Exo 20:12; Lev 19:3; Eph 6 : 2-3; Matt 15 : 4.

Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

This Commandment, which we are exploring today, are in the second section of the Ten Commandments. This Section focuses not so much on our relationship to God as human, but more on our relationship to one another as human being who are created by God. And how fitting is that God lay out the first fundamental commandment is related to family relationship, which in this instance are between children with their parents. God place parents as His representative in the family unit of a society. So when we learn to honour our parents, we learn to honour those in authority and in this way, we learn to honour God.

For some people, the idea of honouring father and mother are understood more in the context of young children who are still under their parents care. It is not. This incorrect notion are compounded by interpreting the word “HONOUR” with “OBEY”. While the word honour include obedience, it is much wider in meaning. To honour means to attach weight to, to put in the place of high importance, high regard, it contains the idea of reverence and respect as well. Honour does not necessarily means obedience. For those children who had become adult, the day may come when we are no longer required to obey our parents, but it does not means that we are no longer required to honour our parents. When we are young, we honour our parents by obeying them. When we are adult and we can make our own decisions, then honour our parents take a new form, which is to treat them with kindness, courtesy, respect, priority and importance.

But there are some parents who are cruel, abusive, violent, unloving, irresponsible, and possess some or other negative characters and attitude. What about this condition? It will be difficult and challenging indeed. If this is the condition of a child. Then he has to first begin the path of forgiveness. This is for his own good and benefit. It will be a long and painful journey. But with God’s help, nothing is impossible to do. This is also the Commandment that come with a promise. The honouring of one’s parents results in the development of character and lifestyle habits that contribute to the lengthening of one’s days. Character moulded in the honour of parents contains the elements of spiritual life and blessing that could contribute to good physical health and longevity. On the opposite side, character moulded in the disobedience, rebelliousness, insubordination and disrespect of parents contains the negative elements of recklessness, agitation that could corrupt our spiritual life and hence contribute to the shortening of life. Some scholars suggest that the last six commandments are all related to and included in this commandment. Children who honour their parents are less likely to get involved in murder, impurity, theft, slander and covetousness.

It is very interesting to note that in Gospel Matthew Chapter 15 verse 1 to 6 when Pharisees and Scribes confronted Jesus and His disciples for transgressing their traditions, Jesus confronted them that when they kept their own traditions, they are transgressing the commandment of God, which is a far more serious violation. And Jesus illustrate this with reference to this Fifth Commandment. Pharisees cared for their traditions, but Jesus say that in doing so, Pharisees ignore or invalidated the commandment from God. Jesus implied here that man must honour their parents. The phrase has been given to God (Matt 15:5) refers to a tradition called Korban, “a gift” pledged to God, no longer allowed to be used in common affairs. One could make a vow to turn over all his assets to the temple upon his death but retain use of them until then. However, these assets could not be transferred to others or used to benefit anyone else (parents / family) since they belong to God. So people can neglect to care of their parents by hiding behind these traditions. The Lord is against this abuse of traditions. But He also taught that a child should take care of their parents and not make any excuses even religious excuses to avoid this commandment to honour parents.

This commandment drive home a vital point, although culture, customs, traditions can differ from one society to another society or from a specific age to another age, but God’s commandment to honour parents applies universally and all times of all ages. To honour, to care for and to respect, to put priority over parents are God’s commandments that all of us as God’s children must do in obedience. Even apostle Paul also emphasize this matter strongly in Ephesians 6 : 2-3. Let every one of us take this to heart today and pray, do what we can to preserve and practice the decree that God has given :”Honour your father and your mother”. We must do this and not make excuses like the Jewish religionists do at Jesus time. To ignore this commandments means to rebel against God’s government.   

Thanks for reading this article,

God Bless,

KS, Holyland Specialist Team