Honor Mom and Dad
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OCC - Nicole
Reading: Deuteronomy 5:16
16 “ ‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
Pray
This morning, we’re turning our attention to the fifth commandment. First, let’s briefly look at the commandment and note a couple of things:
The Command is positive - not negative; it even states two promises for those who obey
The Command is actually a command - the word “Honor” means “to make heavy,” similar to our “give weight to” someone’s opinion or we talk about a “weighty” argument. It’s stated as an intensive command, instead of the simple statements like the rest of the commandments
The promises - long life and prosperity in the land - are not unique to this passage. They are both personal (individually true) and communal (true for all of Israel).
40 Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”
What Does This Commandment Reveal about God?
God Is Our Father
God Is Our Father
In Romans 8:14-17, Paul talks about our position, not as slaves, but as sons of God, and therefore as fellow heirs with Christ in God’s inheritance
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
God is our Father. And he is such a good father! That’s why the Lord’s Prayer begins with the words “Our Father” (Matthew 6:9). Israelites prided themselves in being sons of Abraham. We can “boast” in God being our Father. More than that, we can live in the reality that God is our Father, seeking to imitate our Father’s actions and character.
But the fifth commandment does more than show us this relationship. It teaches us something about our own families, and institutions beyond the family:
God Has Established the Family as His Primary Instrument of Authority
God Has Established the Family as His Primary Instrument of Authority
God is the Creator of all things, so he is also the Creator of all authority:
1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
God is the author of all authority, because he alone has all authority. Just as the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, so the authority is his. He, though, invites men and women to exercise his authority - to administer authority on his behalf.
God Reveals Himself through Family
God Reveals Himself through Family
God describes himself in terms of authority, especially in the actions of fathers and mothers:
13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
12 for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.
14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.”
15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.
God Exercises His Dominion through Family
God Exercises His Dominion through Family
Deuteronomy 6:6-9 describes the role of parents in teaching the covenant to their own children
6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Children are to honor and obey their parents so that they will learn to uphold the covenant
That’s why the child who dishonors his parents is to be stoned to death – so that the covenant will be upheld and not broken (Deuteronomy 21:18-21).
The Family is the Basis for Every Authority on Earth
What Does This Commandment Require of Us?
Our Ultimate Loyalty Belongs Exclusively to God, But We Must Honor Godly Authorities
Our Ultimate Loyalty Belongs Exclusively to God, But We Must Honor Godly Authorities
Remember the First Commandment:
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
In Matthew 10:37, Jesus states that he is to take precedence over all, including family
37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Jesus also models honoring God first, and honoring parents in Luke 2:49, 51:
49 And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
51 And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.
In Acts 5:29, when the apostles find themselves chastised by religious leaders for preaching Jesus, they respond:
29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.
We Must Honor Our Parents by:
We Must Honor Our Parents by:
We Must Honor Our Parents by How We Interact with Them
We Must Honor Our Parents by How We Interact with Them
Leviticus 19:32 commands that we stand up in the presence of elders and honor their faces (“give preference to” them):
32 “You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
In Job 32:6-7, Elihu says that he did not speak up because he was young and should let elders give their wisdom
When we give our parents respect, when we defer to their wisdom and allow them to instruct us, when we disagree but do not disdain them, we are in the perfect position for God to reveal his truth to us. We learn best when we are willing to learn.
We Must Honor Our Parents by How We Care for Them
We Must Honor Our Parents by How We Care for Them
In Matthew 15:3-6, Jesus rebukes the practice of Corban because it becomes an excuse not to fulfill the fifth commandment to honor father and mother:
3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’
5 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,”
6 he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.
Paul tells Timothy in I Timothy 5:4-8 that those who do not care for their own family (especially their parents) are worse than non-believers
4 But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.
5 She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day,
6 but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives.
7 Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach.
8 But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
We honor our parents by reciprocating their love for us. We once were helpless and depended on Mom and Dad for everything. Now, as they age, we have the opportunity to return their love as we care for them.
We Must Honor Our Parents by How We Follow Them
We Must Honor Our Parents by How We Follow Them
In Romans 13:7, Paul summarizes one way we honor authority – by giving them our allegiance.
7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
We must give total allegiance to God alone, but to a lesser extent, all authority is due some form of allegiance.
When Jesus was asked whether to pay taxes to Caesar in Luke 20, he answered that they should give Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give God what is God’s (20:25)
Paul admonishes children in Ephesians 6:1 to obey their “parents in the Lord, for this is right.” The obedience they give is their primary way of showing honor.
Transition to Invitation and Communion
