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.
You know, when you look at this verse, you can see it’s all about respect. It really is. So then, do you respect others. What about when they disagree with you? Whenever you’re trying to teach them something, do you do so in a condescending manner? Or do you do so out of respect to help them out.
Many times people don’t realize that they can actually be tearing people down in the midst of their efforts to lift them up. People can tell if you are giving them respect or not. And I can promise you this, if they sense you are not respecting them, the odds of them retaining what you are saying to them are slim to none.
Just as Paul was teaching Timothy the value of respecting others, I think it’s a lesson we all need to refresh ourselves on from time to time.
Let this be a focus in your time of meditation throughout the day. Until next time, shalom!
SOURCE: Steve Moutria at TorahFamily.org (Posted with permission)
https://torahfamily.org/respect-1-timothy/
