Showing Respect

Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust
and does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
Psalm 40:4

The world does not know who to trust. It never has known who to trust. And it never has known who to trust because it does not know who to respect. The world respected the mob when it cried out for Jesus’ crucifixion rather than to respect the Son of God, and so, the world took him and crucified the meek king of glory. The world did not know what they were doing; they would have said they were doing the right thing. But respecting the wrong people led the world to commit a crime that was unjust beyond description.

From what I have seen over the years, those who turn from the truth to follow after lies think that they would never do any great evil, but that is only because they do not understand how great an evil they have already done in turning from the truth to embrace a lie. And when the sins that follow apostasy come, as they always do, those sins don’t seem so bad to them, either.

According to the Scripture above from Psalm 40, if we want God’s favor, then we must not respect those who turn away from the truth. Feeling no respect for them pleases God, according to David, and He will bless us for reserving our respect for those who are faithful to Christ.

What all of this presupposes, however, is that we ourselves know the truth so that we can discern who has gone astray and who has not. Without knowing the truth, we will no doubt respect ungodly people as well as the godly because, without knowing the truth, we can be fooled. It has always been the case that the ungodly know how to appear to be righteous.

It is the truth of God, and that alone, which enables us to judge between the godly and the ungodly. And if we will not be afraid to make judgments, Jesus will show us which judgment to make.