We see people everyday. We are always interacting with others–at church, home, work, shopping, or traveling. We are always dealing with people.

How should we treat the people around us?

Recently, I had a friend ask what I learned from my grandparents. I began to tell about all four of my grandparents, but I majored on my mother’s mother.

Mama Wallace, as we called her, loved and respected people. Most of the good things I have learned about relationships came from her. Some of you have read some of the things I have written about my grandmother. She had a few hard and fast rules which could not be broken.

Her most determined rule was that no one should ever be called stupid. She wouldn’t let the word be used in her house and consequently it wasn’t used at my house. Long before so many terms became pejorative, she saw “stupid” as belittling and demeaning.

How should we treat people?

First, everyone should be treated with dignity and respect. I am very sure my grandmother learned her respect for others in Holy Scripture. She knew not to judge, not to use the term “fool,” and to treat others in the way you want to be treated. All of these concepts came from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

Second, treat others as people created in the image of God. The fact that we are all created in God’s image and for God’s purpose is the basis for all treatment of other people. When we think of others as God does and as people specifically created by God, we will automatically begin to see how other people should be treated.

Third, treat others with tenderness and compassion. Paul told the Ephesian Christians to get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger and to be “kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:31-32),

Treating others in this way will mean that you are obeying God and blessing the people around you.