Commandment No. 5 HONOR YOUR FATHER & YOUR MOTHER

Commandment No. 5        Honor Your Father & Your Mother

Our study module on Commandment No. 5 tackles the problem of disobedience, the root of our problems.

The Commandment

¹⁶ Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well for you in the land the Lord is giving you. DEUTERONOMY 5

¹ Children, obey your parents; this is the right thing to do because God has placed them in authority over you. ² Honor your father and mother. This is the first of God’s commandments that ends with a promise. ³ And this is the promise added: that if you honor your father and mother, yours will be a long life, full of blessing. EPHESIANS 6 tlb

Whom to Honor

Father and mother pertain to parents: our parents at home, our parents in the Lord, our parents in civil authority, and our Father in heaven. Commandment No. 5 calls us to honor them all.

What It Means to Honor

The NIV Study Bible, note on Exodus 20:12, says honoring our parents means obeying them, caring for them, respecting them, and treasuring or prizing them highly. Inasmuch as Commandment No. 1 tells us to do everything in love (1 Corinthians 16:14), honoring better translates to:  

§      Obeying them with love.

⁷ …as if you were their slave. SIRACH 3 

§      Caring for them with love.

⁴ [Children and grandchildren] should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God… ⁸ If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. 1 TIMOTHY 5

¹² My son, support your father in his old age, do not grieve him during his life. ¹³ Even if his mind should fail, show him sympathy, do not despise him in your health and strength; ¹⁴ for kindness to a father shall not be forgotten but will serve as a reparation [restitution] for your sins. ¹⁵ In the days of your affliction it will be remembered of you, like frost in sunshine, your sins will melt away. ¹⁶ The man who deserts his father is no better than a blasphemer, and whoever angers his mother will be accursed of the Lord. ECCLESIASTICUS 3

§      Respecting them with love (Leviticus 19:3).

¹⁰ Never seek honor for yourself at your father’s expense; it is not to your credit if he is dishonored. ¹¹ Your own honor comes from the respect that you show to your father. If children do not honor their mothers, it is their own disgrace. SIRACH 3

§      Treasuring them highly with love.

²⁷ With all your heart honour your father and never forget the birthpangs of your mother. ²⁸ Remember that you owe your birth to them; how can you ever repay them for what they have done for you? ECCLESIASTICUS 7

Strictly speaking, it is not the persons of our parents that we are called to honor but their authority over us.

³ Do not say, “Who has authority over me?” for the Lord will certainly be avenged on you. ECCLESIASTICUS 5

¹ God has placed your parents in authority over you. EPHESIANS 6 tlb

¹ …No authority exists without God’s permission. ROMANS 13 tev

⁴ Anyone who becomes as humble as [a] little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. MATTHEW 18 nlt