The Expression of Respect

[podcast]http://www.revkwon.com/podcast/authority-respect.mp3[/podcast] Last week we began talking about the idea of authority. More specifically, we began thinking about authority in the Biblical sense which informs us that because authority begins with authority and all authority is from God, that we actually have the freedom to decide and the right to act without being hindered. We said that the implications of how we use that authority are the most important question we have to answer and adhere to so that we can live out in the conviction that God’s authority is over and in us. Today, I want to talk about how we use “authority” to bestow “respect.” Just like we did last week, I’m going to help us all understand what “respect” is. The first thing respect is, is that respect is NOT tolerance. You see, what that means is that respect is different than deliberately allowing or permitting something which a person disapproves of. So respect is not biting your tongue even though you know that whatever it is that is coming out at you is inferior, harmful and stupid. Let me give you an example. Some people believe that we are respectful when we tolerate the act of a bully or a racist because they are not as well educated—we say, he doesn’t know any better and we are being respectful. Or we mistakenly believe that we are giving respect to our parents when we curse them out under our breath. That’s not “respect”. Respect is a feeling of deep admiration which is acted upon externally. This means that when you respect someone or something, you admire him or her or it and you express that admiration. Very simply then, respect is acting like it (something) matters! Write that down. Now that we understand that, I want to open our Bibles to Matthew 22. We pick up the story where Jesus just tells a bunch of people that God is not the God of the dead because dead people don’t need God; but that God is the God of the living and therefore people will be resurrected in an afterlife/eternal life. Matthew says that after Jesus said that the crowds were so astonished that they were silenced. It’s like BAM! Let’s read, verse 34. ³⁴ Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. ³⁵ One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:34-40) You may have not connected the two things together yet, but let me do that for you right now: Respect is expressed only through the act of love. Look at the question that the Pharisee asked, “what is the greatest commandment?” If the first commandment is to have no other gods before me, then the greatest commandment, according to Deut 6 is to love God – or better yet, to respect God before anything else. The question then is: why is “respect” so important? I’ll tell you why it’s so important. It is because without “respect”, people would destroy themselves and the people around them. That’s a radical jump, right? I’ll tell you what the Apostle Paul says in Galatians that prompts me to say this because it comes from Galatians 5:15 which says, “If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” The Apostle Paul was writing about this idea of respect because the people in the church in Galatia were not respecting each other—that is loving each other. It was so silly the thing they were disrespecting each other about too. It was about a thing called circumcision which is really nobody’s business except—but that’s what they were disrespecting each other about. Remember that respect can only be expressed through love. Look what happens when people have no respect. Genesis 4:6-10, I’ll read it. ⁶ Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? ⁷ If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” ⁸ Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. ⁹ Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” ¹⁰ The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. (Genesis 4:6-10) Cain didn’t respect Abel. They were brothers. Cain didn’t love his brother and so he killed him because he had no respect for him. Some of us in this room, we have no respect for God, we have no respect for other people. It’s because we don’t love God and because we don’t love people. We pretend to love God and to love people, but what we really love is ourselves and we tolerate other people. The distinctive elements of respect is love. ³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Matthew 22:37-39) Jesus says it so simply just LOVE. If love is the expression of respect, and we are told that the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul and mind and then to love our neighbor as yourself, then how do we love? What is the expression of love? I want to talk about that the rest of the sermon because in essence, when we’re talking about respect, we really talking about how we love others to the point of praising them because that’s what it means to admire. I broke this out into two types of loving. The first is loving God. Deut 6:5 says, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and your soul and with all your might.” That means that everything we have available for honoring God is loving God. I’ll give you some examples of “everything we have available” because sometimes we think that everything doesn’t mean everything or it means only some things. But when Moses writes this and when Jesus quotes it, everything is referring to:

• our spouses / bf / gf – you’re married, you have a boyfriend, you have a girlfriend for one reason, and that reason isn’t to listen to you or buy you stuff or be the mother or father of your children. That reason you have a spouse, BF or GF is so you can love God. Sometimes I think you have spouses, BF and GF to make loving God so easy. Because God doesn’t nag you about cleaning up, or taking showers, or going shopping. I’m just kidding. But really, we have spouses, BFs and GFs so that together we can completely love on God when we couldn’t individually.
• our children / pets – I put pets and children in the same category. But we have them to love God. Except maybe cats, but other than that, its so clear that our children and pets exist so that we can love God, we dedicate them to God, we raise them in God, we teach them to love God.
• our house / apt / dorm room – you’re not homeless because you love God by offering your home to God.
• wardrobe – yes, you have clothes so that you can love God
• tools – I have a power saw so that I can love God with my work
• technology (cell phones, computers, tablets, phablets, etc) – I think we almost exclusively read the word of God on something electronic
• movies / music – exist as an expression of the love of God for us in our creativity
• time – we have it so that we can love God
• money – do you think money just exists for us to spend? No, we have it so that we can love God.

I can go on and on with these examples because it’s pretty practical to understand that we love God by giving Him everything we have for Him. But now I will answer how loving others is the expression of our respect for them, but just as important, an expression of how we love God. Loving your neighbor as yourself is NOT treating people how you want to be treated. It’s not the golden rule. The golden rule is stupid. It’s broken. I don’t care how many humanist tell you otherwise, but the golden rule is inherently flawed because no matter how well you treat somebody else because you want to be treated that way, some self-entitled schmuck messes it up and treats you poorly. Just ask anybody who’s ever waited for customer service. Loving your neighbor as yourself is absolutely, unconditionally, and incomparably doing like Jesus did in your life. What that means is that when you’re ready to die for somebody who you know doesn’t deserve your sacrifice, then and only then are you really loving somebody, then and only then are you really respecting somebody. Jesus was God, yet he chose to take on the form of dirt, he became human. He lived not like a king, but as a pauper and then he chose to die homeless. He died without friends, not because he wanted to because he was bored, but because he respected who we were created to be. Jesus loved us absolutely, unconditionally, and incomparably. When we are doing that because that’s what it means to love your neighbor as yourself—to get a second chance when you know you don’t deserve one – that is love. That is the true expression of respect. Jesus says in Matthew 5:16, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” The only good deed is to do like Jesus. Don’t do like you would. But do like Jesus would do for you. That is your light. That is true love. How many of us can say that we are doing that? I want you to picture; however, what the implications of respect is then. Galatians 5:14 says “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” You have the authority to fulfill the entire law! All you have to do is express respect. Let’s try it. In your small groups, I want you to spend some time discussing: What ways of acting and failing to act are regulated by respect? Especially in light of your life. Let’s pray.