Respect: The Sacred Act of Looking Again
Seeing People as God Sees Them
We live in a world trained to look quickly.
Quick judgments.
Quick labels.
Quick conclusions.
But respect asks us to slow down long enough to look again.
The word itself carries that invitation.
Re-spect—to see again.
Not to excuse. Not to deny reality. But to pause long enough for a deeper truth to come into focus.
And that second look?
It often changes everything.
The First Look Reduces
The Second Look Reveals
Our first look is usually shaped by fear, pain, history, or habit. It notices tone, posture, behavior, and differences.
It quietly asks, “Are you safe? Are you like me? Are you a problem?”
That first look isn’t evil—it’s human.
But it’s incomplete.
The second look is slower—and braver.
It looks beneath the surface and remembers something sacred:
This person bears the image of God.
This person is deeply loved.
This person is more than the moment I am seeing.
Respect is not agreement.
Respect is recognition.
It is the refusal to reduce a human being to a fragment of their story.
Jesus Always Looked Again
Jesus was never naïve. He saw clearly. He named truth honestly. Yet He consistently refused to let outward appearances, past failures, or social categories be the final word over anyone.
Where others saw a tax collector defined by betrayal, He saw a son worthy of belonging.
Where others saw a woman collapsed into shame, He saw dignity still intact.
Where others saw rough fishermen, He saw people becoming more than they had ever imagined.
Jesus didn’t deny what was visible—
He simply refused to stop there.
Love always looks again.
Respect in a Reactive World
Disrespect happens when we stop seeing too soon.
It collapses people into labels.
It freezes them in moments.
It treats behavior as essence.
Respect restores dignity by insisting there is always more to see.
When we choose to look again, we resist the pressure to categorize, dismiss, or defend ourselves. We allow love—not fear—to shape how deeply we see.
This doesn’t eliminate boundaries.
It anchors them in belovedness rather than contempt.
Respect says:
“I will not let my first impression become my final understanding.”
“I will not let fear decide how deeply I know you.”
“I will treat you as someone whose life carries weight.”
A New Way of Seeing
As Paul once explained to his friends in Corinth, life in Christ invites a fundamental shift in how we know one another. (2 Corinthians 5:16)
There is an old way of seeing people—through surface-level, human categories shaped by appearance, history, reputation, or failure.
And there is a new way.
Not denial.
Not avoidance.
But deeper perception.
In Christ, we learn to stop defining people by outward, incomplete traits—and to begin seeing them through a lens shaped by love and belonging. We look again. And in that second look, truth emerges.
Respect is the practice of seeing people through the eyes of God—
image before behavior,
beloved before broken,
identity before action.
This is not sentimental kindness. It is a redeemed vision.
And love always begins there.
Reflection
Where do I tend to stop at the first look instead of allowing myself to see more deeply?
Who might God be inviting me to “look again” at through the eyes of love?
What would change in my relationships if respect became my posture, not just my reaction?
Prayer