Honor Your Father and Mother

0:00We began this week of podcasts by asking the question, if your pastor announces he's going to preach a series of sermons on the Ten Commandments, do you think, oh great or oh grown? If it's the latter, oh grown, then I suppose that means that we're tending to think about the law the same way many of us think about police officers. They tend to make us feel on edge and fearful that we have done or might do something wrong. And yes of course, the Ten Commandments do function that way, they show up our sin for what it is and that can be a very unpleasant experience, but a necessary one. But the police officer doesn't exist simply to make people feel guilty. He or she is there

1:00for the protection of the public, isn't that true? And in the same way, the Ten Commandments function like a well-trained divine police force to protect us from moral harm and from making shipwreck of our lives. And one of the things in the Fifth Commandment, honour your father and mother, is a kind of genius of where it's placed in the Commandments. The first four Commandments are essentially about our relationship with God, the next six are about our relationships with one another. And the first of them is about our relationship with our parents, we are to honour them. And I want to comment on a couple of things here. First of all, I think we should notice God doesn't say obey your parents. He says, honour your father and mother. Now there's a reason for that. We're always to honour our parents

2:06because they gave us our life and they nurtured us. When we're young and at home, that honour takes the form of obedience. When we're older and perhaps married with our own children, when we begin a new family group, we're no longer under the authority of our parents the way we once were. We have left that family structure and started a new one. That's why the Bible never says to adults, obey your parents, but we're still to honour them. Sometimes I think both parents and children can give themselves problems by not understanding that. The Christian parent who doesn't understand it may turn out to be a real problem to his or her children. And the husband or wife who doesn't understand it may become a real problem to their spouse. So this is an important distinction. Always honour your parents no matter what

3:08age you are. And when you are young, that means obey them as a way of pleasing the Lord and blessing them. But before signing off today, I want to mention something else that I've always thought rather wonderful. After the four commandments dealing with our relationship to God, our Creator, Redeemer and Lord, there are these six commandments about dealing with each other. And if you're only seven, it's quite a lot to take in. No murder, no adultery, no stealing, no lying, no coveting. But you see, the way the fifth commandment works for a youngster is this. Especially if my mum and dad love the Lord and if I honour them, then these other commandments will naturally fit into place, almost without me thinking about them. It's this little commandment number five is like a very tall kindly disposed police officer whose special

4:12job is to guard our children from sin and spiritual danger. But then there's this. If you're a mum or a dad, then you will make sure you're worthy of being honoured, won't you?