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.
We respect our enemies best by refusing to fear them. They are owed our opposition and we gladly give it to them. We respect them as adversaries by opposing them to the best of our abilities. We do not honor or respect them by opposing them weakly.
If we fail to show up because we fear them, we not only disrespect them, but our God. If we do not fight them and push back against them as hard as we could or should because we're distracted by our timidity, we fail to respect them and our God.
We respect every opponent by not fearing any of them. If we underestimate their ability to hurt us or undervalue our need to rise to the occasion in front of us, we fail to respect our enemies properly.
Luke 12:4-5
And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.
We should spend our respect on others and reserve our fear for God alone. We should be charitable with our respect and frugal with our fear.
No comments:
Post a Comment