In spite of all that God has done for man, men still refuse to have respect for Him. The Lord never has nor ever will compete for respect from man.
If there is anything in this world worthy of man’s respect, it is the Bible. God’s word is far superior to any other book to which man may wish to compare it.
The idea of the word respect is that an individual looks at two things and chooses to look at one of them a second time demonstrating favouritism.
No matter where we look we see order and authority. Even God's acts of creation reveal this order. The Bible says that the sun was given to rule the day and the moon to rule the night (Genesis 1:16). The Lord gave priests and prophets to the children of Israel in the Old Testament to lead them and show them His truths. Faithful to His nature, God has also given a level of authority within the church. According to our passage, we are to “obey them that have the rule” over us. On a couple of different occasions, the word rule is used in the job description of a pastor or elder (1 Timothy 3:5; 1 Timothy 5:17). Today's passage also reveals that the man of God watches for the souls of the people and must give an account to God for his watch care. No true God-called leader takes his position lightly.
