The reason we treat others with respect

I heard a beautiful story this week. A father related how his little girl would bring her doll for him to safeguard. The doll was very old. It was tainted and torn. Yet it remained his daughter’s favourite doll.

Everytime he held the doll, he would think about buying his girl a new one. It would be so much nicer to the eye – and easier to love. Even though he personally did not like this specific doll, he made sure to look after it well when it was “put under his care”. He knew it would devastate his daughter if she saw him “neglecting” her favourite doll.

Suddenly it dawned upon him that this is a picture of how Christian ethics ought to work. It is not that we treat other people with respect because we personally like them. We treat others with dignity – not because of the worth we find in them – but because of the worth someone else finds in them.

That someone else is our heavenly Father. And in many instances the “others” are literally placed in our care. Sometimes it is the “widow and the orphan” the Bible refers to so frequently. In our cultural setting it is safe to say that it can be anyone who does not have rights – or access to those rights due to social injustice.

How I personally feel about other people, is actually irrelevant. I need to put my own feelings and opinions aside. I need to treat others as if they are the most precious thing on earth – because the One I love, really does think so.