Don't They Share All Of Those Values?

People can share a handful of values and still come to completely oppositional conclusions about how to answer ethical questions.

While short definitions from the dictionary of words like respect can generally be agreed upon, these brief and general definitions can be applied in very different and oppositional ways to the same situations.

Christians,

Two people who both tell you they believe in justice, respect, love, compassion, and freedom can come to completely different conclusions concerning ethical decisions in a variety of social scenarios.  While short definitions from the dictionary of words like respect can generally be agreed upon, these brief and general definitions can be applied in very different and oppositional ways to the same situations.  In other words, if you want people to learn about love and respect in a way that is going to develop their perspectives as Christians, details and examples are key. 

Explaining examples of what respect is and isn’t from a Christian perspective can also be helpful.  Give details about how it should look and also how it can be misunderstood to look to help correct any misunderstandings.  Also, try to give examples that relate to the life of the person you are talking to so that the examples are more relatable. 

On the one hand, you might think that the idea of respect is pretty straightforward.  However, then you have to admit the reality of how differently people think who are basing their ideas on values such as respect.  People can have very different overall ideas about values such as respect, justice, and freedom.