Selfless Faith

Throughout the Word of God, it shows over and over that God Himself shows no partiality and is no respecter of person. Here are some examples starting with how the Pharisees approached Jesus. Although they said He was not good, they  actually addressed Him as God  when they said in Matthew 22:16, “And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men.” Then in Acts 10:34-35, Peter is speaking to Cornelius’s household, he started by saying, “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works in righteousness is accepted.” Then again, in Galatians 2:6, Paul writes, “But to who seemed to be something – whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God shows personal favoritism to NO man – for those who seemed to be something added nothing to me.” Again in Deuteronomy 10:17, it reads “For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe.” In 1 Peter 1:17, Peter writes “if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in ear.” These are just a few examples of what is mentioned in the scriptures many times. God doesn’t care who you “think” you are. He already knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows we are a bunch of dirty rotten sinners. We don’t have to try to hide that fact from God. If we try, He will surely uncover it to the world. How many athletes, musicians, politicians, and public figures are exposed on a regular basis for their sins. What we try to say is our private life, God makes it our public sin. The thing that God looks at is the heart and He honors those who put their trust and reliance in Him.

Now, if God Himself is a respecter of no person and shows no partiality, will we demand respect from God as well? I would surely hope not. Now, if we would not ask or demand respect from God, what gives us the right to demand it from the world? My friends, Jesus Christ was hated, betrayed, beaten, and nailed to a cross for OUR sins against God. He was killed for our transgressions because HE loved us and He GAVE Himself for us. Paul writes with in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Maybe we should revisit John 15:18-25 to see how the relationship the world has to those who follow Jesus Christ. These are the direct words from God to our hearts.

⁸ “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. ²¹ But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. ²² If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ He who hates Me hates My Father also.²⁴ If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. ²⁵ But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’”

Romans 12:2 says “Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Not the will of the world or ourselves)

In closing, to summarize it all, respect everyone and don’t expect respect from anyone. That is only possible by the power and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. God is in control of it all.

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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.

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