Honoring Your Parents | Short Sermon Series
The command to honor father and mother is the first command in the 2nd Table of the Law. The first four commands are about our relationship to God. The last 6 commandments are about our relationship to others. Remember that the order of the commands has significance as well. The first commandment, “Have no other Gods before me” is foundational for our relationship to God. The 5th Command, “Honor your father and your mother,” is foundational to the functioning of relationships and society. It comes ahead of “you shall not murder” and “you shall not commit adultery.”
Learning how to relate to others, including those in authority, begins at home in the family. Perhaps, because of the Ten Commandments, Christians have a strong view of the role of the family as fundamental to society. We now live in a day when this fundamental, God-given relationship is under attack. There is one strange comfort in the 5th Commandment making it into the top ten.
Most parents (if not all), at some point in their parenting, feel like there is some kind of cosmic battle going on between them and their child. It is helpful to remember that parenting has been difficult since our first parents. The command to honor father and mother brings light to a universal flaw in fallen humanity. Ever since sin came into the world, there has been conflict between parent and child. There is nothing new under the sun. Parenting has been difficult from the beginning of time, and will continue to be difficult till the end.
I want you to realize that honoring and obeying your parents shows more about what you believe about God than about what you believe about your parents. We are to obey our parents “in the Lord.” And our obedience to them “pleases the Lord.”
It’s helpful to me—maybe it would be to you—to remember that God sees, God cares, and God rewards us for our faith and obedience.
God also knows that we often fail at obeying his commands perfectly. That’s actually why Jesus came. He came to live the perfect, obedient, God-honoring life that we fail to live. This was to be an example for us to follow, but also, and more importantly, it was so that we might receive the benefits of his obedience. He lived a sinless life, yet he was punished and killed on the cross for sins he didn’t commit—for sins we committed. Jesus did this so that we could be forgiven for our sins and failures, and so that we could have eternal life with him.
Short Sermon Adapted from “Honoring Your Parents: It’s More Than Cleaning Your Room” by @cornerstoneapex