Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world. For the Lord’s sake, submit to all human authority—whether the king as head of state, or the officials he has appointed. For the king has sent them to punish those who do wrong and to honor those who do right. It is God’s will that your honorable lives should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you. For you are free, yet you are God’s slaves, so don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil. Respect everyone, and love the family of believers. Fear God, and respect the king. 1 Peter 2:11-17
Peter
describes the life of a believer as one lived to serve the purposes and plans
of God in every possible way. In the
same way it is hoped, even expected, that a son or daughter will live into the
family name to bring honor, the children of God are to fear (reverence) God by
living honorably. The chief measuring
bar of that kind of living is rejecting every kind of evil, instead living with
respect towards everyone, even those (perhaps particularly
those) who show you no respect.
Peter
wasn’t without corroboration when he wrote this. Here’s what John said about loving the family
of believers:
If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers. 1 John 4:20-21
This
statement is focused on God’s family, and God is not blind to how poorly we in the
church of Jesus Christ have messed this up with our divisions, power grabs,
turning a blind eye to sin, and the like.
Peter moves us beyond even our petty in-house squabbling; Peter tells us
to love even unbelievers, to respect all people.
So
what does that mean?
Take
a little field trip with me to the dictionary for a list of synonyms for the
word “respect”. The 1967 hit blues song,
R-E-S-P-E-C-T, was a 2½ minute complaint that Aretha Franklin wasn’t getting
enough respect from her man. And, with
all due respect, the words that help flesh out what respect
means include[1]:
·
to
regard:
as in taking notice with the intention of caring for…
·
to
appreciate:
as in being fully conscious of (with people, that could easily mean not
taking for granted…by getting to know and understand)
·
to
admire: regard
with wonder, pleasure, or approval.
·
to
reverence: attitude
of deep respect tinged with awe; veneration.
That
last one really hurts; it means, even for the person who comes across, in
personality, actions, words, political beliefs, and everything else that makes
a person what, or who, he or she might be, we treat them respectfully…as much
so as if approaching God, Himself.
How
is that working for you?
It’s
hard to imagine we have an overflow of R-E-S-P-E-C-T in
today’s culture. We don’t need a
bulleted point-list to illustrate how little there is of the kind of respect Jesus
said is embodied in the word love.
So, everyone, those with whom you disagree, or
agree, the Black Lives Matter, or Blue Lives Matter, the down-and-out, as well
as the up-and-getting-richer, Democrat or Republican, young, old, clean or slob,
deserving or not…God says each one deserves what Aretha Franklin was demanding.
For You Today
Living with
respect means engaging with others to lift them up with your respect. Will you live with the kind of respect towards
the people you can see here on earth? If
not, don’t expect to see He Who is unseen in Heaven.
Title image Pixabay.com W Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
For another post on 1 Peter 2 see: Honorable Behavior - Part 1 and Honorable
Behavior – Part 2
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