What Does the Bible Say about Respect, and Do Christians Require It?
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God has much to say about how He’d like us to treat one another. Most of us would say (along with Aretha Franklin) that we’d like to be treated with respect. But what does the Bible say about respect? Is that part of God’s plan for us?
Our modern definition of respect is essentially to either admire another person or to have regard for their feelings, wishes, and rights as they are due as a human being. So, there are people we respect because they’ve done something or lived in such a way that we believe they are worthy of special honor and attention. But, on some level, many modern cultures (not all) have also adopted the idea that all humans are worthy of a certain baseline of dignity, protection, provision, and acknowledgment. This is, in fact, a very biblical concept.
We know God merits our respect to a degree above every human, so we say that we owe Him all reverence, honor, and glory. When our attitude toward any other humans tempts us to worship or idolize them, that is out of balance.
However, we also know that God created humanity in His image—male and female. Each person bears the very image of God and is a unique creation worth everyone else’s acknowledgment as worthy of respect because each of us is God’s idea.
God expresses His high value on humanity early in the Bible when He states this strong warning to Noah in Genesis 9:5 ESV, “And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.”
This idea is captured in the New Testament by Jesus in what we call “The Golden Rule” found in Matthew 7:12 ESV “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”
This is the minimal perspective we should take toward all people. That each is God’s creation and so, deserves to be treated as we would like to be treated. Without an understanding of an intelligent Creator to whom we are accountable, what basis would we have to insist on respect toward one another? Instead, we might find ourselves devaluing human life and measuring worth by culturally derived measures.
So, the minimum we are called to do is treat others as we would like to be treated. Still, for the believer, God calls us beyond the minimum and even sometimes to lay down our lives for others, respecting their needs as greater than ours.
What Is Respect according to the Bible?
In the Bible, the concept of respect is expressed through a variety of Hebrew and Greek words. In 1 Peter 2:17 NIV, the apostle commands us to “Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.” Here, the word translated respect is timao. Other versions translate this as honor. This is the same word used in the New Testament in verses about honoring our father and mother as well as admonitions to honor widows and honor kings. This type of respect is about acknowledging people based on their relationship to us, their position in society, or their situation in life.
Romans 12 is a wonderful treatise on respect, and it begins with cultivating minds that respect others. Paul exhorts us to make our lives a living sacrifice and to not conform to the way of thinking of the world. He tells us to have humble or sober thinking about ourselves and to imagine that we are all part of one body with other believers (the Body of Christ). Just as we respect our eyes, ears, arms, and legs, we should also respect other Christians. We depend on them, and they rely on us so it’s vital that we treat them with respect.
Paul then goes on to explain what that respect looks like lived out—in great detail, in fact. We should cling to what is good and love with sincerity. Honor others above ourselves. Rejoice with others. Mourn with them. Seek harmony with all that we can. We should not be arrogant or consider ourselves better than anyone else and we should not seek our own revenge but leave that to God.
I don’t know about you, but I would like to spend lots of time with people who acted that way. In the great love chapter in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul tells us that love is not rude and doesn’t insist on its own way. The opposite of being rude to others is demonstrating respect—whether we agree or disagree.
This is an important topic for Paul as he also explores it also in Romans 14 and 15. He tells Christians how to treat one another when we have sincere disagreements over how to live. In Romans 15:7, he tells us that when we accept one another, even when we disagree, we bring praise to God. That doesn’t mean we yield to deception or to inerrant theology (in fact, Paul tells us not to let what we hold true be spoken of as evil). But we disagree with order and respect.
So God calls us to acknowledge that each person is created by Him, in His image, and merits respect simply by being human. He further calls believers to demonstrate His character and our faith in Him by going beyond this and offering respect to others even in the way we disagree.
What Does the Bible Say about Disrespect?
In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV, we learn that love lived out looks a lot like respect with its opposite – disrespect or dishonor – being the opposite of love. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
To disrespect others is to disrespect those God created. To disrespect fellow believers is to dishonor another part of the same body. To disrespect unbelievers is to be unloving and we are called to love that people may see Jesus alive in us.
Disrespect is one mark of those who reject Jesus. In the parable of the vineyard, Jesus talks about the owner of a vineyard who allowed some tenants to work his land. When the harvest comes, the owner sends a steward to collect his share of the fruit, but the tenants beat and kill not only that steward but all others the owner sends!
Jesus continues the story this way, “Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? ‘He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,’ they replied, ‘and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
Of course, Jesus here is talking about Himself and His coming crucifixion. The tenants to whom the harvest was entrusted disrespect even the Son of the owner. This type of disrespect is a mark of those who have no respect for God or for other people.
Why Is Respect so Important in the Christian Community?
Reverence for God. Honor for others. Respect for all life as created by and belonging to God. These are not only marks of a believer, but they set Christians apart from others. They demonstrate to those who don’t know Jesus that we are a different kind of people because we serve a different God.
Respecting others demonstrates the value God places on life. Respecting others demonstrates the character of God in His humility, sacrificial love, and redemptive plan. Respecting others creates a community that is marked by harmony, service, and care for even the most vulnerable.
At the end of the day, we respect others out of our reverence for our God and this contributes powerfully to our testimony.
Photo credit: ©GettyImages/Jevtic
