Honor your father and mother, that it may be well with you, and that you
may live long on the earth.
What does this mean?
We should fear and love God, so that we do not despise our parents or
superiors, nor provoke them to anger, but honor, serve, obey, love and esteem
them.
In the Large Catechism Luther observes that “The thoughts of this
commandment are plain and simple words, and everyone thinks that he already
knows them well. So he passes over them
lightly, fastens his attention on other things, and fails to perceive and
believe how angry he makes God when he neglects this commandment, and how
precious and acceptable a work he does when he observes it.” (LC 1:140) [1]Luther
points out that “honor” includes not only love but also respect, humility, and
modesty that is directed at the estate or vocation of parenthood. We are to obey our parents as we are to obey
God because He has placed our parents over us.
God serves us through our parents and they are worthy of the same type
of honor (except worship) which we are to show towards God in all our thoughts,
words, and actions. And even though
parents fail at times, they are not to be deprived of their honor because of
such failings.
What is meant by parents? God
uses the fourth commandment to establish rule and authority on the earth. All earthly power stems from the estate of
our parents. It includes parents by
blood, parents by adoption or guardianship, it includes parents of civil
realm…city, state, and federal government, and it also includes our spiritual
fathers who watch over our spiritual care and feed us with God’s Word.
What have we received from our parents?
Most significant of all is life.
We have been given food, shelter, and clothing, we have been and are
being educated. A God-fearing education
is the responsibility of parents…not the Sunday School or public
education. As children we are to expect
to be reared in a God-pleasing and God-praising manner. An education that lacks a solid foundation
upon God does more harm than good because it undermines who God is. Children have a right to expect their parents
to act as the arm of God by training them and disciplining them through His
word. It is God who has given children
to us parents to care for and to bring up in the nurture and the admonition of
the Lord. That responsibility falls on
our shoulders as parents.
As apt as we are to fail at following the fourth commandment it is the
only commandment with promise clearly stated; “That it may be well with you and
that you may live long on the earth.” (Eph 6:2-3) It is through the arm of obedience to our
parents, superiors, employers, civil authorities and our spiritual authorities
that we are provided for. God uses each
one of these estates as a means through which he provides life and abundant
blessing…instead of cursing. If we would
only listen and be persuaded that works of obedience are pleasing to God, we
would be so overwhelmed with our blessings that we shall have all our heart’s
desire. But we cannot comply. Everyone does what they please and the world
is full of shame, misery, and murder. We
simply think we know better than our superiors and we set an example for our
children not to obey.
Yet, that did not stop Christ from obeying all
those in authority over him. As a child
he went with Mary and Joseph and was subject to them…and even then he was about
His Father’s business. All the way to
the cross he was about His Father’s business…not for His own benefit or the
benefit of His Father, but for our benefit He willingly obeyed even to the
point of death. Jesus shed His blood on
the cross so that we would not have to suffer eternally for our inability to
live up to the demands of the fourth commandment. May we, through the love he poured out on us,
strive to honor all those in authority over us. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment