A Sunday School Lesson On Respect

What is respect? How do you earn it? Here’s a Sunday school lesson or Bible study on respect.

What is Respect?

Respect can be defined as a positive feeling of admiration or deference for a person or other entity and at a practical level respect includes taking someone’s feelings, needs, thoughts, ideas, wishes and preferences into consideration and treating them respectfully but respect also means respecting their feelings, wishes, and opinions, even if you don’t agree with it. We should respect people regardless of their outside appearance because God looks at the heart (1st Sam 16:7).

Who do you respect most?

Is it hard to respect someone you don’t agree with?

Do you always get treated with respect?

Should Christians respect only those who are Christians?

Respecting Others

Acts 10:34-35 “So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”

Since God is no respecter of persons, neither should we be, not just because the Bible teaches that “God shows no partiality” (Rom 2:11) but because if we do, we show that we are partial to some people but not to others. This is not what the Bible teaches as Jesus says we’re to love our enemies, pray for them that persecute us and even those who hate us (Matt 5:43-48). Why shouldn’t we because Jesus died for us while we were still His enemies (Rom 5:10). To God, treating some people with respect and not others is sin because God “shows no partiality to princes, nor regards the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work of his hands” (Job 34:19) and neither should we “For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe” (Duet 10:17).

Do people always treat you without partiality?

If you’re honest with yourself, have you treated others with respect but not others?

Have you ever prayed for an enemy of yours?

Respect to Whom it is Due

Romans 13:7 “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.”

If Romans 12 is the chapter of how the body of Christ, the church, should live among themselves, Romans 13 is the chapter about how Christians are to live in the world. Romans 13:7 tells us to give respect to whom it is due; to pay taxes to whom it is owed; and to give honor to those to whom it Is their right to receive. It doesn’t really say that we should only respect those we respect but those to whom it is due and certainly we owe respect to everyone because all people are made in the image of God (Gen 1:27). Paul reminded Titus to “Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity” (Titus 2:7) so that others would respect him.

Who are those they who respect is harder to give?

Are we to respect only those in authority or all people?

What is the “revenue” that we are to give to those who deserve it?

Gentleness and Respect

First Peter 3:15 “But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.”

It’s so hard to respect politicians today because most of them bow down to the god of pragmatism. They’re trying to satisfy the greatest number of people and so that they can be popular but being popular doesn’t make someone right and certainly, being right doesn’t seem to make someone popular. I believe it’s more important to be respected and right than to be popular with the masses for the sake of getting votes in office.

Is it hard to respect all men and women?

What about those in political office?

What about respecting those in authority?

Why does the Apostle Peter focus on answering with gentleness and respect?

Can someone not be gentle and still be respected?

Respect for Church Leadership

First Thessalonians 5:12-13 “We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.”

As a pastor, I never demand respect but I must respect others because I’m commanded to do so and in the context of 1st Thessalonians 5, the Apostle Paul is writing to the church to respect those who are over them in authority in the church. In the first place, church leaders (pastors, deacons, elders) labor for the Lord for the church’s sake. They are commanded to teach, correct, and rebuke when and where it’s necessary as Paul writes to Titus “Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you” (Titus 2:15) and to Timothy Paul writes “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2nd Tim 4:2).

Is it hard to respect some church leaders? If so, why?

Who is easier to respect in church leadership?

Does correcting, rebuking, and reproving church members respectful to them?

Conclusion

I urge you in your study to look at all of the Bible verses and read them aloud in the class so that you can get the most out of these lessons. If you have gained anything from this Sunday school or Bible study lesson, I hope it is that we ought to respect everyone, even though we might not respect what they do or how they live because we who have repented and trusted in Christ were once separated from God by our sins (Isaiah 59:2) but God had no respect for those who have trusted in His Son in that He sent His only Son to die for us so that we might have eternal life (John 3:16-17).

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.