Values - Dignity James 2:1-9 and Romans 2:11 6 December 2014 Lonnie Jones Good Morning My Friends! Well, this week is now almost gone as Saturday dawns on a rainy day which will have falling temperatures from 45 now to 29 tonight. Hope the week has gone well for all of you, and as I said yesterday, with good attitudes, good actions, touching others, and as we discussed by being respectful to others as you respect who you are and what you have become in life. As I indicated yesterday. I wrote back in July 2013 about values. Yesterday I said our “values” include our character, our charity or love for one another, caring for another, believing in one’s self, appreciation of others, a sense of achievement, commitment, compassion, compliments to one another for doing good, for one’s achievements, and respect for one another. And….I had a lot of likes and several comments about respect yesterday so I know that God is on target again and wants me to discuss “dignity” today. As I thought about dignity, I am reminded of the rich man/poor man story in James chapter two, verses 1-9 where the church will glory over and treat the rich man better that they do the poor man in dirty rages. You know…..for some, it’s easy to get into that mindset of looking down on people! Amen! Paul wrote in Romans 2:11 that God is not partial or a respecter of man, so why should we be? I believe that Christian dignity is a must for each of us and we have to treat everyone with respect and value be they rich or poor, without regard to race, profession or background. No, I am not saying that we have to be a fuddy-duddies! But, as Christians, we need to have a composed and serious manner or demeanor about us and be dignified, but also be a fun and loving person at the same time as we value every person just as God values them! Amen! What is dignity one may ask? If we look at the dictionary it states that dignity is: “The quality or state of being worthy of esteem or respect.” It also means that a person has an inborn or inherent right to be valued and receive ethical treatment from all other people. Also, it doesn’t mean that we have to carry ourselves in a prideful manner with a haughty spirit, but at the same time we should carry ourselves in a worthy and respectful manner that cries out to others that we are a person of respect and dignity with good moral ethics and values. There are several quotes about dignity that I would like to share. • It is the ability to stand strong and tall in the face of adversity. • It is being able to bow in respect to the elderly and crawl with the children by getting down to the children’s level to understand them. • It is taking a stand for our beliefs without closing our mind to another’s opinion. • It is being an example by your deeds and through your words by avoiding gossip, anger and lies. Wow! Upholding the standard of not gossiping or getting angry may be difficult for some of us. Amen! Also, dignity will manifest itself in the warmth of our smile, the depth of our love, and the kindness that we demonstrate for our fellowman and our devotion and honor that we give to others as I wrote yesterday (Roman 12:10). We all know Christians who always have a warm and loving smile while being a true reflection of Christ Jesus in emulating His acts of love to others! Their demeanor is one of sincerity, values, purpose, discipline and integrity. My mother, Helen Jones, was such a person and that is probably one of the main reasons that so many loved her during her life on planet earth. She was real all the time! There was no phony Mom, what you saw is what you got! Showing dignity to another individual often translates to treating someone with “decency” and “courtesy.” However, some of us will often look down on or ignore people we do not consider worthy of esteem or respect as not being dignified and are below us as I indicated above in the rich man and poor man story in James 2:1-9. As a general rule, treating someone without decency or courtesy, or in another word, rudely, and with prejudice is a show of low or no respect and of unworthiness of esteem or respect on our own part and puts us below the standards for Christians. Amen! I believe that through understanding and practicing these verses, we should be able to fully understand Christian dignity and Christian ethics and then carry or conduct ourselves accordingly. Amen! In closing, I conclude that Christian dignity is a Christian lifestyle in that we must be honest in life, we must be servants to others without any self-interest, without being prejudice or bias and we must live a pure, virtuous and holy life. Also we must not be involved with corruption, dishonesty, or cheating. Our life must be the example for other people so we must be fair in relationships with others by showing them that they are valuable and worthy of respect, and we must be faithful to God and obey His commands. We can show through our lifestyle, through our acts and through our character that we are of God, of Jesus Christ and as we treat others according to the Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12), likewise, we will be worthy of the same treatment. Finally, we must always love others. Remember, “We love because He (Jesus) first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Have a great and blessed day and weekend! Go to church tomorrow and glorify the Lord. In His Love Lonnie
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 10:56:35 +0000