From Core Value Series - Talk to Student Body about Respect for Classmates

Respecting Classmates

Sometimes it’s easier to respect people we don’t know more than the people we do know.

• If you were to come across your favorite athletes or music stars, you would probably treat them very respectfully, because you are in awe of them.  
• However, if you think about it, you don’t really know them. You only know the impression they present through the media.  You don’t if they’re really nice people or not.  You don’t even know whether or not they are good people.  If fact, we’re finding out some of our favorite football players might not be the role models we thought they were.  That doesn’t take away from their accomplishments, but it shows us there is a side to them about which we know very little or nothing.

Now with people at school, our friends and others, we might know of their accomplishments, but we also know their faults.

• Unfortunately, most of us us tend look for faults in others, whether they be real faults or not.  Sometimes our classmates have habits we don’t like.  Maybe we don’t like the way someone laughs.  We might hate the fact that someone wants to answer all the questions in class, thinking they’re being show-offs, when in fact they might just love to participate in class as an athlete does in sports.
• Maybe we are jealous of them for some reason - appearance, personality, intelligence, the size of their home, the type of car they arrive to school in, etc.
• There are also many times when we are pressured by our friends not to be a friend to someone else.

In Mark 12:28-31 (KJV) Jesus gives us the two commandments that show us the importance of how we should revere God and treat our friends.

28 And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?

29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

Love thy neighbor as thyself.  Our neighbors are everyone besides ourselves.  How many of us can truthfully say we always uphold this commandment?

No one attending chapel this morning wants to be excluded, laughed at, embarrassed, told we’re stupid, or lied to.  For some reason, (hint - it’s pride) we expect others to treat us respectfully, but we don’t reciprocate that respect.  After all, we can come up with all kinds of self-justifications for why we don’t always treat people nicely:

• I’m busy, don’t bother me.
• I didn’t sleep well last night.  How else do you expect me to act?
• My parents are on my case and I’m in a bad mood - deal with it!
• I had a fight with you know who.  Would you defend me by sending them a mean message on snapchat or instagram?

Sometimes, we enjoy making people uncomfortable; I call it pushing people’s buttons.  We know just what to say to certain people, whether they be our parents, siblings, friends, or non-friends that cause them to react in a certain way that gives us pleasure.  

Why do we do this?

• We get a misplaced sense of enjoyment in watching others’ discomfort.
• We gain power over others.
• It makes us seem better than they are -  we feel superior.
• Maybe we just like to find fault with others.  This is something my own mother constantly chided me for.  I can hear her now saying in not too gentle a voice, “Michael, quit always finding fault with people!”

Jesus tells us we need to take care of our own issues before we try to fix everyone else’s.

Matthew 7:3-5 English Standard Version (ESV)

3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

The log and speck are metaphors for our faults.

We will find it easy to show our classmates respect, when we deal with our own faults first.  And believe me, each of us can stay busy enough working on our own faults to keep us from focusing on our classmates’ faults!

One more thing - in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us to “...Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”  If someone treats you badly, pray for them.  Don’t pray that God will “fix” them, but pray for them as you would for yourself.  Ask the Lord to bless them.  You will be surprised by the changes that the Lord will bring in your relationship with that person.