Every human being deserves my honor and respect. It should be my starting point in every human interaction. Why, then, do I find myself holding a neutral (at best) opinion of most people until I get more information? It’s as if I’m waiting for them to prove themselves worthy of a positive estimation.

Several years ago, we went on a kayak tour in the Pacific Ocean in La Jolla, California. I saw our tour guide and judged him to be a typical southern California beach bum. Somewhere along the way (probably as he described the underwater habitats beneath us in intricate detail) I realized this guy was an expert. He was working on a Master’s degree at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. The tour was incredibly informative and fun… and certainly not led by a beach bum. The guide earned my respect… but why did I feel he had to earn it? Why did I jump to conclusions?

If we’re going to take the Bible seriously, we have to start shifting out of the old way of seeing people and into the new. Paul writes:

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.

II Corinthians 5:16,ESV

To regard a person according to the flesh is to make quick judgments about them based on externals. Samuel looked at the brothers of David and figured one of them must be king material – just look at them! God said to the prophet:

Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.

I Samuel 16:7, ESV

God does not bother with the externals – looks, clothing, skin tone, jewelry – and we have to fight the urge to elevate them. It’s not His way.

Let’s go back to the beginning… every person deserves my honor and respect. Looks can be deceiving (graduate students can look like beach bums) so let’s throw out the externals. Instead of playing Sherlock Holmes and imagining we can deduce what a person must be like, let’s offer them honor and respect as a starting point and begin learning.

Treating others with dignity (respect and honor) is the bare minimum starting point in loving my neighbor. It means we’ll be ready to listen when they speak just as Jesus did. The woman at the well… the blind beggar… the ten lepers… the raving madman… they could all tell you about the teacher who treated them with dignity.

The world around us needs more people ready to offer honor and respect to others. Considering how much we don’t know about another person’s life, wouldn’t this be the safest place to begin? The externals might make you think a person is rich and famous – should that cause us to react differently?James says the church is failing if it treats the rich differently than the poor (James 2:1-7). If we paid honor and respect to everyone, we wouldn’t fall into the trap of partiality. We would be a people ready to welcome every person just as we were welcomed by Him.

Let’s begin with dignity – treating people well before they’ve even earned it – and see the difference it makes!