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The Fifth Commandment - Honor Your Parents

March 18, 2015 Speaker: Ken Ramey Series: The Ten Commandments

Topic: Family Passage: Exodus 20:12

The Bridge

Exodus 20:12

Rebellion against parents is ultimately rebellion against the authority of God (Romans 13:1). The relationship in which we stand to our parents, a relationship based upon the fact that we owe our existence to them, that we are made in their image, that for so long a time we depend on them for the actual maintenance of life, and that, as the necessary result of all this, we are completely under their authority during childhood. This relationship is naturally made the highest symbol of our relationship to God Himself.

The 5th Commandment can be divided into two parts:

1. THE COMMAND
The things your parents say and the way they act should carry a lot of weight. God commands us to hold our parents up in reverence (Deuteronomy 27:16, Ezekiel 22:7). This means honoring them. Honoring our parents includes respect, attention, love, affection, admiration, appreciation, consultation, and obedience, as long as childhood and youth continue, and in different, higher ways as we grow through adulthood.

2. THE PROMISE
The promise attached to the 5th Commandment is a promise of long life to individuals who honor their parents and common experience justifies this (Proverbs 3:1, 4:10). Longevity is the reason God gave us this command (e.g., Deuteronomy 5:16) and the promise of longevity includes God’s blessing through all the days of our lives (Ephesians 6; Proverbs 20:20, 30:17).

God hates when children disobey their parents, and His hatred of this hasn’t changed since the day His Commandments was given. Through His life, Jesus provided the model for how we should honor our parents, and through His death on the cross He provided the means by which we are able to do so.