Honor and Respect

In every area our culture has undergone a downward spiral since I was a child in the 1960's. But one obvious decline that we can do something about is the lack of respect and honor where respect and honor is due.

Civility begins with the heart. If the heart is turned to God, then we can begin to show respect for our fellow man and give honor where honor is due, even though it's not easy to follow these instructions in I Peter 2:13-17:

"Submit yourselves to every regulation of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king, as supreme, or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by Him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.

"For so is the will of God, that with well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, as free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.

"Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Respect the king."

One simple way to incorporate this is to refuse to pass along tacky and blatantly disrespectful emails. Note that God does not say, "respect the king (i.e., President) if you agree with him." I think about who the apostles had as kings and governors (godless Romans, some of whom wanted to exterminate all Christians) and I realize that this command goes way deeper than mere respect for a man; if we can't learn to respect the authorities that God has placed here on Earth, how can we respect the authority of the One who created the entire universe?