They say respect begets respect but in the real sense it is the respect for God that begets respect from God.
First and foremost to get the full understanding of respect you need the full understanding of love.
Love is summarized in the two great commandments according to Mathew 12:29-31 which simply means love God and Love others passionately.
Jesus answered him, the first of all the commandment is; you shall love the lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength, this is the first commandment.
And the second, like it, is this; you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.
Notice that the first command is love for God and the second is love for others. Same goes for respect, you first start by respecting God and then in turn God shows His respect for you. After which you respect others and others then respect you. Knowing how to respect God automatically molds you into knowing how to respect others just as love for God automatically teaches you how to love others. So in all truth love and respect go hand in hand because they operate under the same principle and that is putting God first.
A few Biblical examples on how to respect God are;
1. Through offering (Gen 4:4-5)
Abel also brought the firstborn of his flock and their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering but He did not respect Cain and his offering.
2. Through honoring authority /priests/ parents/elderly ( Ephesians 4, Deuteronomy 28:50, Lamentations 4:16)
Children respect your father and mother so that you may live long on earth’.
3. Through trusting in God (Psalms 40:4)
Blessed is that man who makes the Lord his trust, and does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
4. Through honoring God’s covenant. (Psalms 74:20)
Have respect to the covenant; for the dark places of the earth are full of the haunts of cruelty.
5. Through honoring Christ (Mathew 21:37)
Then last of all he sent his son to them saying, they will respect my son.
The Lord is keen on matters of respect as He is on love, but more than often we find ourselves struggling with this two. The truth of the matter is simple in deed, if you feel like you are not respected enough or you cannot bring yourself to respect others then the real question that you should ask yourself is; Do you respect God?
………but the greatest of these is LOVE (1 Corinthians 13:13).
It is obvious that love is a central point in our day to day life and that the real secret about love is that everyone is simply looking to be accepted just as they are,and Love is respect!