5th Commandment by Brother Timothy vonKroge
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Exodus 20:12
12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Let’s start our examination of this commandment by reading this scripture....
2 Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)
In this verse, we see that the fifth commandment is the first commandment with promise. The second commandment contains a very general promise loosely tied to keeping all the commandments. The promise in the fifth commandment is not general but specifically tied to meeting a specific responsibility - honoring parents.
Notice that the commandments does not say, “obey your father and your mother.” This is because honoring not only includes obedience but also goes beyond it. Honoring suggests adding to, glorifying, embellishing, and decorating its object. Obedience can be given in a resentful manner, but honoring requires admiration, respect, even reverence. This quality must be within one’s heart, and it is acquired and built upon through thoughtful consideration, even meditation, on the sacrifices and gifts that the parents give to the child.
Honoring is something that usually does not happen in the child until adulthood, when the child has his own experiences as a parent’s loving labors. This fact shows us that it is not too late to grow in honoring life. Obedience to parents as a child gets one started in the right direction and produces its own rewards.
Yet, the honoring of parents greatly increases the appreciation for them. The real rewards lie in the practice of honoring itself, rewards that affect our place in the Kingdom of God. Because we have transferred giving spiritual and moral honor to God, our spiritual parent.
These verses in Deuteronomy declares this commandment’s seriousness to us.
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:
5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
Notice that child-training is directly linked with the first and great commandment. The fifth commandment is aimed directly at parental responsibility. If children grow up not honoring God, the blame largely falls on the parents’ shoulders. God intends this vital child-training responsibility to lead children to honoring Him.
That is its goal. It requires consistent and devoted attention. It cannot be accomplished by absent parents. If the parents do not know God, or if their knowledge of Him is shallow, and they are not practicing what they do know; then what will they pass on to their children? The answer is worldliness. Both parents must be dedicated and deeply involved in honoring God in their own lives, if their children are going to be prepared to perform the much more rewarding practice of honoring God.
In God’s eyes - and in a small child’s - a parent stands in the place of God Himself. in the physical sense, parents are the child’s creator, provider, lawgiver, teacher, and protector - and sometimes even savior. A child’s response to this relationship will greatly determine his later response to larger relationships in society. And it is absolutely certain to affect his relationship with God. Thus, since parents represent God, it becomes their obligation to live lives worthy of that honor. Ultimately, the responsibility for keeping this commandment falls on the child, but it begins with the parents through child training and example. If parents neither provide the correct example nor teach their children the correct way, they can hardly expect their children to honor them.
Obedience to this command does not stop at a certain age. In Genesis, this verse reveals a deep respect Joseph had for Jacob when he brought his two sons before him for a blessing....
12 And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.
With adulthood, the time may come when it is no longer necessary or right for a person to obey his parents strictly. But God’s requirement to honor them never ceases. This duty pays dividends by giving us access to the wisdom of years.
Honor has wider application than obey. It expresses itself in courtesy, thoughtfulness, mercy, and kindly deeds. We would hardly consider one to be. Honoring his parents who when they fall sick, weak, and perhaps blind in old age, does not exert himself to the utmost for them and support in their need.
Just as surely as God requires parents to nourish, defend, support, and instruct the children in their lowest state of infancy, so children in their strength should support their parents in their weakness. Turn about is fair play, look at this verse in Matthew....
12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
Each of us would want someone to care for us in our time of need.
Taken to an extreme dishonoring of parents leads to anarchy, first in the family and then in society., as the decay of the basic component spreads. Eventually, a person will expand much, if not most, of his energies just surviving, effectively destroying the development of spiritual, creative, and intellectual qualities essential to his and society’s well - being.
Not honoring parents also causes immaturity. Because children do not respect their parent’s advice, they grow up missing the significance of much they encounter, and so wisdom comes to them very slowly. In some cases, they may never learn wisdom. Lack of honor manifests itself in self - willed and self - indulgent people who seem to simmer just beneath the point of rebellion. Their motto in life becomes, “ just do it”. So they condemn themselves to learning the lessons of life through hard experience, which may be a good teacher, but a painful one.
The fifth commandment begins the second section of the ten. It is placed, as the first commandment is towards God, first among those commands that govern our relationships with other men. The effect that keeping or failing to keep the fifth commandment has on those relationships is huge. Not only is it chief in importance in this regard, but it also acts as a bridge between the Commandment’s two sections. This is vital because, when the fifth commandment is properly kept, it leads to reverence for obedience to God Himself, the ultimate Parent.
For the fifth commandment, we need to define three important words (honor, respect, and reverence). The Hebrew word underlying “honor” suggests heaviness, weightiness, severity, and richness. All in a long lasting, continuing sense. It implies an implies an important or significant, lifelong responsibility, thus it is used in the sense of honoring, glorifying, imposing, or being weighty. As an adjective, it magnifies the implications of s noun. In English, honor means “ to give high regard, respect, or credit to; an outward token, sign, or act that manifests high regard for.”
The two English synonyms help to focus the implications of the commandment. Respect means “ to have deferential regard for; to treat with propriety and consideration; to regard as inviolable.” Reverence indicates “ to show deferential respect.” Basically it is respect turn ed a notch higher because it is combined with adoration or awe, in a good sense, or great shame, in a bad one.”
It is helpful further to understand that, though this commandment is primarily aimed at the function of parenting, it is certainly not limited to it. The keeping of this law also includes within its spirit the honor and respect that should be given to civil and teaching figures.
So why does God want a person to honor his parents and other authority figures? First, the family is the basic building block of society. The stability of the family is essential to the stability of the community. The more respectful each family member is of other family members,especially of parents, The greater the degree of respect that will carry beyond the immediate family and into strengthening the community.
The family is also the basic building block of government. The lessons and principles learned from honoring, respecting, and submitting to one’s parents result in a society stable enough to promote the development of the whole person.
God states no qualifier. He does not tell us to honor them only if they are honorable. Simply because they are our parents, we must treat them with respect. In the New Testament, Paul repeats this command , again without reservation, in Ephesians.......
2 Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)
3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
Jesus makes it clear several times that He honors His Father with these verses......
29 And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.
49 Jesus answered, I have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me.
4 I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
Granted, honoring parents can be very difficult if the father is a drunk or the mother is a lying thief. Their actions may sometimes be dishonorable, but because they are Dad and Mom, they are to be respected. The commandment has no loopholes.
No less than three of the Ten Commandments - the fifth, the seventh, and the tenth - directly involve strengthening marriages and families, and preserving their unity and sacredness. Of course, all of God’s commands, if followed, will work to strengthen man’s relationship with God and fellow man, but these three are aimed directly at securing these sacred bonds. When considering any of God’s commands, we find that they are broad in scope and ordained, not just to regulate our physical relationships, but also our spiritual one with Christ.
The fifth commandment speaks directly to parents and children, laying the foundation of responsibility that each has to each other. When children submit to their parents and parents provide a loving environment to nurture their children in lawful living, the children and society directly benefit from this command. Home government is the cornerstone of national government, and when the home is right, the social structure follows. When marriage and family unity are held in high esteem and fear of violating God’s standards is instilled, sin can be held in check. Her is an example in this verse from Hebrews.
11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Just to explain my point and give a brief explanation without diving into a future Sunday school class being given by Brother Ron Geist and myself, I am going to give this brief summary. The seventh commandment - forbidding adultery, unfaithfulness, by either spouse - stands against anyone who would defile the sanctity of the marriage covenant through sexual sins. Adultery is probably the most dishonest act against the binding contract of the marriage relationship; it is a betrayal of a most sacred trust. Not only is it a sin against one’s companion, but as Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians, it is a sin against one’s own flesh.....
18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
It has destroyed many marriages and families. A marriage can stand against many adversities from without, but this sin destroys it from within, and few, if any, marriages can truly recover from such infidelity.
Jesus says in this verse in Matthew that adultery begins in the heart........
28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
It is more than an outward action, but a lust that comes from within. Christ teaches us how broad the law is, and sexual acts outside of the marriage covenant - even just the desire for them - breaks this command. In other words, if the desire is there, yet only lack of opportunity has kept a person from this sin, the law has still been broken.
The tenth commandment is likely a precursor for warnings against many other sins. It defends against anyone who would come between a man and his wife, and like the seventh, its breaking also begins in the heart. Unlike the seventh commandment, which looks to protect the marriage from within, in the tenth commandment, God protects it from with out.
Strong marriages can stand up to outside pressures of this sort, but weak marriages battling other issues may not. How many marriages have been defiled or destroyed by the coveting of another can not be known, but since God included it in the Ten Commandments, its potential harm against the sacred bond of marriage must be high.
Why does God want us to honor our parents? The family is the basic building block or unit of society, thus the stability of the community depends on the stability of the families that comprise it. A person’s response to government derives from the parent - child relationship. The lessons and principles learned from honoring, respecting, and obeying parents will result in a society stable enough to promote development of the whole person.
Life begins at home and wisdom should begin there as well. The home is the primary and most vital factor in a child’s development into a mature and stable member of society. Church and school play secondary roles, if only because of the amount of time spent at home and all the personal interaction that takes place there.
In keeping this commandment, the Bible divides the responsibility between parents and child, even though the child eventually bears the greater responsibility. It is his responsibility to learn from his parents, not just because they are his human life givers, but because the parents have been what the child has not - both young and old.
Therefore, parents should have accrued wisdom from situations the child has not yet experienced. It is the parents’ responsibility to create an environment in which they can pass wisdom on so that the child can learn the lessons of life more easily. And so society benefits from the resulting stability of that family unit. If the child learns these lessons, the wisdom will be an enriching ornament, a sign of honor, and a guide to a long life and prosperity. These are the fulfillment of the fifth commandment’s promise. the process begun in the home then prepares the way into the Kingdom of God.
God wants us to honor our parents because the family is the basic building block of His Kingdom. God describes the Kingdom in family terms. He is the Father, Jesus is the Son, and the church is the Son’s bride. We are called sons, daughters, and children of the Kingdom. We are created and being created as sons in His image. God also uses terms like “begat” , “born” , and “grow up”.
Immediately after creating Adam and Eve and announcing He was creating them in His image,
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
God establishes the first institution : the family through marriage. The conclusion is inescapable. The family would play a major role in creating man in God’s image. Regarding marriage, family, and divorce; let’s read this verse from the Bible.....
15 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, And let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
The godly principles learned and character built within the human family are, upon conversion, transferable into the spiritual family relationship in the Kingdom of God. Parents are His representatives, and we honor and revere the creative majesty and the power of God when we keep this commandment. God expects whatever we learned from honoring our parents to transfer into our relationship with Him.
I hope you have enjoyed my presentation of The Fifth Commandment. Hopefully we have all gotten a better understanding of the true meaning of this very important commandment.