What Does Respect Look Like?

When people respect you, they show up on time, they answer your texts in a timely manner, they respond when you are speaking, they listen to you to know you. They answer your questions honestly, and they do not gossip about you to others. They never guess what you might be doing when they don't know. They are interested in you as a person. Those who respect you are happy and anxious to see you even when it seems inconvenient.

When people disrespect you, they are often late, they ignore your texts, they do not respond when spoken to, they do not answer your questions honestly, and they gossip about you to others. They guess things about you when they don't know, and they are not interested in you as a person. Those who disrespect you lack hospitality and loving acceptance when you are inconvenient.

 
When we see the difference between respect and disrespect, it is pretty clear who we should choose for our constant companions.

 
Malachi 1:6 "A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am the Father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests who despise my name."

 
1 Peter 5:5 "Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Matthew 7:12 "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."

 
Romans 12:10 "Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor."

 
Disrespect is rampant in our culture today, but those practicing it think they have a good reason, even though when asked to describe the reason, they have none to give. In other words, the disrespect is an excuse not based on substance.

2 Timothy 3 gives us the mentality of the end times in which all manner of evil dwells in the heart of men wholesale! The entire culture has been hijacked by the devil's minions to ruin everyone he can before Christ returns for His church.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 "3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
4 treacherous, reckless, conceited lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these."

Notice the form of religion in verse 5, but the denial of Christ through the lack of adherence to the Bible. They will say they are Bible believing, but negate most of it in their lives. They deny Christ through rebellion against His Word.

 
We are living in the end times when everything is irrational and unreasonable. Human interactions are agonizingly difficult, leading authentic believers to isolate themselves from those who have claimed Christianity but have rejected Him openly through sinful attitudes.

 
I have met in my lifetime deeply angry and rebellious Christians who have such high opinions of themselves that it is hard for me to believe they were ever changed by Christ into a new creation. Humility is either non-existence or they never had it.
I don't know for sure often, but at the very least, they are smudging the name of Christ by calling themselves by His name. These folks are rude, mean, and deeply self-righteous, adhering to their own idea of "religion," making rules God never made while demeaning authentically born-again believers who do not walk as those who reject most of God's Word in their relationships.

 
When God told us not to take His name in vain, it was not just about using His name as a curse word; it was also not to claim to be of Him while disobeying and dishonoring Him in their lifestyle.

John 14:15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever."

1 John 5:3 "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome,"

We cannot have the love of Christ if He does not live in us. We have the love of Christ because He does live in us. When we have His love we have His fruit!

Galatians 5:22-23
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, / gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law."

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 "4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. 

6 Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth.
7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."