Respect Everyone!?

August 17, 2024 Greg McNichols

The full video of this teaching is available at the bottom of this post and this link.

I DON’T GET NO RESPECT

Here are some of my favorite Rodney Dangerfield "no respect" jokes:

"I don't get no respect. My doctor told me I was overweight. I said, 'I want a second opinion.' He said, 'Okay, you're ugly too.'"

"I don't get no respect. I asked my dad if I could go ice skating on the lake. He told me, 'Wait till it gets warmer.'"

"I tell ya, I get no respect. My wife and I were happy for 20 years. Then we met."

"I don't get no respect at all. The one time I got hurt, on the way to the hospital, the ambulance stopped for gas."

"I don't get no respect. I called a suicide hotline; they put me on hold."

For Rodney Dangerfield, respect was always just out of reach. His self-deprecating humor hit home because he made it clear—respect wasn't just hard to come by; it was something everyone, from his closest friends to total strangers, even his own wife, could withhold without a second thought.

His comedy resonated because it tapped into that universal need we all have to feel seen and valued.

RESPECT FROM GRADE SCHOOL TO HIGH SCHOOL

We start out on the right foot, teaching our kids to respect everyone. It begins in small ways, right from preschool—being polite, sharing, and treating others the way you want to be treated.

As we move through elementary school, it becomes about standing up for the kid who gets picked on, high-fiving the other team after the game, win or lose, greeting strangers with a smile, and saying "please" and "thank you" like it’s second nature.

But by the time we hit high school, everything starts to shift. Remember those hallways, the lockers, how cliques formed, and the invisible social lines that suddenly divided us? Do you remember puffing up with arrogance or wanting to shrink out of sight, all depending on the group of teens hanging around the lockers you were walking past?

High school had a way of magnifying everything. When someone disrespected you—a cutting remark in the cafeteria, a lie spreading like wildfire, or that icy cold shoulder in class—your friends would jump in with advice like, "They don’t deserve your respect until they earn it."

And that idea—respect being something that needs to be earned—follows us right into adulthood. If someone’s going to earn our respect, they’ve got to prove they can juggle life’s chaos without losing their cool and listen without judgment when you’re having a rough day. Maybe it’s in how they handle challenges without getting petty or supporting you without needing the spotlight for themselves. Respect isn’t just handed out—it’s earned through kindness, consistency, and showing up in meaningful ways.

RESPECT IN 1 PETER

But then, 1 Peter 2-4 comes along and challenges so many of our deeply held notions about respect. It pushes us to think beyond what we’ve experienced and to see respect through a different lens. So, let’s travel back to where we left off last week—same house, same faces, same flickering candlelight. Picture those scattered Christians, miles and months away from everything familiar, huddled together, hanging on every word as Peter’s letter is read aloud, each sentence sinking in deeper.

Respect everyone, and love the family of believers. Fear God, and respect the king. —1 Peter 2:17

In their world, respect was tightly bound to your social status, race, and religious beliefs. The higher you were on the social ladder, the more respect you commanded. If you were wealthy, a Roman citizen, or part of the elite, people showed you respect—or faced the consequences. But if you were poor, a laborer, or, heaven forbid, a slave, respect was something you couldn’t even imagine receiving.

Slavery wasn’t just common; it was the backbone of society, anchored to the economic pillars of Rome's empire. Slaves weren’t seen as people; they were property. Their lives were brutal, their humanity routinely denied.

Now, imagine being a new follower of Christ and a slave owner, hearing Peter’s words: “Respect everyone.” That wasn’t just countercultural; it was revolutionary. To say that even slaves deserved respect, to see them as human beings with dignity, was flipping the entire social order upside down. It was devastatingly shocking.

Side Note on Slavery in the Bible:
This topic deserves a deeper dive in another article, but here’s the essential point. While the Bible reflects the realities of its time, it also sows the seeds for a revolutionary shift in our understanding of human dignity and freedom. In the New Testament, through the teachings of Jesus, Paul, and Peter, there’s a quiet yet profound challenge to the institution of slavery. Paul doesn’t just address slaves and masters; he calls them brothers in Christ, equals before God. Also, in passages like 1 Peter 2:18-25, Peter begins to redefine these relationships, laying the groundwork for rejecting slavery altogether. The Bible doesn’t confront the Roman structure of slavery head-on; it transforms the hearts and minds of believers, leading to a new way of living that ultimately upends systems of injustice.

Rome was a place packed with people from all sorts of races and ethnicities, but the Romans had a strong sense of superiority. They had a pronounced ethnocentric streak, viewing themselves as superior and dismissing others—especially those who didn’t share their customs or language—as “barbarians.” And the tension between Jews and Gentiles? That just made things even more complicated, with respect in short supply on both sides. But then Peter comes along and says, “Respect everyone,” challenging them to look past the labels society slapped on people.

In the Roman Empire, everyone was expected to worship a whole lineup of gods, and even the emperor was treated like one. But Christians worshiped just one God, which made them seem subversive, even traitorous. They were marginalized, ostracized, and sometimes hunted down. And yet, Peter says to respect even those who might turn you in, who might persecute you for your faith.

So when Peter writes, “Respect everyone, and love the family of believers. Fear God, and respect the king,” he’s not offering an easy platitude. He’s calling these early Christians to something incredibly difficult—to go against everything they knew, to embrace a radically inclusive and countercultural way of living. This wasn’t just about being nice; it was about challenging the social, racial, and religious norms of their day. For those early Christians, it required a kind of courage and faith that’s almost unimaginable today.

He goes on to show us what respect looks like in action:

Speak with kindness, even in disagreement (1 Peter 3:15)
Respond to insults with blessing, not retaliation (1 Peter 3:9)
Honor everyone, regardless of status or belief (1 Peter 2:17)
Show genuine love to fellow believers, promoting unity over differences (1 Peter 4:8)
Obey authority, but keep your ultimate allegiance to God (1 Peter 2:13)

THE BIG IDEA

This is where Peter challenges me to grow in the practice of my faith. My respect for the other person is not based on what they believe about me but on what I believe about them.

This is where the training wheels come off. It’s easy to respect someone who thinks like you, who shares your values and affirms your beliefs. But when you’re faced with someone who challenges you and sees the world differently, that’s when real respect is tested. It’s not about slapping a label on them or writing them off; it’s about recognizing their inherent worth as created in God’s image, even when it’s hard. Respect in these moments means choosing to see the person, not just the disagreement.

Respect is not about being passive or turning a blind eye to abuse, injustice, or anything that tears people down. Respect is about seeing the inherent worth in every person while standing firm in who you are and what you believe.

This is about more than just keeping the peace. It’s about breaking the cycle of disrespect, of retaliation, of judgment. It’s about living out a respect that is rooted in something deeper, something more powerful.

And when people are disrespectful to us, the instinct might be to fire back, but Peter says, don’t (1 Peter 3:9). Don’t retaliate. Don’t repay evil for evil. Why? Because that just keeps the cycle going. It only adds fuel to the fire. Instead, Peter calls us to something radical: Respond with respect, even when you’re disrespected. When someone insults you, when they push your buttons, the response isn’t to push back harder. It’s to pay them back with a blessing. Why? Because that’s what God has called us to do. And here’s the kicker—when we do that, we open ourselves up to God’s blessing.

THE PAYOFF

And don’t miss this—Peter kicks off this whole section, 2:11-4:19, with a powerful call to action: “Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.” (1 Peter 2:12 NLT)

When you show respect to the Rodney Dangerfields of this world—those who sadly expect to be ignored or even rejected because of what they believe, where they’re from, how they live morally, or how they’ve treated you—they’ll be surprised, even shocked. Through your respect, the Holy Spirit will give them a taste of God’s deep love for them, revealing that they are created in His image, that they are His beloved. And that’s how your respect becomes the opening act that prepares them for the gospel’s powerful performance!