Good Morning All,
Exodus 20:12; “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”
A student is listening to his history teacher and thinks to
himself “What an idiot!” An employee
looks at his boss and thinks to himself “What an arrogant jerk!” A woman finishes talking to her mother and
thinks “Another crazy old lady!” We do
it all the time. Sometimes we don’t even
think about it. We curse under our
breath as someone blocks the bread aisle in the grocery store. We roll our eyes and quietly mutter when the
person ahead of us in the checkout line gives the checker girl a wad of
coupons. You can almost hear Aretha
Franklin in the background “R..E..S..P..E..C..T, find out what it means to me.”
As we look at our verse,
and really the whole of the Commandments, they all involve one basic element:
respect. The Commandments show us how to
live with respect for each other. Far
too often we look at the 10 Commandments as “Law” what we have to do to please
God. Yet this is only partially how we
should look at them. It might do us
better if we look at them as what they do to live in harmony with each other.
After sin entered the
world, man soon turned against man. The
story of Cain and Abel is the first story after Adam and Eve’s fall, it is not
a coincidence. Immediately, man went
from seeking companionship and a healthy relationship to a creature that sought
to control, manipulate and seek only self-serving pleasure. So, when God brought Israel to Mount Sinai,
he had to re-teach them how to behave as loving, children of God should
act. He had to teach them how to live a
life that would be fulfilling, one of contentment, one of peace and
promise. So he gave them, and us, the 10
Commandments as guidelines or rules for a good life, one filled with the
contentment and joy that God has designed for us.
What would be nice for
the world, actually best for the world, is to see that our relationship with
others should be built on respect.
Before we can love, like, or even tolerate another person, we need to
respect each other. Basic respect is the
very building block of all our relationships; without that we have
nothing. God, through the 10
Commandments, shows us that. It is his
truth and we need to accept this for what it is; the beginning of living in his
kingdom. Without respect, we have
nothing but pain and sadness. The devil
sees to this. God calls upon you and me
to treat each other with respect as the basic block to build our relationships
on. Through God’s grace, we can become
the people that God designed us to be.
We can live together in peace and contentment.
Dear Father, your will
for us is that we may live a healthy life content and meaningful. Give us the wisdom to follow your
commands. Teach us to love, teach us to
respect each other as you love and respect us.
Guard us by your grace. In Jesus’
precious name we pray, amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
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