I Peter 2:17 Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.

Respect, it is a short word but a monumental concept. If every person were to make a list of their deepest needs, the concept of respect or something like it would be near the top.

How do others show respect to you?

In the verse above we are encouraged to demonstrate respect to different categories of relationships in different ways.

The first involves loving other believers in order to demonstrate respect. May be this would include providing for material or emotional needs. May be it could include acts of serving that bless another’s heart. May be it could include being a friend who listens intently when another person is hurting or in need of a sympathetic heart.

Fearing God is how we can show our respect for Him. I would encourage a study of the concept of “fear of the Lord” for a rich time of study and learning; but a short list of what this idea includes, but is not limited to might look like this:

· Worship

· Holy living

· Reverential awe of God’s person and His works

· Giving

· Obedience to His commands

These actions and attitudes are some of the ways we demonstrate our respect for the Lord.

The third category, “honor the king”, might entail the concept of how we show respect to authority or even the world around us. Honor is another word that deserves study in scripture, but it could mean giving obedience and credit where credit is due. This too is a demonstration of respect.

Lord, may the idea of proper respect permeate our lives. Amen.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 25th, 2006 at 5:00 am and is filed under Daily Readings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.