The top reason people leave their jobs, according to Steve Miranda of the Society for Human Resource Management, is due to bosses that belittle their employees or exhibit various forms of disrespectful behavior. “Bad bosses are energy vampires,” Miranda says.
How should you respond when you’re under the authority of a boss or someone else you struggle to respect? Motivational speaker and Olympic swimming gold-medalist Josh Davis believes, “There is never any reason to be rude or abrasive to another human being.” Davis says, “I apply a biblical principle to help me: ‘Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people’ ” (Philippians 2:14-15).
Scripture says respect should be given to . . .
• Governing authorities: “For the Lord’s sake, respect all human authority—whether the king as head of state, or the officials He has appointed” (1 Peter 2:13-14).
• Everyone: “Respect everyone, and love your Christian brothers and sisters” (1 Peter 2:17).
• Managers: “You who are slaves must accept the authority of your masters with all respect. Do what they tell you—not only if they are kind and reasonable, but even if they are cruel” (1 Peter 2:18).
• Christian leaders: “Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work. And live peacefully with each other” (1 Thes. 5:12-13).
• Seekers: “If someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way” (1 Peter 3:15-16).
Today, consider how God would have you demonstrate greater respect to others.
More:
Obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ (Ephesians 6:5).
Next:
In what three ways can you model respect for the primary authority figures in your life? How do you show respect to God?
nlpkwt on July 26, 2009 at 11:12 pm
I truly feel that we cannot blindly obey nor respect persons of authority.
We do have a christian responsibility to stand up in protest to a leader/ politician if he is corrupt and the same for managers/ church leaders who abuse their positions of power.
dja on July 27, 2009 at 8:47 am
I agree, nipkwt. I believe we must always speak respectfully to all, but I also believe that we must be careful not to blindly obey those who would have us do what is wrong in the eyes of God. I left a good job because I had lost all respect of the director. I was always respectful to her, even when she wanted me to lie to the higher ups about something that wasn’t done, and even when I saw the wasteful spending of taxpayers money, spending for her benefit. I respectfully told her that I would not lie. I finally left, all the time being respectful, but having no respect in my heart for her.
elisau on August 7, 2009 at 10:05 am
You can’t expect people to give away something that they don’t have within themselves. I think that we would all be better off if we worried less about what other people did that was wrong and more about what we did that was right!