Respect

Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honour the king (1 Peter 2:17).

One of the things we complain about as we get older is what we perceive as a lack of respect, particularly among the young. We maintain they do not show the same degree of respect to their elders that we showed to our elders when we were their age. Of course, as a middle aged man I tend to agree, although I’m not sure whether it is true or not. A certain degree of grumpiness comes with middle and old age. But what do we mean by respect? I came across various definitions, many of which highlight behaviours that might be considered respectful, e.g., showing regard for a person’s abilities, valuing their feelings, accepting them as equals, and even common or garden politeness, but they did not seem to get to the heart of it.

The Bible has a lot to say about respect. In the Ten Commandments, we are to honour (respect) our parents. (I know that can be difficult in some cases, but it remains a commandment. The honour is for them as parents, not necessarily for their behaviour.) According to Saint Peter the Apostle, we are to honour the king. He means lawful authorities, essentially the state in the extent to which it exerts its just authority. But supremely, we are to show respect to all people. The verb (essentially the same verb used in relation to the king) is a rare one in scripture that has the sense of attaching a value to a thing. To show proper respect to all people is to recognise the value of all people.

One of the interesting things about the way morality is taught is that it often amounts to a set of rules and regulations. Christian morality very much lends itself to this approach. We rather like this because it leaves us in little doubt as to how we are to behave in specific situations. Christians do this and they do that; they do not do this and they do not do that. We end up with a whole list of shibboleths we believe define what it is to be Christian. While the Bible includes very clear prohibitions, for the most part it is more interested in our attitudes as the basis for our behaviour that then needs to be worked out in specific circumstances. So in Philippians 2, we find Paul commending the attitude that was in Christ Jesus. Let that attitude, he says, be in you. It’s an attitude of humility and self-giving that not only recognises the worth of other people, it considers them better than oneself.

The Bible says something truly staggering about the value of human beings. According to Genesis 1, human beings are unique in the living world in that they bear the image of God. In am moment of self-reflection, God says, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.” The words translated “image” and “likeness” are similar in meaning. The Bible does not really spell out what is meant here; but at the very least it seems to be saying that there is a sense in which mankind resembles God. Clearly mankind is not at the same level of God and we do not have the same authority. We are not omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. But can we not infer that humans share some of the characteristics of God, even if in a very limited way? For example, when we first meet God in scripture, we meet him as creator. Are humans not creative? In the arts, in science and technology? We celebrate the painting of the Sistine Chapel, the music of Bach, the discovery of DNA and the James Webb telescope. We also consider ourselves moral beings. God is a moral being. We know the difference between right and wrong. While we are capable of evil, we are also great sacrifice in the name of a just cause. As I write, we remember the sacrifice of the D-day landings. And as God is spirit, so we consider ourselves spiritual beings. Many of us find meaning in the numinous, whether it is mainstream Western religion, the esoteric world of Eastern religion, or even the ridiculousness of crystal therapy and astrology. Supremely, humans are highly social. Sure we find social behaviour in other animals, but as far as we know human society is more complex than that of other species. We are made not to be alone. This much seems clear from the narrative of Genesis. “The LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone'” (Gen. 2:18). God himself exists in the community of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Moreover he desires fellowship with us and in part made us for that purpose. Of course, what is true about individuals as image bearers is true about of everyone else. Indeed, if community is a key aspect of the image of God, then it is people in community that reflect God’s image most clearly. We cannot afford to marginalise our fellow humans that share that image.

What of sin? Are we not all guilty of sin? Have we not acted in ways that build barriers between ourselves and others and ourselves and God? For sure. To this effect, John Calvin describes the image of God in us as “vitiated and almost destroyed, nothing remaining but a ruin, confused, mutilated, and tainted with impurity”. As Paul reminds us, we fall short of the glory of God. What is there for God, or anyone else, to love? Well might one ask; yet the fact remains that we retain the image of God and God does indeed love us. Almost destroyed but not wholly destroyed. He does not love our sin and wrongdoing – he is too holy for that – but he does love us. He loves us for what we are as image bearers of God. How could it be otherwise? There can be no greater dignity than this: to be loved by God. But let us be clear that he does not merely love what remains of his image in us. On the contrary, he loves us entirely. He loves us as his creation – as people, as individuals, sinful and broken though we are. So much so, that his great desire for us is to restore what is broken.

The image of God is most perfectly revealed in the character and life of Jesus, the Son of God. Paul tells us that the Son is is the image of the invisible God. He goes on, “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.” If we think of the image of God in creativity, as well as in morality, spirituality and community, we find it to perfection in Jesus. Jesus shows us what God is like in a way no fallen human being ever can. As former Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsay, put it, “God is Christlike, and in Him there is no unChristlikeness at all” (quoted in Behold Your God, Donald Macleod, 1990). You want to know what God is like? Look at Jesus as he is described in the Gospels. Paul insists that the very creation itself bears the likeness of Christ, the image of God. What is God like? God is love, and we see that love demonstrated most conspicuously in the love of Christ. It is a sacrificial love, a self-giving love, a love that led ultimately to Golgotha. When Saint Paul says he wants us to take on the attitude that was in Christ Jesus, he wants us to emulate his humility. Supremely then, the image of God is found in the loving self-giving of God. Paul spells it out: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also the interests of others. Your attitude should be that of Christ Jesus. (Phil. 2:3 – 5). Are we saying then that the image of God consists ultimately in sacrificial love? What does that mean when as image bearers we are called upon to show proper respect to fellow image bearers?

It is sometimes said that respect must be earned. I would suggest this is misguided. Peter says that we must show proper respect to all. In Greek it is two words: “honour everyone”. There are no exceptions. We can probably think of multiple reasons for not respecting everyone, not just that they do not respect us. There are those we consider below ourselves: the criminal, the addict, illegal immigrant. The current government encourages a narrative of the deserving and undeserving poor that goes back to Victorian times. We hear of “sick not culture”, a concept that according to many charities discriminates against the disabled. It is all too easy from the comfort of able-bodedness, from the security of a well paid job. Or there are the poor in general. Why are they not as successful as I am? Do they need to work harder? Are they lazy and feckless, what with their large television sets. To my mind, some of the rhetoric is very disturbing. Should we show respect to all? Yes, a resounding yes.

Firstly, and as we have seen, every single human being bears the image of God. We are all the same. We are all Jock Tamson’s bairns. Jew or gentile, male or female, black or white, rich or poor, we all bear the image of God. Migrants, legal or otherwise, bear the image of God. Good or evil, we bear the image of God. The very worst of people bear the image of God. This is why Christians in the nineteenth century were committed to prison reform. No human being (or animal, for that matter) deserves to be mistreated and treated with brutality. It is for this reason that we oppose slavery of every kind, including the modern slavery that is more prevalent than historical slavery ever was. It is why we challenge poverty, both here in the UK and elsewhere. It is why we speak out against abuse and oppression. We seek justice for all because it it the right thing, the just thing to do. We do so because we recognise in all the image of the God we love.

Secondly, we respect them because God loves them. If God loves them, we also love them. God’s love is universal. Make no mistake: when John said that God so loved the world that he gave is one and only son, he was not thinking just of the world in its vastness, all nine billion people that inhabit the world today; he was thinking of the world in its “worldliness”, in its opposition to God, in the mess of the sin and rebellion we create for ourselves. Do not get me wrong. I am not saying that humanity is as bad as it could be. On the contrary, there is much that is beautiful in life – in our creativity, in our morality, spirituality and community. But I would challenge anyone not to conclude that we are plagued, as Francis Spufford puts it, by the human propensity to fuck things up. We see it in the misdirected creativity of weapons of mass destruction, the destructive morality of ever increasingly sophisticated ways of killing, toxic relationships, and a spirituality that is often more self-centred than God-centred. Yet God remains love. Whoever we are and whatever we may have done, God continues to love the very worst of people. And so must we. There are no exceptions.

Thirdly, we should consider what we might be. We might look at the addict and conclude that is all there is. Or we might look down on the convicted person. Leaving aside what I said about the call to love people exactly where they are, it is possible for the person we look down on to be transformed into something quite different. For example, the guilty may turn out to be innocent. Take the Horizon scandal where 900 sub-postmasters were convicted of fraud in what turned out to be the UK’s worst miscarriage of justice. Many of these people, formerly pillars in their communities, were pilloried by the same tabloid press that claims to fight for them. They were spat at in the streets. This is not how a Christian should behave towards any other human being whether they are guilty of some crime or not.

More than this, there is what anyone can become in Christ. In Psalm 113, we read that God “raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes”. Paul tells the Ephesians that “God has made us alive with Christ, even when we dead in transgressions – it is by grace that you are saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 2:5 – 6). When John is given his vision of heaven in the Book of Revelation, one of elders asks, “These in white robes – who are they?” The answer comes: “They are those who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. The Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 7:13 – 17). God spreads his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst…And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes! Such is the future of the poor and broken in Christ. Here the love of God exalts. The 19th Century theologian HP Liddon put it this way: “Christian charity refuses to acquiesce in the inhuman dogma that men or races are incurably bad or degraded; she treats the lowest as still bearing within the stamp of Divine Likeness, as still capable, through supernatural grace, of the highest elevation” (Easter Sermons, 1865). Perhaps we can look to CS Lewis here who writes, “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be tempted to worship” (The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses, 1949). Not literal gods and goddesses of course, but individuals so perfectly transformed into the Divine Likeness that we hardly recognise them as merely human.

Finally, I want to explore how we might show proper respect to other people. Christ in his love for us is our guide. “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus”. It should be the same as the attitude of the Jesus, the image of God in perfection, that humbles himself for others, and forgives. For Peter, respect and love are all but interchangeable. “Show proper respect: Love the brotherhood”. Liddon again: “Christian charity bends respectfully to tend the foulest wounds; she kneels upon the pavement side by side with the Eternal Christ, that she may wash the feet which have been soiled in traversing the wastes of time; she bows herself to the very earth that she may take the sinner out of the dust, and lift the beggar from the dunghill, and then set him with the princes, even the princes of the people”. Here, Christian love appears in both practical and spiritual terms.

In practical terms, love is everything from giving water to the thirsty or food to the hungry, to tending the sick or inviting in the stranger, to visiting those in prison (Matt 25:31 – 40). It ought to be obvious how Christians can help with these kinds of things both as individuals or in groups. I suggest it means pushing back on some of the rhetoric of a UK government that seems to want to exclude and even demonise the vulnerable, who are dismissed as lazy and feckless. Charities advocating for the rights of people with disabilities, particularly long-term mental health conditions, are rightly concerned by talk of ending “sicknote culture”. It means too that we push back on some of the anti-immigration, some of which is, frankly, racist, that has become all too much a part of contemporary discourse. I am not advocating any particular political approach to immigration but I am saying that in Christian discourse on the matter proper respect for immigrants born out of the example of Christ is key.

Our focus is also spiritual in that we want to share the good news of the gospel. We want others to experience God’s love for themselves in an existential encounter with the risen Jesus. We want them to be part of the great multitude that have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb [and] are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; that never again will hunger and never again will they thirst. Our message will be credible only if it is rooted in respect. The great Charles Haddon Spurgeon famously remarked “if you want to give a hungry man a tract [a printed gospel message], use it to wrap a sandwich”. We cannot claim to show Christian love in sharing the gospel of Christ if we are not prepared to address pressing practical needs first. Spurgeon went on to say, “And if you give a man a sandwich, wrap it in the gospel”. I think that what he meant by this is that the way the practical help is given must be Christlike. It must be born out of respect and love. Charity must not be condescending. Rather, it is based in a recognition that those we want to help are our equals in humanity and dignity. Neither must Christian charity be seen merely a some kind of “way in” for the gospel. Charity is an end in itself. We perform acts of charity because it is the right thing to do, with or without specifically sharing the word of the gospel.

Showing respect also includes the willingness to forgive. There is conditionality in the forgiveness of God that leaves some Christians feeling uncomfortable. In the Lord’s Prayer we say, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”. We cannot pray for our sins to be forgiven if we are not willing to forgive those that have sinned against us. We cannot hold a grudge. Few things are more inimical to a sense of peace. Anger can burn away in the heart for years, sometimes leading to depression and other psychological problems. If anger consumes you, ask God to help you let go. And remember the ongoing harm is being caused to you. Perhaps the person that hurt you sees nothing wrong. Perhaps they do not care whether you forgive them or not. Still let go out of respect for you, so you can be what God wants you to be as his image. Scripture lays down an appropriate self-respect as it lays down an appropriate self-love.

Perhaps most of all, love the brotherhood. Let’s love our brothers and sisters in Christ. Sure Peter also tells us to fear God and honour the king, essentially the lawfully constituted authorities. These things are for another time. But if the image of God in us comprises things such as creativity, moral sense and spirituality, it most certainly includes community. We believe that even God exists in community. We recognise that there is one God but also that our God is three persons in one: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The apostle John tells us that Jesus, the Son of God made flesh, was with the Father from the very beginning. Their fellowship was perfect. As God is one, the church of God is called to be one, to be united. “I pray for those who will believe in me…that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you” (John 17:20, 21). Disunity is a great blight on the witness of the church; not just disunity but sometimes even hatred. This should not be.

This blog is based on a sermon I preached recently prior to celebrating the Lord’s Supper – the eucharist (thanksgiving) and communion (the sharing). When we come to the Lord’s Table, we do so together in our own fellowship but also with Christians in every other place and in every other time. The Lord’s Supper is a celebration of love and forgiveness. It reminds of how much Jesus values us, even to the point of shedding his blood on our behalf. Well might we sing with the Psalmist, “What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:4). We are to value others as he values us. If we have something against someone, some grudge or malice, we are to set it aside. We show proper respect for one another as we look forward to the day when we will be fully reformed in God’s image, when “even the dullest and most uninteresting person may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be tempted to worship”.