R-E-S-P-E-C-T (Part I)
Respect can be defined as the condition of being honored or as an admiration or esteem. It seems we search our entire life to be respected. We feel as if we deserve respect. We even demand it. We puff our little chests and yell “I will be respected!” Why is respect so important in our lives? In Ephesians 5:33, the Bible tells wives to respect their husbands. God knows how important respect is to men. The Bible also tells husbands to love their wives. God also knows how important love is to women. However, we always forget right before wives are commanded to respect their husbands and husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church, we are commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is the same Holy Spirit that came upon Jesus while being baptized by John the Baptist. The same spirit that goes to and from the earth and sees all things, knows all things, hears all things, knows our deepest thoughts, and all the secret desires of our heart. Without the Holy Spirit, the third person of the God-head, dwelling in us, we will never be able to truly love and respect each other.
However, something that I have realized lately is people are getting this idea that they deserve respect and can demand it. I’m not sure who put this idea into our mind. In actuality, we are not owed anything by anyone. We owe our lives to Jesus Christ for His sacrifice on the cross for us. He paid a debt that we could not pay. He paid it in full. Yet we always say we must be respected. We want the world to respect us. It seems we haven’t realized that the world hates us and its ultimate goal is to see us painfully and slowly die. It is like an insanity cycle. We say respect ME and the world spits in our face, so we try again and then the world slaps us. When will we learn to stop prostituting our lives with this world? We need to stop reading the parts of the Bible that make us feel good and dive into the complete and perfect word of God. We need to ask Jesus to live His life through us. We need to have the Holy Spirit empower us.
To all who are in Christ, yet demand respect from the world (one of our enemies), let’s take a logical approach at this. The world hates God and our Lord Jesus Christ. They always resist the Holy Spirit and blaspheme Him. Now, if we are in Christ, why would we expect respect from the same world that hates and has no respect for our Savior? That doesn’t make much sense.