If we are going to build communities that honor Jesus within our culture, then believers have to instruct children to honor parents. The next step is to appropriately discipline any failure to show respect.
One important way to teach this lesson is by modeling honor. Our families have to see us treat our own parents with care and consideration. What is true for young children, as well as adult children, is found in the Bible’s Ephesians 6:2, where the Apostle Paul quotes the fifth commandment, “Honor your father and mother.”
There are two distinctive ideas in Ephesians 6:1-2: obedience and honor. The distinction is obedience is required when we are younger. Honor is required for life. So, we need to look at why this command applies to all of us, and, why it is important.
A key reason that this is a vital thing to grasp is this: the family is the melting pot of life. The family is the place that God uses to refine us, to purify us, and to “burn away” all the useless stuff. God uses family to make us usable tools for His Kingdom.
And Mom is at the center, or the focal point, of that melting pot called the family. Because within that melting pot, there is a shaping and molding of every one of us that can impact every other part of our lives. Learning to honor our mothers has an impact on how we learn to honor others, which translates into how we learn to honor God. If our faith in Jesus is real, it will usually prove itself, first at home, in our relationships with those who know us best.
The Bible is clear that marriage and family, including the relationship that the parent and the child have with each other, is the most basic foundation for society. This is true because, from the parent-child relationship, we learn how to relate to people.
If we do not learn to live out the fifth commandment, then we will have no foundation for the rest of the authoritative relationships in our lives. And it all starts with honoring our father and mother.
Honor in the biblical sense is different from the way that we would typically think of honor, such as, the way we honor an athlete, a dedicated employee, or a high school graduate. As, we are bestowing honor on them as a reward for hard work.
We are to honor our mothers, not because of what they’ve accomplished, achieved, or excelled at, but because of the position that they hold. We are to honor our mothers because they are our mothers. She was ordained by God to be our Mom, so she is honored for her God-given position as a parent, even if her performance is sometimes less than stellar.
Honoring Mom and Dad is not a suggestion. Whether we feel that they have, or have not, served well, the Lord has placed these important people in our lives.
(The Rev. Terry K. Morrison is pastor of Olivet Baptist and Lower King and Queen Baptist churches in King and Queen County. His email address is pastorterry02@gmail.com.)
