Respect Your Elders Bible Study

Child of God - Step #3

Respecting Your Elders

Welcome back wonderful young people!

Today we have another important thing to talk about. Respecting your elders is something that many young people don't believe in these days, and it's a shame because the Bible says it's the right thing to do.

A lot of young people think it's cool to disrespect their elders, including their parents. They do it for different reasons ... They're angry, they didn't get their way, they think it will impress other people, it gives them a feeling of power, they want attention ... It could be any of these reasons, or maybe even other reasons.

Let's talk about parents first. Why should a person respect their parents? Well the first reason is because God said so. The 5th Commandment says:

Honor your dad and mom and you will live a long life. Pretty cool, huh?

Wow, listen to this! Back in Moses' day, children who cursed their parents were put to death! Now, of course, we don't live in the times of the Old Testament any longer, but God said that He would put the laws in our hearts. That means that as Christians, we want to follow God's laws, not out of fear or obligation, but out of love from our hearts.

It's true, we're all God's children, and that God gave us to our parents until we become adults. He trusts our parents with our lives until the time when we can take care of ourselves and we're old enough to carry on the responsibilities of life. If it wasn't necessary, do you think God would have given us parents?

Who are you going to listen to ... The world, that says parents don't deserve respect ... or God, who says, Honor thy father and mother? When you honor your parents, you're not only being obedient to them, but also to God.

Obey your parents because it makes the Lord happy. God doesn't want you to respect your parents just because He said so or because you're afraid you'll get in trouble if you don't. God wants you to respect and love them from your heart, because your parents love you, and they want the best for you.

Why do you think God gave us the commandment to honor our parents? There are times when you don't agree with them, but God tells you to honor them anyway. It is preparing you for the world. Once you move away from your parents, they won't always be around to help you do the right thing and make the right choices.Listening to your parents will prepare you for dealing with all other people in authority over you. Teachers, pastors, employers, law enforcement officers, etc. You'll have people who are above you in one way or another for the rest of your life, and if you learn how to accept their authority early in your life, you'll find that you will be a happier person. Of course, if anyone ever abuses their authority, God doesn't expect you to honor or respect them.

Now let's talk a little bit about respecting other elders in your life. First of all, who are your elders?

Godly people who are older than you are your elders.

To honor someone means to think of another person as more important than yourself. At times you may not feel that your elders are more important, but when you obey someone you disagree with, you teach yourself humility.

What does that mean? Humility means the opposite of being conceited. Another word for that is to be humble. Jesus was very humble.

You can show respect and honor in many different ways. The tone of voice you use shows your respect or your lack of it. Many people use sarcastic, sassy or disrespectful voices to express themselves. There are other ways to express yourself if you disagree or feel your opinion should be known. Jesus was angered, and upset, and disagreed with many things that people did, and even though He had the right, He rarely lost His temper or used disrespect to anyone in His voice. He found a graceful way to express His feelings.

Everybody saw and heard, and they were amazed at how kind and gentle Jesus spoke. If young people used the qualities of Jesus in them to speak with respect to their elders instead of the energy that most use to be disrespectful, think of how much better adults and young people would get along.

When you speak to adults, look them in the eye. When a person feels that you're truly interested in what they have to say to you, things always turn out for the better.

Slouching or sighing heavily when someone is talking to you shows them that you don't care about what they have to say. There are many other ways to show respect to your elders. Letting an older person go first shows respect and honor. Saying, Excuse me, Please, Thank you and I'm sorry, are signs of respect. Responding to questions with yes or no instead of "yeah" and "huh uh" shows not only your respect, but also your maturity and interest in getting along with others. Courtesy and being polite help you grow in patience, which will help you with many things throughout your lifetime with all kinds of people. We'll talk about patience more later in our program.

Don't forget the golden rule that Jesus taught:

Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. This goes for your parents too. If you treat them with respect, they will trust you more and treat you better.

I'd like to tell you something else very honestly ... Many of your friends may not respect you for respecting adults because the world has taught them differently. But you know that Jesus said it's the right thing to do. By showing respect to your elders, you're honoring Jesus, and don't forget:

It's a shame game.

What does that mean? It means, don't be ashamed to stand up for your beliefs.

Jesus said that if you're ashamed to be like Him or defend your belief in Him, He will be ashamed of you in front of God.

I'd like to repeat myself for just a moment. Most of the time disrespect comes from selfishness, because people don't want to do what someone else asks or tells them to do ... They just want their own way.

Jesus said:

Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor, as yourself ... So we should want to carry out our elders wishes, as much as our own. By showing respect for others, you're showing respect and love for Jesus, God's people, and for yourself.

One final thing ... You may know somebody who doesn't get along with their parents and they probably don't respect any of their elders either, because of one reason or another. Many times adults find it hard to treat young people with respect if they aren't receiving any, but somebody has to make the first move in bringing respect back to all. If you know someone who is going through this, remember what we talked about in Step 2 about being a good friend, and how we should encourage one another to be like Jesus in everything we do.

Don't get discouraged if people act like you're weird for suggesting that they do the right thing ... Remember, even the folks from Jesus' own home town didn't believe He was the Messiah, or that He had the wisdom that He taught. "Isn't that Mary and Joseph's kid?" they said. "Hmmmmm. He can't possibly be anybody important."

When Jesus went to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue (Jewish temple) with such wisdom that they were surprised, and they asked, How did He learn this wisdom, and how does He do these miracles? Isn't this the son of the carpenter and His mother's name Mary? And don't all His brothers and sisters live here? So how can this man know and do all these things? And they acted insulted by Him, but Jesus said to them, A prophet is honored everywhere except his own country or by his own family. Jesus didn't do many miracles there because they didn't have Faith.

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