In the early 1970’s Luther Ingram and Mack Rice, who were song writers for Stax Records wrote a song released by the Staple Singers titled, “Respect Yourself”. The lyrics were, If you disrespect everybody that you run into, how in the world do you think everybody’s ‘sposed to respect you? If you don’t care about the man with the Bible in his hand, just get out of the way and let the gentleman do his thing. You the kind of gentleman want everything your way. Take the sheet off your face boy, it’s a brand new day. Respect yourself, ‘cause if you don’t respect yourself, ain’t nobody gonna care, respect yourself.
Everyone wants respect in one form or another. Some get it through reckless criminal lifestyles. Others by way of academic achievement or even political notoriety. From God’s point of view though, which in the end is the only view that actually counts, how does He see the concept of respect? Can we honor someone without respecting them? That’s a question we must all, as individuals, wrestle to decide.
Are people generally worthy of honor? Not as in lifting them up, or having respect for them, but in recognizing them as someone of worth because God loves and gave His life for them. Can we honor someone yet find virtually nothing about them worthy of any respect? Does it seem a bit off center to think someone can conduct themselves in a way as to be someone of no respect but yet be called honorable? It seems like an oxymoron to say honorable yet of no respect in the same sentence, doesn’t it?
“Respect” in Rom13:7 is in the sense of giving reverence to those who wield power and authority. The Hebrew idea of respect means “to lift up” among two other implications. “To lift the hand” while taking an oath was a show of respect, and an outward sign of good conscience, confidence, and favor. “Lifting up the eyes” was also a metaphor for having respect.
i’m thinking of “respect” as a subset under honor, except i’m having trouble with the idea of honoring someone whom i really have very little respect for. i may “respect” the position of someone in public office, but i find no respect for them as a person in my heart. i think in the way people see honor they confine their thinking to “respectful behavior”, as in being polite, courteous, and having good manners, and i think that’s pretty narrow. When i was young i learned manners at an early age, sort of. “What a nice little boy” people would say, meaning they approved of my behavior. Well, i guess kudos to me for being “a nice little boy”, in their opinion!
Honor is different. In the way the Lord uses it, honor comes when we recognize someone’s worth or value, it doesn’t mean we endorse their behavior, but are conducting ourselves in a way which conveys that they have value. i think maybe respect focuses on behavior, like doing “the right thing”, whereas honor comes from the heart. Respect acknowledges a persons conduct, while honor attaches worth. Respect teaches manners and the seemingly flexible phrase “proper behavior”, so i suppose we should also wisely ask, “proper behavior” according to who? Respect carries the idea of being like a vapor, and it can rise and fall, but honor teaches something deeper. Respect can make us look good to others, but honor “builds the hidden bonds that provide strength and unity”, which is my deduction from looking at the Hebrew letters. Respectful behavior is incomplete in and of itself. Teaching respect is not enough. As “Respect” rises and falls … “honor” has weight and glory. It’s one thing to obey the deputy out of respect for his position, but it’s another to honor him because you know him as a friend.
When someone’s choice dishonors themselves and shames another, are they also someone who gets no respect until their actions are rightfully dealt with and rectified before the Lord along with those who were wounded by their actions? When someone has stepped into adultery, they diminish and dishonor themselves, shame the other person, degrade their testimony, cast a shadows on the upright people whom they fellowship with, and transgress the blood covenant with the Lord. Respect for them plummets to zero. After God has brought them through their dark time of reconciliation and restoration, their testimony should not be one of their downfall, but more gives respect and honor to God’s love and deliverance … the focus is on God’s redemption rather than on their disgrace.
Both honor and respect have their place. When children are young, they learn respectful behavior, but as they grow older, as parents we should develop a heart response of honor as well. It’s good to teach respectful behavior but it’s important that we not stop there. Honor adds a deeper dimension to relationships and helps us address conflicts in relationships, it’s like a character trait rather than only giving respect to someone of position and title.
In Mark15:43, it says “Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus”. The word “respect” is used in the sense of being honest and orderly, and of someone with blameless conduct.
Paul wrote to the church at Rome to “Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed”. Every living soul has value, or else Jesus would not have died and rose from the dead for the sins of the world, but not everyone conducts themselves in a way that we owe them respect. Do you get the picture?
When scripture says that God is no respecter of persons in Deut1:17 and Acts10:34, it doesn’t mean He thinks we are all pitiful scum to be tolerated, but that He’s not impressed with someone’s position, title, personal authority and charismatic power. Our position and title here in the world is not what gains us anything with God. He doesn’t hear a CEO over a janitor, a world financier over a tile layer. A just judge regards causes, not persons. For instance if you promote someone to a professorship for the reason, which is the cause, of their having sufficient knowledge, we would consider that “due cause”, not how much we appreciate the person. But, if we promote that person because of favors, charisma, or personal power for the reason that they are that particular person, then there is respect of the person. A just judge regards causes, not persons. Everyone has worth and value, but not everyone conducts themselves in a way worthy of respect.
What do you think?