How are you? How is your week going? Have you kept the fifth commandment?
When I was young, I would obviously hate this commandment. The only thing that my Sunday School teachers said about this commandment was that we were called to obey our parents. God commanded it so we should obey (and most of the time, I didn’t.).
Although I resented their teaching, it is true that this is one of the Ten Commandments, and this is one, like the others, that God wants us to follow.
It is the first commandment of the “Love Others” section of the Ten Commandments. This commandment comes BEFORE the not-murdering-others commandment!
Why? It’s because our relationship with our parents is the primary and foundational relationship in our lives/society. Whether we like it or not, we have been so affected by them.
What does it mean to honor our parents? It means that we are called to obey them (not at the expense of obeying God), to respect them, to love them, to be patient with them, and to be faithful to them even when they are older.
Not only that, we are called to honor the authorities over us.
This commandment is not an easy one. For some, it touches the deepest scars of our hearts. We have experienced deep hurt and pain from our parents.
That’s why this commandment points us to the gospel. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we become sons of God. We are adopted into His beloved family. The good, good Father becomes our heavenly Father. And He loves us perfectly and unconditionally.
And although we fail in this commandment over and over again, Jesus becomes our righteousness. He did what we could not do. He was the perfect Son to both his earthly parents and to the heavenly Father even to the point of death on the cross itself.
Because of Christ, we are able to be redeemed and restored. We are able to obey the Fifth Commandment and be redeemed in our relationship with our parents.
New Life, receive the grace, love, and peace of our God through Jesus Christ. And may that give you the strength to obey.
See you all on Sunday for Lord’s Day Worship. If you are able, come out to our 10:15am service to see D. Jimmy and Michael ordained to the offices of Elder and Deacon!
Pray for one another.
In Christ,
Pastor Tim
Photo Credit: http://www.realmaternidade.com.br/2016/02/23/meu-pai-o-homem-que-me-apresentou-o-sol-nascente/