Honor Your Parents

Until this commandment all others have address our vertical relationship with us and God. To complete this, however God shows us that there are horizontal commands that need to be addressed as well. "Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother," is the first of these. It is first because your parents are the first circle of human relationship that you understand. But it goes much deeper than that.

You see God has set Himself up as our Heavenly Father, so the first 3 commandments deal directly with Him. The 4th is how we are to respect and honor Him. So He has set the stage for us to honor our parents. These are thos special people God has given to us that we might understand Him. Tragically both sides of this equation has been so broken that God has to use others to teach us of Himself. There are parents who are abusive or negligent and apathetic towards their children. Then, there are those children who are intentionally rebellious and abusive to their parents. Clearly God's commandment means nothing to them. While grace is freely given to all, God still requires us to get this right. Why? Because the most precious thing you have been given is your children. And the most precious thing they have is you, their parents. If you truly loved your children wouldn't you do all that you could to secure their salvation? If that is so, love them as God loves you. Then as they honor you, they honor and come to know God as their Heavenly Father.

I remember a girl weeping when someone was talking to her about God being the Heavenly Father. She was abused as a child and couldn't make the connection between a loving God and the abusive father image she had. If was as if someone had just told her that if she would accept Jesus then God would abuse her, because that is how she understood what the word "father" meant. This command teaches children to become righteous parents to their children so the concept of God as father is comforting, not threatening.

David Brollier