some do. In fact, we may fervently disagree with them. But we are fellow guests in the same house. We don’t make the rules. The owner of the house does. So we obey.
I doubt a song titled H-U-M-I-L-I-T-Y will ever make it to the Billboard charts. But if we’re not humming its tune, we can sing R-E-S-P-E-C-T all day long and never know what it means.