In 25th November 1544, John Calvin wrote to Bullinger, despite their disagreement with Martin Luther:
"I often say that even if he should call me a devil, I should still pay him the honor of acknowledging him as an illustrious servant of God, who yet as he is rich in virtues, so also labors under serious faults..." pg. 33
This is from a book, "Old Protestantism and the New" by Brian Gerrish I have recently came across on google books as I was researching on Calvin's relationship with Luther. This quote is something I have heard from Dr. Tong's lecture but was uncertain of its authenticity until now.
I would like to add that here, no doubt, Calvin expressed his respect for Martin Luther in the utmost sincerity. Not too long ago, I heard arguments from a lady at church regarding her definition of "respect". An erroneous philosophy I have longed been aware of. As I observed her practice of respect in public towards Pastor Chen with smile and hypocritical statement, even though she actually hated him due to certain dissatisfaction, I learned that sometimes, we can actually tell if a person is truly respecting or not by listening to their vocal tone, I could hear herself shivering as she tried to show respect to the pastor. Nonetheless, she understood enough to acknowledge we must act in sincerity. Despite her counselor telling me that she has a psychological condition called Bipolar, I find that she has great jealousy issue which she never wish to let go. Pastors and Christian Counselors these days are so taken by modern western psychology that their only solution to pertaining problems is prescribing certain dosage of medicine and try to provide her with only plenty of happy thoughts. They are like a dummy blind folded by the devil, stumbling around with a smile on the face, playing hide and seek. "Oh you feel depressed? Take medicine! Come back tomorrow, we will talk", "Oh you want to commit suicide? Did you take your medicine?". All shepherds of God must be well learned enough to know the difference between real medical problem and our human rebellious nature, for they have already been given such authority.
When we respect people, or commend anyone, we must do it in truth. I realized a few preachers and Christians alike, love to admit the truth first before they proceed with sinful statements, as if by admitting that they understood what is sinful, their proceeding actions would not have to be judged. For example, "I am not judging you, but you must...bla bla", "We are not saying that other religions are wrong, but...bla bla bla", "Gambling is wrong, but you will be forgiven if you give 10 percent of your winnings". And as for this lady, as well as many other young women I've noticed, when defining attitude towards "respect", it is rather hypocritical for they tolerated "white lies, telling a lie for the benefit of others", of course, there are many male politicians and businessman practicing this as well. The anthropocentric principle of "respecting each other" is not biblical. If we don't have respect for a person, we do not need to squeeze out this hypocrisy, not all of us are Hollywood actors. These people love their hypocrisy because they do not believe that others were able to judge their honesty. She often like to ask:"How do you know if I were so and so...". Even the Pharisees never dare tested Jesus this way, for they were convicted by their conscience. She even dares to go as bold as to saying, "if God does not forgive, why should we repent?", so she loves to see everyone saying sorry to each other all the time. It is nonetheless, wise and bold of Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that he told Timothy to stop the women from exercising this kind of erroneous authoritative teaching in public.
Personally, I do not believe she has the so called "Bipolar", but I believe that her counselors have undermined their given authority and tolerated her rebellious behavior and jealousy, that she has gotten worse. It wasn't easy, but I believe I have done my best to illustrate the Lordship and Sovereignty of our Lord whenever I could during Sunday School, other chats. I have also advised her counselors that they must not spoil her by undermining God's sovereignty, for if they are not careful, they will give Satan the opportunity to destroy all the hard works they have labored for this lady.
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