loves shows value and honor...

we’re in this series “what is love,” and we’re looking at different aspects of love as found in 1 corinthians 13. now one aspect of love found here is that it is respectful, it shows respect to others. in verse 5 (niv), we find these words, love is not rude. it is not self seeking.

you sum that up, and it basically means you treat other people respectfully. the idea of respect is talked about a lot in the bible. in deuteronomy 28 and leviticus 19, it tells us to show respect to those who are elderly. in 1 samuel 2, a preacher’s sons were called scoundrels because they showed no respect for the LORD. in ephesians 5 and 6, husbands and wives were taught to respect each other, and slaves and masters were told to have mutual respect as well.

here is a verse that i hope you’ll get into your mind and you’ll think about it through this week and actually through your life. 1 peter 2.17 (nlt) says, show respect for everyone and love your CHRISTian brothers and sisters.

respect is one of those topics we talk about and it’s a word we use a lot, but have you ever given much thought to what the word “respect” really means? i can remember as a little boy my mom saying, “that was disrespectful.” or “you need to show respect in this situation.” but i never had anybody to define that for me.

here’s how i’d like to define respect for our own purposes: respect is showing value and honor to others by our actions. when we dishonor or devalue a person, we could say we disrespected them. we disregarded them. the common vernacular is “we dissed them.” but to respect someone is to show value and honor.

every person that you’ve ever met has around his or her neck an invisible sign. if you look carefully enough, you can almost see it. it’s a sign that says, “do i matter to you?” it’s a sign that says, “do i have any worth at all in your estimation? do you in any way honor or esteem who i am?” and if you look at that sign crying out, “would somebody please show me by their actions that i matter?”

do people feel better or worse after they’ve been with you? this is one way to know whether you’re a respectful person. do they feel inspired, valued, respected? or do they feel worse, diminished, unappreciated? i find there’s some people i feel replenished by and other people i feel very diminished by. there are situations where i find myself renewed and other situations that just wear me out.

just a thought from the front porch…