PARENTS

“PARENTS”

HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER


Exodus Chap. 20:vs. 12 Honor your father and mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God id giving you.

This is the only commandment from the ten commandments with a promise attached. To live in peace for generations in the promised land, the Israelites would need to respect authority and build strong families.

But what does it mean to HONOR parents? Partly, it means speaking well of them and being politely to them. It also means acting in a way that shows them courtesy and respect (but not to obey them if this means disobedience to God). It means following their teaching and example of putting God first. Parents have a special place in God’s sight, even those who find it difficult to get along with their parents are still commanded to honor them.

Deuteronomy Chap. 5:vs. 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 with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

Obeying our parents is our main task when we are young, but honoring them should continue beyond their death. One way to honor parents is to provide for them in times of financial need or when they are ill and unable to care for them selves.

Perhaps the best way to honor them is to pass on their Christ-honoring values to our children. Honoring involves all that sons and daughter do with their lives, the way they work and talk, the values they hold, and the morals they practice. What are you doing to show respect to your parents? Are you living in a way to bring honor to them?

Matthew Chap. 15:vs. 4 For God said, “Honor your father and mother and whoever curses his father and mother must be put to death.”

There is a difference between obeying and honoring. To obey means to do as one is told. To honor means to respect and love.



Children are not commended to disobey God in obeying their parents. Adult children are not asked to be subservient domineering parents. Children are to obey while under parents’ care, but the responsibility to honor parents is for life.

Ephesians Chap. 6:vs. 2 “Honor your father and mother “ (this is the first commandment with a promise).

If our faith in Christ is real, it will usually prove itself at home, in our relationships with those who knows us best. Children and parents have a responsibility to one another. Children should honor their parents even if their parents are demanding and unfair. Parents should care gently for their children, even if the children are disobedient and unpleasant.

Christian parents and Christian children will relate to each other with thoughtfulness and love. This will happen if both parents and children put the others’ interests above their own; that is, if they submit to one another.

1Samuel Chap. 19:vs. 1-2 Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. But Jonathan was very fond of David and warned him.

Is it ever right to disobey your father, as Jonathan did here? It is clearly a principle of Scripture that when a father instructs a son to break God’s laws, the son should obey God rather than man. This principle assumes that the son is old enough to be accountable and to see through any deception. A son’s role is to be respectful, helpful, and obedient to his father but not to follow commands or advice that violate or break God’s laws.