SHOW RESPECT, NO MATTER YOUR AGE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.

1 Timothy 5:1-2

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever heard the phrase “generation gap”?

Simply put, it is usually alludes to the differences in people separated by fifteen to twenty years, differences that usually lead to them misunderstanding or having difficulty relating to one another.

For example, I graduated from high school in 1978 and thus entered into my adult years right around the dawn of the eighties. You can do the math and know that I am now pushing 65.

I have four siblings and the youngest of them, my brother, is a generation apart from me. He grew up into adulthood during a time when video games were becoming all the rage, whether a person preferred Playstation or XBox.

Today, we remain close but my brother can play and excel at video games where I have never held a Playstation or XBox controller in my hand let alone understand any of the intricacies that comes with the systems or any of the particular games that are played on them. I simply can’t relate.

Need another example?

When I was growing up, we had a telephone that sat on an end table. It had a rotary dial which you would use to dial a telephone number and make a phone call. As I became an adult, phones had buttons you could push to dial a number and call someone. In both these instances, the phone had to literally be plugged into a phone jack to have a connection. Now, we all are using cell phones and wireless communication is all the rage. My grandkids are growing up in this environment and will never know the way people used to have to communicate. Their generation didn’t have the experience but later as they get older, I am sure there will be even newer communication technology that will render what we know now as obsolete, just as happened with the rotary dial and push button phones.

Generation gaps happen and have been happening for the ages, leaving groups of people with different life experiences that can always be compared to other future generations. This can be good if done with respect and with an attitude of education and acceptance but something negative has happened between generations and it’s been going on for a very long time for disrespect has too often shown itself.

Indeed, older generations usually find themselves complaining and criticizing the younger generations and vice versa. Both do it to try and gain superiority over the other.

In fact, in modern times, we have even started to label generations of people in such a way that people wear their generational group as a badge of honor.

Born in 1960, I was in the Baby Boomer generation. This was followed by Generation X, and then Generation Y or Millennials, and now we have Generation Z or the Centennials. Again, every generation seems to want to try and promote itself as best at the expense of the others.

This issue of disrespect between younger and older generations can be found back in biblical times. I’ll share one example with you.

When King Solomon died, his son, Rehoboam, assumed the throne of Israel which was comprised of twelve tribes. The people came to the young king and pleaded for him to change the oppressive harsh labor and taxation that Solomon had imposed. Rehoboam told them he would use three days to think it over.

During those three days, he consulted the older men, the elders who had advised his father. Here’s what they advised:

“If you are willing to be a servant to these people today and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your loyal subjects.” 1 Kings 12:7

Rehoboam was getting sound counsel from men who had great experience in governance. All he had to do was respect what they had to say and comply.

But that’s not what happened.

The scriptures tell us that Rehoboam “rejected the advice of the older men and instead asked the opinion of the young men who had grown up with him and were now his advisers”.

This younger generation, those who were the same age as the king, offered the following contrasting guidance:

The young men replied, “This is what you should tell those complainers who want a lighter burden: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist! Yes, my father laid heavy burdens on you, but I’m going to make them even heavier! My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions!’” Vv. 8-11

And so Rehoboam had two options to choose from. One, offered by the elders, would give the people what they asked for while the other, proposed by the young men, would increase their suffering.

So what did he do?

We read where he went before the people and “spoke harshly to the people, for he rejected the advice of the older counselors and followed the counsel of his younger advisers” (Vv. 13-14). The decision had catastrophic consequences as Israel divided into two kingdoms, Israel to the north and Judah to the south.

All the young king needed to do was respect the older generation of men and follow their advisement but he didn’t and we all need to learn from his mistake.

This brings us to the opening verses of 1 Timothy, chapter 5 as the older Apostle Paul continues to provide advice and encouragement to his younger ministry partner. Here’s what we read in verses 1 and 2:

Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.

Here we find great direction from God’s word as to how we should handle generational differences today. We simply need to follow the same guidance given to Timothy and the Ephesian believers.

Younger men and women should treat older men and women as if they were their fathers or mothers respectively, exhorting and esteeming them.

Older men and women should treat younger men and women as they would a brother or sister respectively, loving and revering them as they would family.

And in both instances, generations were to honor one another with “absolute purity”.

Friends, I think we all have fell into disobedience when it comes to the respect we are called to extend to other generations. My prayer is that this message will speak to our hearts in such a way that we will conduct ourselves honorably when working with or talking about generations that aren’t our own.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.