Fresh Mannaby Pastor Tim BurtRenee and I have been married for 46 years. We have an awesome marriage. As newlyweds, we were young and immature—downright childish at times, and our marriage was not good! The result was arguing, fighting, and anger that happened too frequently. We survived because we knew we loved each other and loved God even more. That made nothing easy. It just kept us from quitting! We were committed to learning how to love and communicate with each other, and so we persevered because we didn't want to fail! In our efforts to grow and learn, we learned that a critical key to effective communication was respect! Just learning to show and communicate with respect changed everything! When we learned to speak to each other with respect, we learned to listen to each other, stick to the issues we work through, and only one issue at a time. Most importantly, we should treat and communicate with each other with respect. This resulted in the beginning of a breakthrough that took our marriage to another level and eventually to a wonderful place.I'm not writing about marriage this morning but about respect! Establishing a mindset of respect—always showing respect no matter what has been thrown at you, is what keeps emotions from escalating out of control and into feelings of hatred and anger. Hate is a real emotion, but it was not given by God to have hatred toward others over disagreement, but to be aware of and have a hatred toward Satan and his tools and strategies relationships and mankind because of his hatred toward God. In other words, hatred is for hating evil, not people. God wants to save, redeem, and love people. Having a mindset of redemption, love, and respect for people will help you govern your thinking and emotions. Making this your mindset and walking it out daily will transform you as a person and your life, marriage, and relationships in general! Romans 12:9 NIV says, “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.”When the Bible says, "Hate what is evil," it means toward Satan and all his strategies to kill, steal, and destroy. Jesus taught us that this is who Satan is and what he does. It is always his end goal to kill, steal, and destroy. He hates all mankind because we were created in God's image, and He is out to destroy any and every good thing from God, including you and me. Hatred is Satan's goal and methodology! God encourages us to instead, “get along,” “to forgive one another,” “to work things out.” These are mandates with which Jesus said, “But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father (in Heaven) will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:15 NLT) That is the admonishment of our Heavenly Father toward us, His children. We need to listen like a child and obey Him on this subject!The Apostle Paul also taught us to recognize that it’s not people that we are battling but demonic spiritual forces in the background of our lives that work to get people to disrespect, fight, and destroy each other. Ephesians 6:10-12 NLT says, “A final word: Be strong in the Lord and His mighty power. Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies and tricks of the Devil. For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.” You may not understand how Satan and the powers of darkness work, but you do at least need to understand that they are real and that, because He hates God and all of His creation, Satan and his forces, work to destroy any and everything that is good.We are to oppose evil and wickedness and work to overcome it. Romans 12:21 NLT instructs and exhorts us, "Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good." In other words, by behaving in the good way that would normally not be expected when evil happens to you! That begins with showing respect despite how someone has attacked you! When we are in a position of seeing the evil that we should oppose, the emotions of hatred or anger can fuel us to do so, but we need to exercise that energy in a godly fashion—respectfully!Evil is opposed in many different ways and at many different levels. In war, evil is opposed militarily with strategies and weapons of warfare. At the level of street crime, evil is opposed by different forms of police and government law enforcement agencies. In our day-to-day lives we are to oppose evil or wrong, but never outside the boundaries of respect.I recently received a letter from a friend of mine, a Christian who manages complaint letters within a large corporation that sells retail products. He was telling me that many of the letters he receives are written by those who have identified themselves as Christians, and yet their letters and emails are completely outside the boundaries of respect and Christian representation. He said their comments contained cursing, mean-spirited, rude or sarcastic, and worse. He said, "You couldn’t find a trace of Christ-like attitude in them."Voicing disapproval is one way we oppose evil, but disrespect can instantly destroy our Christian witness and influence. 2 Tim. 2:24-26 says it like this: “The Lord's servants must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone. They must be able to teach effectively and be patient with difficult people. They should gently teach those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people's hearts, and they will believe the truth. Then they will come to their senses…”The Bible says we are Ambassadors or representatives of Jesus in the earth. That includes to our spouse, our children, and to everyone! That's a huge responsibility and we will make many mistake along the way. But what helps me get this more right than wrong, is remembering that anger can destroy in a minute, but in showing respect at all times, we will see many more manifestations of the words, “love never fails” within our lives, and it will lead us to a better, more mature, and powerful witness of Christ along the way.1 Cor. 13:8 (NIV) “Love never fails…”In His love,Pastor Tim Burt
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