Offer Respect
What Is Respect?
In the modern era, “respect” is defined as “high or special regard: esteem.”(1) Interestingly, in our day, it’s possible to claim we respect someone without demonstrating it through action. But in the first century, to respect someone required action on the part of the one showing respect.
Our Scripture today comes from a letter Peter wrote to Christians during a time of intense persecution. Believers were being driven out of Rome, tortured, and even killed for their faith. Peter wrote to encourage them to live dependent upon God and His Holy Spirit in order to obey Jesus in all areas—even in the midst of trials and suffering.
In this particular passage, Peter encouraged his audience—and us today—to live distinctively, even when life is painful. While this passage is often studied in the context of a Christian's relationship to government, today we’re focusing on a timeless truth it contains: the virtue of respect in everyday life.
Read
1 Peter 2:13–17 (NIV)
13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. 16 Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. 17 Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.
Consider:
What does Peter say in verse 17?
Who are we told to show respect to?
What does this passage suggest we do concerning mothers who are fellow Christians?
Reflect
“To show proper respect to everyone” refers to each person with whom we come in contact—a focus on individuals rather than “everyone” as a group. We are to give others respect as individuals, because they’re fellow human beings also made in God’s image.
This verse does not advocate a blanket statement that means to treat everyone with the exact same kind of respect. Rather, each person is to be given the respect that is appropriate or due in that relationship.
Think about the mothers we will honor on Sunday:
What would it look like to show respect to her?
What about other mothers in the body of Christ?
Respond
One of the Ten Commandments related to respect is likely one you know: “Honor your father and mother.” In Matthew 15:1–6, Jesus confronts the hypocrisy of religious leaders who were misusing a tradition to avoid honoring this commandment.
They would declare their possessions “dedicated to God” as a way to sidestep the financial responsibility of caring for aging parents. Jesus condemned this practice, making it clear that honoring one’s parents—including financially—was still very much expected.
Caring for our parents with our resources in their older years is complicated. There is no one-size-fits-all formula. If there were, we’d follow the formula and not depend upon the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Ask yourself:
How can you honor your mother—financially or otherwise—in this season of her life?
Some of the mothers we plan to honor this Sunday—wives, sisters, daughters, mothers, and mentors alike—may be the same age or even younger than we are. But they all have one thing in common: they have lived two or more decades longer than their children.
Regardless of education or IQ, moms will always be decades-of-life-experience wiser than their children. That life experience is incredibly valuable. Timeless truths outlast the generations. When we live by truths passed down from our mothers or grandmothers, we show them respect by honoring their wisdom.
Reflect:
What are some things you learned from your own mother or grandmother that she passed along from her life experience?
How might you show her that you value her wisdom?
1 Norman L. Geisler, “Colossians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 676–677.