"Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee." - Exo 20:12
The Fifth Commandment.
In Gods top ten list, the first four items are all about teaching man who God is and how Holy He is. We are not to worship any other, attempt to make any visual representations of Him, use His name in vain, and remember His act of Creation every 7 days. All of a sudden, Dad and Mom show up in #5! That seems like a big and sudden transition from God to man...
Indeed it is. A lot of commentators divide the commandments into two " tables". A duty of man-to-God table, and a duty of man-to-man table. The first 4 commandments fall into the first table, and the last 6 into the second.
This is fine, but we would invite you to consider the 5th as also belonging in the duty of man-to-God category, and forming a natural and logical bridge to the duty of man-to-man, and actually, extending and amplifying what was said in the first 4.
From our previous articles on the Law you will have seen that God cares immensely about how He is represented, and is very protective about His image. We have pointed out that the only image of God that He approved, and that we can see is Man! If you have that perspective, all of a sudden, the 5th commandment appears in a different light!
Gods image, as male and female , joined together by marriage into One flesh by Him - hey, that looks like Dad and Mom! We owe our life to Him as the giver and breather into us of the Spirit that turns dust into a living soul - and we owe our birth to our parents who give us our life. Not only that, if you recall our Lord's Prayer, it begins with the words - Our Father. God Himself inhabits and hallows the relationship between parent and child! If we are to respect our Jesus-gifted inheritance as the children of God, it's imperative we learn how to respect and honor the parent-child relationship! In fact, the Lord's Prayer actually provides us a model for how to do that - we have written about it here.
The Hebrew word for honor is the verb Kabed, closely related to the noun Kabod which both denote and have the immediate sense of great weight. Kabod is also used to refer to His Glory - ( for e.g. Ichabod means the Glory has departed ) extending the conceptof weightiness and honor to the person of God. Therefore, to honor our parents is to ascribe to them a weight and respect similar to that we give Him. This means not only respect but obedience- the two -absolutely most most critical- concepts that He desires in our relationship with Him!!!!
How did our Lord obey this one? Luke 2:51 has this thumbnail sketch for us ... "And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them:" ; Jesus obeyed His human parents. Even amidst the agony of the cross He cared for His mother, instructing His disciple John to take care of her. He took the Pharisees to task for watering down this commandment with their traditions and loopholes- " Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition." - Mt 15:3-6
This commandment has not expired!
We find it in the New Testament Apostolic teaching of Paul who explicitly refers to this commandment. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth." - Eph 6:1-3 He also indicates that the corruption of the last days will cause this to be violated - "But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, --disobedient to parents--, ungrateful, unholy,...." - 2 Tim 1-2. If you are wondering why more and more people are dying young, why we are plagued with death and destruction- here is the answer. Our current sinful culture has destroyed what it means to be married and to be parents ( think of the plight of kids from multiple marriages, single parents, same sex parents ... etc ).
Children also no longer respect their parents because they are not worthy of it. Parents have a weighty responsibility not to profane the image of God they bear... and God hates child abuse. "You even took your sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them to these images as food. Wasn't your prostitution enough? You slaughtered My children and gave them up when you passed them through the fire to the images." - Eze 16:20-21 "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." - Eph 6:4
A last thing to note, that the Apostle also points out in the text from Ephesians 6:2 - is that this commandment is unique in also including a promise and blessing of long life for keeping it. Long life is promised!
We can skip the gym, health food, drugs and supplements if you just do this :-) - but that's just being lazy!! Seriously though, you should reflect that the keeping all the commandments of God confer blessing and peace. This is just more icing on the cake! The joy of grandchildren is something only grandparents know!!
" My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. " - Prov 3:1-4
The commandment looks to an eternal rest from OUR WORKS...
" For the person who has entered His rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from His. Let us then make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience. " - Heb 4:10-11
The biggest turning point in life ( other than being Saved ) is the divine revelation that we are not to serve God the way "We" think best, but to find out what He wanted us to do, and do THAT! Not my will, but His. Seems like a very basic statement but it is extremely profound- it certainly changed my life, and I hope it will help you! Read on to see why....
Contemporary Christianity has really confused the issue of what is expected of a Christian. Partly through ignorance and confusion ( blind leading the blind ) , partly through selfish motives. Check the list below and see if you agree with everything listed... A True Christian:
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- Obeys the Law of God, because we are expected to obey all that is written in the Bible. Every commandment, especially sabbath observance & tithing, which are principles that were put in place before the Law was given to Moses. Jesus came not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.
- Is no longer under the Law, because Christ came and showed that we can't keep it. Nothing applies to us, and we should listen only to Christ's teachings. In Acts 15:28-29, the Spirit through the apostles says - "For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well." A pretty short list!
- Can lead a perfectly Holy life after being saved, because the indwelling Spirit gives him/her the power to overcome sin in his/her life.
- Will struggle with sin all his/her life after being saved, because we are trapped in a body of flesh and will fall into sin despite our best efforts. Even the apostle Paul acknowledges this fact.( Rom 7:14-25 )
- Is supposed to demonstrate his/her faith by doing good works ( church attendance, service, charity and giving, following the church rules/ dos and dont's ) . If we don't use our God given 'talents' we are unfaithful servants and will not receive any rewards.
- Is justified by faith in Christ alone , his/her works do not save him/her or earn merit to be applied towards salvation.
- Is saved through his/her conscious decision to accept Christ, because God can only justifiably send us to hell if we have been offered the Gospel and rejected it. God to be fair, must give us a free will choice to accept or reject Him, and then only can He hold us accountable for that choice.
- -Is saved through the grace of God alone , who draws him/her to Himself, and enables that person to think clearly enough to be able to accept the Gospel.
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How many did you agree with?
Guess what - they are ALL true statements by themselves, but their application to us has to be carefully and correctly figured out. The Word is sharp and will injure you if not properly applied. You cannot blindly follow the letter! The problem lies in our sin-affected understanding of His Word. Christ had to correct the Pharisees, and Paul, a Pharisee of Pharisees had to write it down to correct the church.
God is Love. His Law, and all the prophets are summarized in the commands to Love Him, and Love those created in His image.
Because we are sinful and don't "get" it, He wrote down 613 Laws in the OT to serve as examples of what that means. We said great! - all we got to do is 613 things, no problem, and went and invented thousands of other things based on those 613 , and either tried and failed to keep them, or gave up completely! In the process we completely forgot what the original intent of the Law was - to point forward to Christ, to show us what Sin looks like, to show us what God hates, what He loves, and how we continuously need a sacrifice for known and unknown sins we commit continuously!
Christ explained ( and fulfilled ) the Law by telling us so clearly in the Sermon on the Mount, it's about attitude. Anger is the same as murder. Lust is the same as adultery. What you eat and drink does not make you impure, it's what and how you think in your heart. We need our inside fixed before the outside can change!
It means that you can't keep the letter of the Law perfectly, but through the indwelling of the Spirit, you can keep the the true spirit of the Law by loving God and your neighbor - which is what He wanted in the first place!
Once our attitude is adjusted by the Spirit, works of service, and our Christian witness - will flow out of the love we have in our hearts for God and His creation. A living -God-given- faith WILL generate works of obedience - forgiving your enemy, works of charity, works of service. A self sufficient, Cain-like attitude to pleasing Him with sacrifice will meet with rejection because we are not approaching Him the way He wants. Our own self-driven, legalistic, works of righteousness are as filthy menstrual rags in His sight.
So what does He want from us?
It is both the same and different by person! We are all called to love our fellow man and serve each other, but some are called to be teachers, some counselors, some leaders, some healers,some cooks, some waiters at tables, some washers of feet.
We can work these works of God only through His power because they are fundamentally alien to our sinful selfish nature. So it is really important to LOVE the people around you in your corner of the world through the change the Spirit has wrought in your heart.
He is the One who replaces our heart of stone with a heart of flesh , opens our ears, eyes, and understanding so that we grow in the knowledge of Him and His character, and reveals to us the heart and mind of God.
The work of the devil is to reduce your effectiveness by having you major in the minors and try to confuse you, and harass you with religious clap-trap and arguments over feast days and sabbaths that ultimately do not matter, but will completely wear you out.
His WILL is that we believe on the One He has sent, who commands us to love one another as He has loved us. That is how the world will know we are His disciples.
Rest from your own works of wood, hay and stubble which will be burned up when they are judged. Rest from your self-righteous observances of the letter - because if you keep one letter you have to keep ALL of them! Rest from judging others and instead forgive them, and let Him do the judging. Rest from trying to do things in your own flesh and instead ask Him to open your eyes each day to what you can do for Him that day. Rest from trying to satisfy your desire for significance by obtaining the approval of men, fighting for positions of authority or the limelight - instead humble yourself under the hand of the almighty and do your good deeds in secret - which only He can see, and look for His approval. Rest from trying to change persons and circumstances by your effort - instead pray that His good will for you and others be accomplished in His good time, even through adversity and tribulation, and difficult situations. Above all, rest in the knowledge that all your sins, past, present, future have been forgiven, that He who saved you is able to keep you from falling and sinning against Him, who will fulfill the work He has begun in you, who will perform what He has promised, and will not let ANYTHING ( even you ! ) separate Him from you!
What about our list? Through the Spirit I pray you will agree with me that -
- Giving is more important than tithing.
- Reverencing Him all week is more important than shutting down all work on any particular day
- Walking a Holy life is a lifelong struggle against sin, our failures and successes do not impact our salvation. We do it out of love for His character as sons/daughters made in His image and not as slaves to the letter.
- He is the one who knew and saved us before the foundation of the world. Our mind is sin-infected at birth and incapable of making a right choice unless He helps us to do so.
- He is the one who changes our heart to do good works. Doing good works is no firm evidence that He has actually changed the heart. However, it's the only external evidence of an internal change that is available to us. Our unique gifts and abilities are best used when we ask Him to show us how we can serve Him - and they are different by person.
- Christ was God's last Word on the Law and Sin in many ways. He atoned for us. He tells us how to live. We are to rest in His finished work and obey Him, standing in the freedom He has given us, and not going back to the bondage of the letter.
Read 1 Corinthians 13 ( the "wedding" chapter ) ... if we are not obeying His will to Love, we are wasting our time and effort in doing our works for no profit at all!!!
So, seek to do His will, and rest ( stop ) from doing your own works!!
Start by asking the Spirit of Love to open your eyes and understanding, to how you can best love those around you ( study the Word, esp. Jesus' teachings) . Ask Him humbly to be used by Him and then do what He leads. It WILL change your life!
Hallelujah!
